First session finger pain

I am just getting started and practiced several video lessons for an hour. I had to stop because of finger tip pain. Is this normal? I want to practice more, but just cant do it. 24 hours later finger tips still sore. I am playing an ovation celebrity cc026 with light steel strings. the action is easy.

Hi ronrice,

What your experiencing is very normal. I think everyone who is excited about learning guitar and just starts out runs into this problem. It takes some time for the flesh of your fingers to harden up a little bit. So don't worry your finger tips will harden up.

But one very strong piece of advice: Never play through pain. Pain is your body's red light. The guitar isn't some kind of torture device, remember that.

JJ

I agree it's totally normal and will go away...The skin will harden and also the nerve endings in your fingers will go numb with regular playing. That's not permanent though...the feeling comes back when you don't play for a while.

JJ is right and also its always better to pace yourself in the beginning.
Instead of playing 6 hours in one day and having sore fingers for 2 days (where you wont be able to play that mutch), it better to play 2 or 3 hours each day and be able to play everyday.
Eventually, your fingers will be like rock and your muscle will have developped and you will be able to play 6 hours a day, everyday.

In my personal experience I started out on a nylon string guitar (still my favorite) wich I think is easier on your fingers. Eventually I tried out and become used to playing steel strings on acoustic and electric guitars. Anyway, it happens to everybody, increase practice time gradually and you'll be ok.

Your fingers will definately feel sore if you are just starting to play the guitar. Like everyone has said here, that is very normal. If you have been playing a while and have developed the calluses, this shouldnt be happening anymore and i would think you are pressing to hard. There is only a certain amount of pressure needed to be applied when playing anything on the guitar. The best way to determine if you are pressing to hard is lightly rest your fretting hand finger on the string you are going to play so that it is muted. Repeatedly pick the string you are muting while slowly pressing down the string with the frettin hand finger until the sound becomes clear. You will notice that it does not take alot of effort at all to make the string ring clear. Unless you have really low frets and an old guitar. That might also be an issue.

And also, as a general rule. Do not practice technique for more than 3 hours a day. You are prone to injury, and as guitarists, thats definately somthing we do not want.

Hope this helps. :)

I was in the same boat as you ron, i had sore fingers for a few days,and i just played through it, so my body went, ok, so your aren't listening so i will give you blisters instead, then i had to stop. a few days on, the blisters are gone,still a bit sore though so only practice an hour a day until i develop those very attractive sounding finger tip calluses (mmmm cant wait) ;-)