Painful fingers!

murphaph

Someone reassure me please! I just started with the guitar today and my left hand fingertips are bloody sore. Does this really get better over time? I'm gonna get lessons once a week for the first while to keep me on the straight and narrow but I was just trying a few basic chords from my book and after 20 or so minutes the grooves in the tips of my fingers weren't funny! Cheers all.:)

Sabre0001

Definately gets better over time - fingers become calloused (sp?) and get harder at tips...Don't push yourself or you could cut and that won't help AT ALL!

Also, if you need to play for an extended period, apparently you should avoid anything that can soften them - washing dishes, moisturiser, etc...

feylya

They will get hard and won't hurt as much with time and practice. There are some tricks to harden your fingers tips but there's no better way than just playing imo

-=al=-

esp[ecially after a shower, give it a while before u play after u shoower or wash the dishes or anything, washing your hands with a bit of soap and cold water before you play can help too

The Freeman

what the lads said there, it gets better over time, the first few weeks ya start to learn the chords are tough alright..........

just practice practice practice and in a couple of months it'll be nothing to ya at all;)

murphaph

Thanks folks. Gonna give it a rest for today and hope they are ok for another bout tomorrow! I'm damned if I'm gonna let the guitar beat me already My book said playing A was easy.....I actually find it a bit awkward getting three fingers into one fret but ho-hum.

Duff_Man

i remember the first day i played guitar and my fingers were in bits but i was dyin to play again! i just kept at it and her ei am 2years later lovin it! its a great instrument to learn man! good luck with it!

leninbenjamin

murphaph wrote:

Thanks folks. Gonna give it a rest for today and hope they are ok for another bout tomorrow! I'm damned if I'm gonna let the guitar beat me already My book said playing A was easy.....I actually find it a bit awkward getting three fingers into one fret but ho-hum.

unless its impossible to play with the pain, you might be better off playing today. the more frequent you play, the quicker the callouses develop. if you play kinda stop start waiting for the skin to harden then you're just prolonging the pain. just gotta bite your tongue and go...

(that's my experience anyway)

murphaph

thanks again fellas. had my first lesson there tonight. figers are gone sort of numb now. will play molly malone until the neighbours kill me!

The Freeman

well done, update us on your progress anyhow, and let us know if you come accross any 'walls' so to speak;)

murphaph

Thanks freeman, i'll keep you all posted. isn't the guitar great? it's so versatile! i think i found a new fend for life here. my fingers can't be felt anymore (not through calluses, just numbness!) and i'm getting the hang of this little 2 chord ditty already. should have it perfect for the next lesson. i'm glad i opted for lessons to drive me forward. i fear a book/cd would just gather dust whereas having a teacer looking at you disappontingly is enough to drive the proess forward i'm trying not to look at my fret hand at all and sort of listen for buzzes/out of tune sounds and it seems to work. I didn't think the hand would start to 'remember' the finger positions so quickly. I like to sing and it's so brilliant to be able to accompany yourself even on a silly old tune like Molly Malone!

murphaph

Ok, so now I can fairly reliably flick between A and D and pretty much strum Molly Malone. So, I was wondering.....how difficult will it be to learn this? I like to sing along and I can sing that. I think being able to sing a bit mus make the whole thing much more enjoyable.

damonjewel

That shouldn't be too hard for you, Bm7 is an easy chord IMO, I think mastering G will give you some problems. In fact I think that you should stick with molly malone but instead of A to D substitute G to C, and after that try C to F. If you can master G C F you are well on your way.

murphaph

Cheers, my teacher gave me Waltzing Matilda in A D E and Irish rover in same and asked me to practice switching in and out of G for next week. She says she'll have some songs I like ready for next week with G in them. I actually like folk type stuff so Waltzing Matilda is pretty cool and I can play it pretty well now. I just have to get my fingers to land better first time to eliminate a slight buzzing I get sometimes. still though, it's a great sense of achievement being able to play even simple tunes like that. I love the guitar!

-=al=-

whoah woah whoa, ur teachers a she??

girls cant play guitar
































yes im joking. ..keep it up, at least ur enthiastic! try the song and see where it takes you

The Freeman

piece of p*ss to be honest

you'll have no problems mate, just remember if ya get frustrated playing the guitar at all don't keep playing you'll only get more pissed off, i'll give ya an example=my mate had a fight with his woman so he decided to attept to play guitar cos he associated this with relaxation straight afterwards, not realising he was bringing his rage to the guitar, and nearly smashed his guitar after 5 mins(he was learning at th time also like yourself)

in short just go make yourself a nice cup of coffee if ya get a bit frustrated and watch t.v. for 10 mins


there's all the time in the world to get lost in the guitar when ya have learnt the ropes and have more options to play with

murphaph wrote:

Ok, so now I can fairly reliably flick between A and D and pretty much strum Molly Malone. So, I was wondering.....how difficult will it be to learn this? I like to sing along and I can sing that. I think being able to sing a bit mus make the whole thing much more enjoyable.