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that the strings land in the grooves of your fingers when playing?

Any tips on improving this type of accuracy?


*better explain that a bit better.

The tips of your fingers, when playing, have indents where they've been pressing the strings. When moving around different notes, I can't always get these indents bang on the string. Any tips for this type of accuracy?

Hi Carpet, I don't know if I am right or wrong but I intentionally try "NOT" to hit the groove in my calluses, especially when moving from a thick string to a thinner one. I find if I keep hitting the same groove I have to keep pushing harder to get clean notes so I intentionally try to hit fresh skin when changing chords. Just my take, I hope it helps.

Bill

Nice to have you back.

I think my finger tips are all one big calluse.I got no groove :laugh: :laugh:

Kevin

Carpet- it's great to have you back buddy!!!

I wouldn't waste any energy worrying about hitting the grooves on your calluses. My calluses have morphed to the point I don't get the really hard calluses and when they build up I file them off. I can still play for hours without pain.

Cheers! :cheer:

BigBear wrote:

I can still play for hours without pain.

It's the people listening to you who suffer.

I recently went through a period of a couple of weeks where I played 8 to 10 hours a day. My callouses got thicker, and the grooves got REAL deep. They were so deep they did unintended pulloffs. I sanded the callouses down smooth, and the grooves did not return. Like Bear, playing time is not an issue any more (at least for me - Dennis' point duly noted here). I will say playing seems generally easier without the grooves, so I recommend dressing your callouses with some 120 grit.

After 40 plus years of playing the guitar you are the first person to ever make me think about it. :laugh:

I think it is much more important to concentrate on hitting the strings cleanly and in the right place on the fret than worrying about hit a specific place on your finger. Trust me, it will rarely happen that your fingers hit exactly in the same place every time anyway so don't worry about it.

Cheers and thanks for giving me something new to think about. Steve

dennisg wrote:

BigBear wrote:

I can still play for hours without pain.

It's the people listening to you who suffer.

Ya know, after I wrote that I thought to myself that was a really good setup for someone who wanted to get a free shot at me. But then I thought, nah, no one would take advantage of me that way!! How foolish I was!!! rofl!! :silly:

Dang! Missed a free shot at Bear! Will reload and skulk in the wings.....

Carpet, good to see you around again. Pick up a 12 string every now and again and broaden your callus' perspectives!

I've only been back in the saddle for a few months, so my calluses are still evolving. But I've noticed that these grooves you mention develop differently from session to session. I agree that there's no point in trying to land on the groove, but that one should instead strive for a good clean tone.

That said, a deep groove can cause problems if you are doing a lot of bends and pull-offs. You really don't want to snag and damage the callus. Though I haven't tried it myself, the idea of dressing the callus with a bit of sandpaper sounds like a good way to help prevent this.

-Stuart