)?Sore/painful fingers
I never hear Neil say anything about pain in your fingertips, but I have it right now at the moment. Could somebody explain to me what the best thing is to do now and why my fingers are hurting so much(well it's not like I'm in agony )?
)?Sore fingers are an unavoidable rite of passage, but there are some useful tips here.
First, check for other forum threads on sore fingers, there are several, and you will quickly see that no one avoids this.
Personally, I will offer you two tips that I honestly believe will accelerate your tolerance to play. Both of these tips worked effectively for me, as I was a beginner myself just nine months ago. First, play every day. In my nine months of play, I only missed a day twice, and both times took me a week to recover the toughness I lost in just one day. Second, and I believe this is the most important, only play until your fingers begin to get sore, then stop until the soreness goes away. Finger soreness is an injury. Your body must heal that injury to build toughness and relieve the pain. If your finger soreness is not gone when you begin play the next day, then your injury exceeded your body's capacity to heal in one day. If you continue to play, you are compounding your injury. By playing just until the fingers get sore, the body will easily heal in one day. This means that over a week's time, you may only be able to play ten or fifteen minutes in the beginning of the week, and may be able to play an hour at the end of the week.
I had terrible soreness for my first three or four months until I used this method. At the end of the week, I could play three hours, and i can easily play for eight hours a day now.
One last tip that will maximize the time you can play, but will not avoid finger pain. Very carefully understand how hard you need to press the strings. Many folks, me included, started pressing strings WAY TOO HARD. If you fret in the proper place with proper fingertip contact, it does not take much force to get clean notes.
wrench
First, check for other forum threads on sore fingers, there are several, and you will quickly see that no one avoids this.
Personally, I will offer you two tips that I honestly believe will accelerate your tolerance to play. Both of these tips worked effectively for me, as I was a beginner myself just nine months ago. First, play every day. In my nine months of play, I only missed a day twice, and both times took me a week to recover the toughness I lost in just one day. Second, and I believe this is the most important, only play until your fingers begin to get sore, then stop until the soreness goes away. Finger soreness is an injury. Your body must heal that injury to build toughness and relieve the pain. If your finger soreness is not gone when you begin play the next day, then your injury exceeded your body's capacity to heal in one day. If you continue to play, you are compounding your injury. By playing just until the fingers get sore, the body will easily heal in one day. This means that over a week's time, you may only be able to play ten or fifteen minutes in the beginning of the week, and may be able to play an hour at the end of the week.
I had terrible soreness for my first three or four months until I used this method. At the end of the week, I could play three hours, and i can easily play for eight hours a day now.
One last tip that will maximize the time you can play, but will not avoid finger pain. Very carefully understand how hard you need to press the strings. Many folks, me included, started pressing strings WAY TOO HARD. If you fret in the proper place with proper fingertip contact, it does not take much force to get clean notes.
wrench
If you are fairly new to guitar or you have put it down for a while then your fingertips will get sore quickly. Due to travel and work about a year ago I put down the guitar for about 3 months. Well in that short amount of time all my fingertips lost their calluses and got soft again. After picking the guitar back up it took a few weeks to get it back to where it was. If you practice for say 20 minutes and then your fingers get to sore to continue playing then put the guitar down for a few hours and pick it up again for another 15 to 20 minutes. Do this every day for about two weeks and you'll be all set. Once you build up those calluses on your figertips you won't feel a thing and can play pretty much as long as you want. At this point you can put the guiater down for a few days and when you get back your fingers will still be fine.
MarkM
MarkM
Wrench's advice is great. Though I would say you can play a little past the "sore" point, just make sure you stop before you really damage your fingers. If you cut open your fingertips, it'll be that much longer before you can really play.
Start off by playing only short amounts of time at a time BUT play frequently and regularly. I think when I first started playing I would play for 5-15 minutes at a time and that was all I could handle. I don't know how long I could play now. A few hours at least. It doesn't take as long to build up your fingertips as it may seem, so don't despair! Even in a couple of weeks you'll be able to play for much longer stretches.
Start off by playing only short amounts of time at a time BUT play frequently and regularly. I think when I first started playing I would play for 5-15 minutes at a time and that was all I could handle. I don't know how long I could play now. A few hours at least. It doesn't take as long to build up your fingertips as it may seem, so don't despair! Even in a couple of weeks you'll be able to play for much longer stretches.
Hi Temo
All good advice given by the other members. Sore fingers are a problem for everyone at some point, as has been said, its a rite of passage.
One area I'd like to mention is checking that you have the correct posture when you are playing the guitar. It's one of the things that Neil stresses. I know it sounds strange, but if you are sitting incorrectly, that can affect your arm position, which can affect your hand position, which can lead to sore fingers.
Getting correct posture early in your guitar development will hopefully save you some aches and pains in the future.
Also, have you checked if you are playing chords and notes correctly, I know it sounds strange, but where you position your fingers on the frets, and how you do it makes a huge difference. With the wrong position, you get finger and hand ache, the right position, and you don't as much.
As for playing time, if you've just been playing for a few weeks, then I'd suggest trying to resist the urge of playing for hours at a time. Play as much as you want, but please be careful, take it easy and you'll have callouses like the rest of us shortly.
Neil has many videos relating to posture and correct hand position, they are definitely worth a watch
hope this helps
Joe
All good advice given by the other members. Sore fingers are a problem for everyone at some point, as has been said, its a rite of passage.
One area I'd like to mention is checking that you have the correct posture when you are playing the guitar. It's one of the things that Neil stresses. I know it sounds strange, but if you are sitting incorrectly, that can affect your arm position, which can affect your hand position, which can lead to sore fingers.
Getting correct posture early in your guitar development will hopefully save you some aches and pains in the future.
Also, have you checked if you are playing chords and notes correctly, I know it sounds strange, but where you position your fingers on the frets, and how you do it makes a huge difference. With the wrong position, you get finger and hand ache, the right position, and you don't as much.
As for playing time, if you've just been playing for a few weeks, then I'd suggest trying to resist the urge of playing for hours at a time. Play as much as you want, but please be careful, take it easy and you'll have callouses like the rest of us shortly.
Neil has many videos relating to posture and correct hand position, they are definitely worth a watch
hope this helps
Joe
temo44 wrote:
Mike
All I can say is keep at it, it does get better. But like Suzi said don't over do it. If it gets to hurting too much take a break for a day or two.I never hear Neil say anything about pain in your fingertips, but I have it right now at the moment. Could somebody explain to me what the best thing is to do now and why my fingers are hurting so much(well it's not like I'm in agony
Mike
I'd second what "Aitch" had to say about making sure your guitar is set up properly. It's definitely worth the cost to have an expert set your guitar up as low as possible to the frets (if thats what you like) at least it makes it a lot easier to finger the chords and notes. The less hard you push on the strings the easier it will be on your fingers (pretty obvious) but important, the guage of strings, as mentioned, can have an affect also. Keep at it. Gary
Thanks for your replies! Without noticing it, every time my fingers are getting painful, I stop playing for period till my fingers are a little 'ok' again.
@Goldleaf I think my guitar really needs that check... I'll post a picture later on how far my strings are from the fret... I don't think it's good this way!
@Goldleaf I think my guitar really needs that check... I'll post a picture later on how far my strings are from the fret... I don't think it's good this way!