The Importance of Being Calloused

While I was in Hawaii I noticed the callouses on my right-hand index finger falling off in the salt water of the ocean. I didn't play my bass for over a week while we were gone (I can't remember the last time I didn't play for so long, last time we were in Hawaii?), this softened up my fingers as well. As I said in the previous post I've been knee-deep in work since we landed and my fingers are aching. Luckily I haven't rubbed any big blisters, it just feels like my fingers are bruised and after playing for a while they start to hurt.

Bass players pay close attention to their fingers. When I was starting to play in college I'd get blisters on my finger every couple of months. Let me tell you, they can really impede your playing. It's like a basketball player with an injured knee, you simply can't perform to the best of your ability.

So here's my blisterly advice to all you of aspiring jazz bassists out there: when you rub a blister the best thing to do is to pop it, remove all of the dead skin and play you ax as much as possible (which won't be much) to develop a callous. Now, if you have a blister but have some important gigs coming up my advice is to find a small sewing needle, sterilize the tip with fire of some kind and poke the tiniest hole possible in the blister to drain all of the fluid. Leave the dead skin on and make sure the hole you punctured is as small as possible. The dead skin makes the best bandage and the smaller the whole the smaller the chance of ripping the dead skin off.

After a while you'll get some good callouses and it won't be a problem unless of course you take a beach vacation and don't play for a week.

I know its all very gross, but this is important stuff to think about when you're a bass player.