Work on playing lightly with your left hand. Jeff, here on the forum, had a great way to get a sense of how hard to fret the strings. Hold your guitar so it is stable and the neck does not move. Now place a finger on a string and lightly mute it, dont push it against the fret just yet. Now slowly increase the pressure on that finger until it first sounds a clear note..... That is how hard you need to pressure the strings, nothing more. You will probably be surprised at how little pressure that actually is! Now, activly work to include that light pressure into the way you play. Keep in mind, how using a Light touch is the key.

At 8 months, you probably have good calluses. What you should now strive for is a light touch. It may take some time to work this into your playing routine, as it is a subtle thing. But just remember how light a touch it takes to make your guitar strings sound clearly, and... RELAX.

Death Grips are for holding on to a cliff so you don't fall, like, to your death. When you get down to it....Death grips, are just that for a guitarist...... death.

Work on lightening up your touch and fly away from this dead end.