I found that wearing heavy, preferably leather gloves tend to help prevent booth finger stiffness and skin roughness. It prevents getting dirt under the nails as well.
It is interesting to look at rural cultures where the farmers also also musicians - fiddle players, etc. Their playing definitely is affected by the years of hard work; they can still play, but not always in tune or very fast, but they still play with a great deal of soul. Big difference between being able to scratch out fiddle tunes and performing Dowland or Weiis though. -----Original Message----- From: Guy Smith <[email protected]> To: 'Suzanne Angevine' <[email protected]>; [email protected] Sent: Tue, Jun 29, 2010 1:58 pm Subject: [LUTE] Re: incompatibility gardening/lute playing? My wife, who's a knitter, introduced me to Udderly Smooth handcream, which is what I mostly use now. It doesn't leave an oily residue on your fingers, which is why it's popular with knitters. Guy -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Suzanne Angevine Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 10:42 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [LUTE] Re: incompatibility gardening/lute playing? > Thank you for your very useful reflections. It is a good idea > to treat gardening in the same spirit as lute playing, with as relaxed > an attitude and with as economic gestures as possible. It has been a > long time since I had to do this, and I am almost certainly forcing > things, and also still looking for the right tools to deal with a > particularly hard ground. Water, and a little time for it to work in and loosen the soil. I live in a dry place and the ground can get very hard. Water is the best tool I've found. > What oil or cream do you use, Jean-Michel? It probably matters less what, and more that you use it, and use it enough. In the US I use a lotion called Aveeno, which is very good. The other thing I find very important in not ruining my hands for lute playing with my gardening is pacing. Do a little, take a break. Do some today, some tomorrow. That sort of thing. Suzanne To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --
