medical: fingers and fingernails

[4greatkeyboards]

When we practice/play hard we get cuts in our fingertips from stabbing at the white keys and broken fingernails.

Superglue-like substance, called 'Liquid Bandage' is available in most drug stores and can in seconds repair a split skin wound or split fingernail.

Also, for fingernails, use a few coats of ordinary fingernail polish to beef them up.

This Works. I used to skip days playing waiting for normal healing. No more.

[stevebob]

I've heard of the "liquid bandage" product and already knew that people recommend it for superficial injuries, but I've got to say that I've never injured my fingertips or nails in the course of practicing or playing.  Is it typical to do so?  It seems hard to imagine.

However, the DIY projects that are an inexorable and interminable routine in my household are another matter entirely. 

I should probably get some of this stuff, so thanks for the reminder.

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Would nail polish help protect the fingernails when doing a glissando, or will the nail polish just chip off into the keys?
I'm learning a piece with a tricky glissando, and I don't know how much longer my thumbnail can take it, but I'm scared I'll damage my piano by wearing nail polish...

[richard black]

The only injuries I've ever done myself while playing have been a general reduction in sensitivity of fingertips from the repeated impact (and even that is questionable: I just seem to have better tolerance of hot cups of tea, say, than friends who don't play the piano, but it might be for other reasons) and the very, very occasional broken fingernail when I've carelessly caught a finger in front of a black key - painful but a once-every-five-years kind of event (that's once in five years for someone who regularly plays 5-8 hours a day).

For small cuts I use styptic pencil, for big ones a sticking plaster. But never in 39 years of piano playing have I drawn blood as a direct result of playing the piano!

[ted]

I have never had any trouble of that sort with my nails or fingertips. The only thing I make sure to do is cut off a hangnail before playing drives it into the finger and causes inflammation. Once that happens it can be a real nuisance making playing very painful; but I don't think hangnails are started by playing, they just arise spontaneously.

[scottmcc]

for various hangnail/broken nail woes i find dermabond (the prescription version of liquid bandages--I have ready access to it in my clinic) to be indispensable.  it's especially useful prior to scrubbing ones hands for surgery, as the rather harsh antibacterials used sting to all get-go if you have a little cut, but the dermabond seals it up so that it's pain free.

[sucom]

There is only one occasion where I have drawn blood from practising the piano and that was while learning Alborada del Gracioso from Miroirs by Ravel.  There is one particular glissando involving two notes played together, moving up and back down over two octaves using the fourth finger and thumb together and I noticed blood on my piano keys while practising it.  It took some time and quite a few painful moments before the skin on my finger toughened up.  There are three others on that page, requiring the third finger and thumb which were tricky enough but luckily a little less painful. 

The skin on my fingertips has never split from normal playing although I did catch my nail once, trying to negotiate a difficult turn. At the time I made a mental note never to do that again!