How do you handle "stressed fingers"?

Well I'm basically referring to the left-hand fingers which usually when you are newbie, it really tends to sore a lot. Plus, feeling all that muscle and wrist pain.

But you can also share to us your right-hand finger regimen when it gets "stressed out".

So basically, I just want to ask you guys, how do you deal with it?

I'd appreciate your replies. :)

You need to adjust the amount of tension you are using when applying pressure with your fretting hand. And you may need to learn how to relax your hand when you are not using it.

Heres an exercise you can do that will tell you if you are pressing to hard.

1. Rest your finger on the string lightly so that it is muted while constantly strumming.
2. Slowly apply pressure until you hear the string ring out clearly.
3. Dont apply any more pressure than that.

That is all the pressure you need to apply to make that string ring, you will notice that it doesnt require that much.

Also pay attention to your hand tension when you dont actually need to use it, the more you relax when needed, the easier it will be to play and the less stress on your hands it will require.

Like Ryan said, you dont need that much strengh to play the strings.

What I used to do back when my hand muscles were not that strong is take a break from the guitar a day or two and use that time to study theory. Then I would jump on the guitar and practice what I learned when my hands felt better.

I would advice you take what the 2 above just said about string pressure and learn it quick. It is MUCH harder to break out of a bad habit later. I'm constantly applying too much pressure and I really have to focus to pressing lighter on the strings, but the habit takes over.

+1 to what was said above :)

Hey but check this out, you can practice reducing finger tension even when you're not playing...

just hold your hand out, rest it on like an armchair or something so your hand is hanging down...

verrrrrry slowly, lift up ONE finger, and focus on not moving the other fingers... STOP if your other fingers move, and let them all relax...

keep doing that with all your fingers until they can move without the others moving them... :)

Another thing to do is to play guitar WITHOUT pressing on the strings at all! just either hover your fingers 2 millimeters away from the strings, and play like that (you'll notice just how amaingly relaxed your fingers will be)

and then you can also just play by resting your fingers on the strings and moving them about.... this will help a LOT!

implement and master!! :D

I practice in numerous small bits of time. Keeps my hands hands and mind fresh.

Thank you guys for this :)

Actually, one very big important issue that was not mentioned yet is how to relax...

After you play a note, or a chord, or anything.. after ANY movement where you exert energy...

You must relax your hand.

Play, relax, play, relax, play relax.

After every, single, note.

:)

When you are moving your finger, you burn some energy.. if you don't relax it, it gets stuck in your finger, and doesn't allow proper blood flow, so after a certain point, it will start slowing down and hurting.

What usually happens is instead of relaxing the finger, most guitar players PULL it away from the guitar, which actually uses MORE energy. So make sure this doesn't happen to you.

At the beginning, you'll need to play REALLLLLLLLLLLLLY slowly, like so slow that you could sleep. lol You need to focus, and concentrate, and every time you play a note, you need to focus on relaxing your whole hand and body.

Yes, you can just trudge through this, and make your hands "last longer" but... is that really healthy?

Eventually, you will be able to relax your hand so fast that it's like martial arts. your finger will slam down and relax instantaneously, which will massively boost your speed.

I've had trouble relaxing on all the instruments I've ever learned but I've found that after a long time of consciously telling myself I need to relax the hand more it's eventually become an unconscious process and I can play guitar for a lot longer than I used to be able to.

It sounds daft but for a long time when I practised I actually used to use a sort of mantra: back when I was at university I used to do martial arts in my spare time as well, which you'd think was completely unrelated but the relaxation element was almost the same principal: what looks like it takes a lot of effort to do actually doesn't, and this one session I remember doing the instructor talked about 'Minimal effort with maximum result.' I used to remind myself of that line when I practised guitar as well to remind myself to take a check on how much tension I had going on, not just in the fingers but in the arms as well. The same instructor also said 'when I'm training these moves I keep thinking "Am I relaxed?" ' Another quote I kept calling to mind for guitar practice, it worked just as well for that.

A word of caution on picking though, I found at one point that I was relaxing my pick hand so much that the technique became sloppy, and I found once I put a little more tension back in there I started to get the effect I was after and be able to do the practice exercises I was working on more consistently. As long as you're not gripping your pick or fretting your strings like you've got them in a vice and your hands aren't starting to hurt it's always worth trying a little MORE tension until you feel like you're comfortable (and don't forget the action on your guitar can also make a difference to how much pressure you need from your fret hand (it takes the hand more effort to play with higher action.)

One thing not mentioned here yet is warming up before you play. This can make a difference and reduce the risk of you ending up with sore hands the day after playing. I remember about eight years ago having a go with John Petrucci's Rock Discipline video and before he did anything he took me through warm up exercises and I thought 'Warming up for playing guitar? WTF?' but as this was someone experienced who I admired I tried taking it seriously and realised he was actually right, and not only that I realised it's not just your hands you need to take care of when playing but your arms shoulders and back as well. I admit I often don't warm up before I play but if I'm having a long session I tend to take a ten minute break and do some exercises to ease muscle tension, and since I started doing that I get far less aches the following day after spending 4 to 5 hours playing.