I like to play on stage with "Dirty Hands"....meaning not really dirty, but "unwashed" which for me anyway allows me to play better, runs, etc, as my fingers have a more of a tackiness feel to them on the keys,.........when ever I use the men's room on a break' etc' ....I forget and will WASH my hands removing the natural oils & stickiness leaving me with "CLEAN" Fingers resulting in a lesser tacky & slippery feel which I don't like hindering my playing,......I find my self wiping my forehead to get back the oils needed again on my fingers when I make the "WASH" mistake!!.....but that's just me how do you feel about this?

When gigging or doing demos, I always take a small bottle of Purell Hand Sanitizer which has Aloe in it. I use it after I wash my hands, before, and sometimes during a performance. I also use it after shaking hands with people and just before I get back to playing.

I find it feels great and keeps my hands smooth, and, they slide perfectly on the keys, as well as keeping germs and bacteria away. It does not dry out my skin.

I always take a bottle of it to the grocery store and use it after packing groceries in the car, and after putting them away in the house.

I'm not a "clean freak" by any means, but the Purell makes playing much nicer, and with the added benefit of helping me stay cold and flu free.

Ian

PS...I also wipe down the keys on my Tyros4 once a week.

I bathe every Saturday! Whether I need it or not!!!!

Having spent 15 years working in the field of medicine, I know what it means to wash your hands at every opportunity. NOT washing your hands after shaking hands with someone is insane and probably one of the leading causes of transmission of the common cold and various influenza.

When I leave any facility where I perform, immediately upon entering my van, I wipe my hands with sanitizing wipes. I use the same wipes to wipe the steering wheel and door handle of the van. Many of these facilities are shut down for a couple weeks every year because various strains of highly contagious bacteria rip through the residents causing C.-Difficile, which in some instances can be fatal. The vast majority of this is caused through poor food handling and contamination by poorly trained food handlers. I've been extremely fortunate in that I've never contracted this horrendous disease, despite the fact that I spend a large amount of time at locations where it is prevalent.

Ironically, one of the places that people never consider as being filthy, dirty, covered with bacteria and ripe for the transmission of disease is in the grocery store. No, it's not the toilet seat of the public restroom, but instead, it's the door handles of the cold storage cases. Those handles are never sanitized, and when I pointed this out to the manager of a local BJs he looked at me as if I had three heads. When I confronted the lady at the county health department about this, she gave me the same quizzical look. The health department goes absolutely nuts when the food demo person is not wearing latex gloves, but never considers that those gloves were used to open the cold storage case where the food was taken from just three minutes earlier.

Another pet peeve I have is when I go to a restaurant and watch the buss person wipe the booth seat with a damp towel, then after removing the dishes and glasses, take the same towel and wipe the table. What insanity. I'm assuming that that towel has been moistened with some sort of disinfectant, but disinfectants only last for a short period of time before becoming ineffective. Essentially, your table was just wiped by the prior patron's butt.

As for clean V/S dirty hands while playing, give me clean, dry hands. This allows my fingers to gently slide from one key to the next in a fluid motion without any hangups from sticky fingers.

Cheers,

Gary

PS: Donny, remind me not to shake hands with you the next time we meet.

all this sanitizing is fine...but lets stay on topic regarding the playing aspect shall we... lol

How 'bout if I put it this way...the hand sanitizer (should have Aloe) makes my fingers glide/slide over the keys, without becoming too slippery or too dry...the perfect happy medium.

The fact that it kills germs/bacteria and keeps me cold and flu free is just a very nice bonus.

Ian

good tip Ian,.....I'll have to pick up some of this sanitizer stuff. what I usually do is just wash with Water only not to have the chemicals in the soap strip my natural finger oils and just air dry only.

Usually 10 minutes before the start of any gig I will run to the bathroom and wash my hands....Of course someone will ALWAYS want to shake my hand on my way back to the stage or when I get on it...

Washed hands affect me WAYYY MORE on Acoustic Guitar than Piano...

I always pick my nose right before playing. Makes it easy to slide from key to key.
DonM
P.S. Anyone want to buy a used keyboard?

Don the stuff out of the head of a crayfish that gets on your fingers works better.