Piano Forum

I'm an adult amateur, only rarely a teacher, but I want to cast a wide net -- maybe a teacher has had to deal with this problem. My hands are built in such a way that the thumbs play largely on the nail. This is particularly unfortunate when I'm trying to play on the black keys, as in the famous Chopin étude. Evidently this is not a very common problem, as I've hunted for commentary on this without success. My playing is very unreliable, as the thumbnail slides like a bad skater on ice. I cannot play with the flesh any more than I do without totally ruining the posture of the other fingers. I've experimented with a variety of kitchen gloves, using only one digit of them, and some come close to solving the problem, but they're all too non-sliding, which is another problem in itself. Has anyone out there dealt with this? Any suggestion would be appreciated.