congabebe wrote:Hi,
I use the bands made by Nexus, they have a rubbery slick outside and they don't leave 'glue' residue on your hands. They make a clear waterproof that is good. Johnny Conga told me about using them. When I first started playing, it killed my hands, so the bandaids helped alot. The tape did not cushion my hands at all, I tried various kinds, went back to the bandaids. I tried bike gloves (leather and crochet kind with the cut off fingers at the knuckles) and they do work, but couldn't feel the drum as well and it changed my grip on tamborine and I felt alot of stress in my forearm so I stopped using them. You would think the leather padded palm would not create a good sound, but it is actually pretty good, just couldn't feel the drum. I use the gloves when I injure myself only.
I started practicing tones as loud as I could get them and letting my hands go higher off the drum and making sure wrist bent, gradually my tones got more crisp and I think the technique helped and I got some callus on my hands and I haven't had to use as much tape all the time. But I have not been having as much problems hearing myself over the band (got some better mics) and so now I ice my hands to keep swelling down but I only use bandaids for long gigs and only on the first joint of each finger and on my thumb also, whereas before, I used to cover both joints with 1 inch bandaids and one on my thumb knuckle. I might try tape for sound effects, but not for injuries. I use lots of lotion on my hands so splitting has not become an issue yet. As far as wrist injuries, my left wrist is weak and I have found that I can not practice as fast with the right hand cause I have injured it trying to do bass tones and hth tones, so I took a long break from using it and have started back slowly working only on tones, and position of the hand. I play all base tones and hth's with right hand so this does not keep me from playing. Besides, I must admit I practice more than I have gigs, so I am light-weight player compared to some of the players on the forum. If I played 3 or 4 nights a week, I would have a pitcher to soak my hands in ice during breaks of each gig and plus use bandaids to protect joints.
Wrist injuries are very serious, so definitely don't push yourself cause you can get tendonitus and the treatments are cortisone shots and the worst cases only surgery. I know several people that did the surgery and it did not help and they have numbness in there fingers all the time and it still hurts them cause they never stopped doing the thing that irritated it long enough for it to heal. So definitely take a long break it you hurt.
Peace,
Congabebe
congabebe wrote:I started practicing tones as loud as I could get them and letting my hands go higher off the drum and making sure wrist bent, gradually my tones got more crisp and I think the technique helped and I got some callus on my hands and I haven't had to use as much tape all the time. But I have not been having as much problems hearing myself over the band (got some better mics) and so now I ice my hands to keep swelling down but I only use bandaids for long gigs and only on the first joint of each finger and on my thumb also, whereas before, I used to cover both joints with 1 inch bandaids and one on my thumb knuckle. I might try tape for sound effects, but not for injuries. Congabebe
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