Pain!
I'm just starting so can someone give me some hope that my fingers will soon stop hurting so much? I'm willing to fight through it but it would help to get some idea of how long it took others to loose the numbness and pain especially with good ol/ D cord.
# 1
I don't know about a time period, but it will eventually go away since your finger will get calloused. Just keep playing, but don't play if you're injuring yourself and bleeding of course.
# 2
The pain is nessary.
It's what tells your body to build calluses. Play till you can feel a blister start to build under your skin. Stop for the day.
Play again the next day, not to that point, but let it hurt.
After 4 or 5 days of it, you will see the skin thicken and the pain will start going away from there on.
Fresh calluses will go a way fast. 3 days off will erase 5 days of pain. So stay at it even if you just press your fingers on the strings as if your playing while you watch tv or what ever.
Don't play till the blister pops, That is an injury that has to heal. But they seems to build faster if you play till you can feel the blister.
It hurts, but in the long run....... it works.
It's what tells your body to build calluses. Play till you can feel a blister start to build under your skin. Stop for the day.
Play again the next day, not to that point, but let it hurt.
After 4 or 5 days of it, you will see the skin thicken and the pain will start going away from there on.
Fresh calluses will go a way fast. 3 days off will erase 5 days of pain. So stay at it even if you just press your fingers on the strings as if your playing while you watch tv or what ever.
Don't play till the blister pops, That is an injury that has to heal. But they seems to build faster if you play till you can feel the blister.
It hurts, but in the long run....... it works.
# 3
If you don't mind changing things up a bit, you can alleviate some of the pain by playing on lighter strings. I use the 9-gauge set. I also used to put electric guitar strings on my acoustic guitar and it became WAY easier to play. It will sound totally different though.
# 4
Consider it a right of passage, although I believe the introductory offer than GT are offering for new annual members has some stick on finger pads that are designed to help, which I'm assuming you can buy seperately if you're not in a position to sign up for (another) year. Failing that, super glue is an alternative - sterile (?) and tough.
Most definitely stop before blister popping time - if not for your own health (guitar strings aren't known for their bacteria resistance, although do tend to have nice dirt trapping winding, and healing in general will take weeks and not days) then just not covering your guitar in puss an blood...
Most definitely stop before blister popping time - if not for your own health (guitar strings aren't known for their bacteria resistance, although do tend to have nice dirt trapping winding, and healing in general will take weeks and not days) then just not covering your guitar in puss an blood...
# 5
Playing the guitar is a physical feat, and it is only natural that the growing pains are to follow.
The best advice I can give is to take it slow, and don't over do it. Once you have started to feel some pain, stop for the day. The worst thing you can do is work through it and that will only make it worse down the road.
Dealing with discomfort is unfortunately something that will continue to happen throughout your career. About every 2 years I go through a stint where I have step away for a bit to let my hand get back to normal.
Focus also on your posture while you play and practice. That is equally as important as well.
The best advice I can give is to take it slow, and don't over do it. Once you have started to feel some pain, stop for the day. The worst thing you can do is work through it and that will only make it worse down the road.
Dealing with discomfort is unfortunately something that will continue to happen throughout your career. About every 2 years I go through a stint where I have step away for a bit to let my hand get back to normal.
Focus also on your posture while you play and practice. That is equally as important as well.
Douglas Showalter
# 6
personally i never experianced the sore finger tip pain. I guess from all the years of taking hot t-bags out of water with my fingers and taking hot plates in my hands without anything to protect from the heat and other related things I pretty much have no feeling in them.
However I have being suffering from wrist pain for a while now :( I been taking it easy trying to stretch hand and wrist, try to make sure I'm in a posture etc etc. but its taking ages, not really played much since feb, every time I did it was instant pain. Started again last few weeks but have had to build up from sessions lasting only 5 mins. So annoying!
However I have being suffering from wrist pain for a while now :( I been taking it easy trying to stretch hand and wrist, try to make sure I'm in a posture etc etc. but its taking ages, not really played much since feb, every time I did it was instant pain. Started again last few weeks but have had to build up from sessions lasting only 5 mins. So annoying!
# 7
I had the same issue when starting back up recently. I started concentrating on competent warm up techniques before digging in. I do about 5-10 minutes or so of scales starting slow then speeding up with each run. While I still get cramping in the wrist or back of hand I have noted it is taking longer and longer for the pain to start. Basically you are developing unused muscles with repetitive practice. It won't happen over night. It is really no different than going to the gym. You exercise till you "feel the burn" I just wish I could find more exercises to feel the burn in my picking hand. My fretting hand is way faster than the pick.
# 8
Agree with Douglas, if part of your body's telling you to call time on your session then listen to it. People talk about 'endurance' in guitar playing but you don't build it up by deliberately practising until your hands hurt and then keeping going - playing the guitar isn't the same as distance running or fitness-dependant sports.
That said, a friend of mine swears by cold showers for reducing tissue damage after running distances, and although I personally can't stand this and have never known it work for me, I found that putting my left hand and wrist in a bowl of iced water after a guitar practice session where I realised I'd overdone it helped. I've used that ever since.
Here's another idea for you while we're on the subject: guitarists almost always talk about warming up by playing scales or exercises, which I myself do, but what I almost never hear talked about is warming up muscles before you've even picked up the guitar. A couple of years ago I saw an excerpt from John Petrucci's Rock Discipline video where he actually advocated doing certain stretches before picking the instrument up, to date he's the only guitarist I've ever seen promote this.
