Hey y'all... i'm somewhat new to the whole four mallet thing, and i'm learing this peice that has some really loud parts- and devloping that callus on the middle finger that everyone gets, just short of the knuckle (well, everyone who uses stevens grip)
Anyways- mine kinda really hurts. And it's not so much a callous, like i used to get from drumset before i learned any technique- but it's like almost swolen- like some cartilage buildup. Has anyone else gotten this? or heard of people getting this and having to have thier hand amputated?
Suggestions... ect?

I have a bit of a doctor phobia- so it would really make my life better if everyone just agreed that this was nothing.

I wouldn't worry about it. I have the same bumps on my middle fingers, and after some time, they will stop hurting all together. I believe they are calcium deposits, but nothing that needs to have surgery or anything scary like that. George Nickson

Hi,

I am certainly not alone in having seen a variet of callus' on many marimbists hands, but if you have a constant pain which goes beyond surface skin irritation it would be sensible to seek medical advice.

All marimba players go through a period where the soft skin on the sides of the fingers require some "toughening up". I found this trick useful when I was at college, painful but effective for drying up blisters and creating faster hardening of the surface of the skin. On the advice of a rowing coach, I would apply vinegar to the area... sounds crazy, but I'm sure it speeded up the callusing process. This proved to be a smelly activity, so I didn't do this too regularly, but I also admit that I didn't suffer with bad blisters, as I always rested enough when I had broken the skin. I never really resorted to covering the skin with a bandaid either, as I found I couldn't play like that effectively.

I'm sure everyone deals with this differently.

TA