Hiya

I love these 'your story' threads so here's one I am quite curious about.


What are your fingertips like on your left hand?


Because I play viola, and am currently playing on gut-core strings that seem to be very thick, my fingers suffer a bit more than when I played violin on its own.

Each fingertip is definitely harder than my right and also, naturally, I keep my nails short by biting them yes I know, I should use nail scissors but they're not untidy. Sometimes a little bit of skin peels off my first and second finger .... ugh I know I think the top joint of my left hand fingers look more blunt than my right hand too I've seen cello players whose left-hand fingers look like spades

Worryingly though I have a pain in the tip of my second finger as if the bone is sharp and pushing through the skin!! It's worse when I play vibrato - maybe I'm pressing too hard on the string. I didn't practice last night because of it but normally I am concentrating so hard that I don't notice it. Maybe it's just toughening up? But you do have to press hard with viola strings.

I'll be changing strings soon to a different make that I'm sure will be thinner - my current C string is like a boat rope


Anyone else with interesting fingers?

I have a permanent string indent in my first finger

I have calluses on all four fingers, but mainly on the first. And the stretch between my fourth finger and the rest is quite a bit bigger than on my right hand (all those fourth finger exercises )

I have thickened skin on the tips of all four left hand fingers although there is no distortion to the finger shape and no roughness or peeling of the skin. I also have a noticeable bulge at the little finger side of my left hand when compared to my right hand - perhaps a legacy of many years of Schradieck.

More recently, I have noticed a fairly prominent bulge just above the central joint of my right hand first finger, where it contacts the bow. I was wondering whether this was fairly common amongst string players or whether it actually indicates some sort of deficiency (perhaps excess pressure?) in my bow technique.

I have the same issue with the middle joint of my right finger. It's particularly apparent on concert weekends, when I also have a massive dent in my finger just before the joint!

My fingertips aren't noticeably thicker or calloused on the left hand, but I do have the 1st finger dent, so I suppose that is normal.
I think you may be pressing too hard, or harder than is necessary. It's something I've noticed with pupils, but it's A/ difficult to see and B/ cure. Could it possibly be that your bridge is set too high? I don't really see why a viola player has to press that much harder, except when using pizzicato. I certainly don't when I play viola. Cello and double bass, yes.

Too soft; not enough practice this week

The muscles/pads of the tips of my left hand used to be freakishly more developed than in my right hand when I was playing guitar. Now I'm a violinist, they are the same on both hands, and the pad skin much softer.

Same as the others have said - calluses on each fingertip, the most pronounced being on my index finger.

Also I have noticed that the actual nail plates on my left-hand fingers are shorter than on my right hand. I'm not sure whether this has happened through years of playing or whether they are like that naturally - I've been playing so long that I can't remember what they were like before I started!

I have calluses on my LH fingers, thickest on 1st & 2nd finger. Also my nails grow really fast on this hand. On my RH I have a dent on the side of my index finger and a cyst-type thing under the skin of my thumb between the bottom of my nail and the joint. I also have an enlarged top joint on my RH index finger bit as this gets hot and painful I think it's probably the arthritis causing this. Oh, and a lump that appears on my inside left wrist just below the thumb joint if I practise double stopping too much

Yes I've noticed this too It's not by much but I've only been playing for a few years. It's what is making my left hand fingers feel stunted compared to my right... but then the nails on my right hand are NOT bitten back to the quick

I'm waiting for the day someone looks at my hands and says "Ahhhh you play the viola!!"


I can spot a guitarist a mile off

I don't have the shorter nail beds - maybe this is because I've played piano for equally as long as the violin?

I play the double bass- my hands are wrecked!!

that sounds painful.

Surgical spirit is the thing

For a while, I ahd a go at playing lute and my tutor recommended shea butter based unguent (e.g. L'Occitane - about GBP5 fro a tiny little tin). You don't need very much and it does seem to help.

Need some now - orchestra rehearsal with cello today and worn a hole through the skin on my third finger and bit sore on fourth (3 hours of playing)

Very little sign of change as a result of 'cello (I suspect of all the strings, 'cello is most forgiving on the fingers): but I do have a rather fetching area on my right thumb as an effect of much clarinet playing

Vaguely on topic we have heard 3 ideas for sore harp fingers over the years and can add a fourth of our own invention;

French like castor equi cream (some homeopathic remedy, easy and cheap to buy in French chemists but not in Australia - gets thumbs up but has to go on at night as quite greasy)

Italians think dipping in lemon juice and water is useful

Brits like surgical spirit!

And our last ditch remedy if at risk of a blister which all ends up very nasty and messy is extra thin, extra expensive duoderm stretched out even thinner than extra thin and wrapped round tip, crossing over on nail only. Lasts up to an hour and very little change of tone (unlike bandaids etc). Then rest a bit once performance only.

And use an implement for glisses apart from solo performance if getting sore.