I decided to take this idea a stage further, remembering how a sports coach once advised me never to stretch muscles when they're cold, always warm up with something like a run on aerobic exercise before you stretch, so I warmed up like this, went for a steady run after it and then stretched some more to cool down before I went in and picked up the guitar to see what it felt like. The result was amazing! I admit that I'm pretty hard-wearing on my whole body as I'm the outdoors type, constantly active and both my job and other hobbies have me lifting stuff and making stuff, and I often wake up with various bits of me aching, so I have to loosen up to do anything comfortably let alone play a guitar.
If anything I find that before my fretboard hand gets too tired to keep going my left shoulder's giving me trouble just from the weight of the guitar (and I play an Ibanez JS most of the time, which comparatively is the featherweight end of guitars) I can usually last an hour and a half or so without unstrapping the guitar - I prefer to play standing, sitting down I get uncomfortable more quickly and the whole technique feels more controlled standing....not entirely sure why.
On a different note, I came to realise that making changes to the way I play to avoid discomfort actually added something to my playing style in some ways - I don't do a lot of string bending and I think it's partly because I found it made my fingers sore quickly, so to extend how long I could practice for I took to using sliding and hammer-ons more to quick pitch shifting, and my use of the Floyd Rose became different as I used it to save my fingers....my hands ache just listening to some players like Walter Trout who bend strings as if they could never snap in just about every song.
That said, a friend of mine swears by cold showers for reducing tissue damage after running distances, and although I personally can't stand this and have never known it work for me, I found that putting my left hand and wrist in a bowl of iced water after a guitar practice session where I realised I'd overdone it helped. I've used that ever since.
Here's another idea for you while we're on the subject: guitarists almost always talk about warming up by playing scales or exercises, which I myself do, but what I almost never hear talked about is warming up muscles before you've even picked up the guitar. A couple of years ago I saw an excerpt from John Petrucci's Rock Discipline video where he actually advocated doing certain stretches before picking the instrument up, to date he's the only guitarist I've ever seen promote this.
I decided to take this idea a stage further, remembering how a sports coach once advised me never to stretch muscles when they're cold, always warm up with something like a run on aerobic exercise before you stretch, so I warmed up like this, went for a steady run after it and then stretched some more to cool down before I went in and picked up the guitar to see what it felt like. The result was amazing! I admit that I'm pretty hard-wearing on my whole body as I'm the outdoors type, constantly active and both my job and other hobbies have me lifting stuff and making stuff, and I often wake up with various bits of me aching, so I have to loosen up to do anything comfortably let alone play a guitar.
If anything I find that before my fretboard hand gets too tired to keep going my left shoulder's giving me trouble just from the weight of the guitar (and I play an Ibanez JS most of the time, which comparatively is the featherweight end of guitars) I can usually last an hour and a half or so without unstrapping the guitar - I prefer to play standing, sitting down I get uncomfortable more quickly and the whole technique feels more controlled standing....not entirely sure why.
On a different note, I came to realise that making changes to the way I play to avoid discomfort actually added something to my playing style in some ways - I don't do a lot of string bending and I think it's partly because I found it made my fingers sore quickly, so to extend how long I could practice for I took to using sliding and hammer-ons more to quick pitch shifting, and my use of the Floyd Rose became different as I used it to save my fingers....my hands ache just listening to some players like Walter Trout who bend strings as if they could never snap in just about every song.
'There's no such thing as bad weather, there's only the wrong clothes...'
# 9
Originally Posted by: haghj500The pain is nessary.
It's what tells your body to build calluses. Play till you can feel a blister start to build under your skin. Stop for the day.
Play again the next day, not to that point, but let it hurt.
After 4 or 5 days of it, you will see the skin thicken and the pain will start going away from there on.
Fresh calluses will go a way fast. 3 days off will erase 5 days of pain. So stay at it even if you just press your fingers on the strings as if your playing while you watch tv or what ever.
Don't play till the blister pops, That is an injury that has to heal. But they seems to build faster if you play till you can feel the blister.
It hurts, but in the long run....... it works.
There's your best advice right there
# 10
Originally Posted by: g_quagliapersonally i never experianced the sore finger tip pain. I guess from all the years of taking hot t-bags out of water with my fingers and taking hot plates in my hands without anything to protect from the heat and other related things I pretty much have no feeling in them.
However I have being suffering from wrist pain for a while now :( I been taking it easy trying to stretch hand and wrist, try to make sure I'm in a posture etc etc. but its taking ages, not really played much since feb, every time I did it was instant pain. Started again last few weeks but have had to build up from sessions lasting only 5 mins. So annoying!
Sounds like possibly a bit of carpal tunnel trouble. I had it in my late 70s and was considering surgery until my brother recommended vitamin B6. It worked for me!
[FONT=Comic Sans MS]Richie0 (zarks)[/FONT]
# 11
Originally Posted by: haghj500The pain is nessary.
It's what tells your body to build calluses. Play till you can feel a blister start to build under your skin.
I go with this. Once these blisters turn into calluses, they'll shield your fingers in constructing chords.
I also experienced this back when I started playing the guitar.
As they say, "No pain, no gain"
Dashquid
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# 12
# 13