Sore knuckles

[Pigy]

G'day everybody. I have been playing Djembes and Doumbeks for a couple of years now and always come away with sore knuckles. I think my technique must suck but I love that crisp ring that seems to only come from slapping the rim, hence the sore knuckles. I noticed the other night whilst watching the Ben Harper Live At The Hollywood Bowl DVD, his percussionist, Leon Mobley, was wearing some sort of finger gloves. Can anyone shed some light on these?
Cheers,
Pigy.

[TheSpindoctor]

I just want to say that Leon Mobley melts faces with his percussion

[Joeos5]

I suppose you ae talking about the bottom part of the knuckles?  I play congas and I get that too.  I used to play more but now I am playing less so it happens less often.  I often get it when I need to have more sound than I have and hence I play harder.  I also get this when I get really inspired and play harder.  I see other jembe players that play a lot and frankly I can look at their hands and see that they take a beating.  They almost have  too.  I often heard that congeros, jembeceros don't play piano much for that reason as their hands take a beating.  Really all of the sore hands, knuckles etc, is avoidable by playing easier or softer.  Anyways, good luck chau, Joe