How To Reduce Pain In Fingers While Playing Guitar

5 Means for New Guitarists to Reduce Hand & Finger Pain

When playing guitar, do you lot discover your hands and fingers start to injure either when you start playing or after you've been jamming for an excessive amount of time? If so, don't worry, y'all're not alone.

It's common knowledge that musicians need to 'pause their hands and fingers in' when playing guitar, something that comes through experience and continuous play, but what can you do in the meantime?

Today we're going to explore five ways you tin can reduce any hand and finger pain you lot may be feeling, helping you get through the first few months until you've developed a guitarist'due south peel.

1. Commencement Using Lighter Strings

When starting out, the chances are you lot're using the guitar strings that came with your guitar. While these are normally ideal for creating the music yous want to create, particularly if yous're learning, they may be the cause of pain for your fingers.

Instead, shop online or visit your local guitar shop and see what lighter guitar strings they have. Lighter strings are available for both audio-visual and electric guitars and will be much less painful than heavier strings.

2. Warm Up Before You Play

Merely like you would when exercising at the gym or before going on a run, warming up your hands and fingers earlier y'all play tin can be a great way to reduce any pain and pressure you lot may be prone to feeling. Thankfully, you lot tin can warm up whatever way you desire.

You don't even have to dedicate time to your warm up. Outset off past sitting comfortably on your guitar chair, and playing your guitar slowly for the first 10 – 15 minutes. Get-go with easy chords and techniques just to get into the rhythm of things and so gradually build upwardly your play until you're jamming out as normal. You'll feel the departure virtually immediately.

3. Practice Your Technique

When you're starting out on guitar, it's like shooting fish in a barrel to autumn into bad habits, especially if yous're teaching yourself and you take nobody to tell yous otherwise. Brand sure y'all're investing fourth dimension in practicing the technique of how you play to brand certain it'south perfect.

Of course, at that place are plenty of dissimilar techniques out there to choose from, but information technology's a adept idea to test out a few to meet what works best for you, and and so keep revisiting it to make sure y'all're doing it correct. Beginner Guitar HQ has a useful guide to increasing speed on the guitar.

Over fourth dimension, this will then get a addiction, and y'all'll exist capable without revision in the long-term. Until and so, make sure you lot keep practicing and returning to the technique, rather than jumping direct into learning new chords and pieces of music.

4. Holding the Cord Shut to the Fret

Whenever y'all see a guitarist playing, you'll notice how they agree their fingers in the middle of the fretboard, which is how most musicians are taught to play. However, pressing there requires much more than downward force per unit area, ultimately causing more than pressure on your fingers.

The elementary solution here is to practice belongings the string closer to the fret. Since you lot'll need to push down using less force, in that location'll exist less on your fingers, ensuring information technology'due south far more comfortable to play.

5. Apply Guitar Finger Caps or Gloves

If the pain on your fingers is too much and it'south putting you off your fashion of play, in that location are plenty of options out there that can actively reduce the hurting you're feeling. If your fingers are hurting, endeavor wearing a pair of finger caps, which tin be found for an affordable price online.

If your hands are pain, there are as well plenty of guitar-based gloves that won't inhibit your fashion of play but volition make it much more comfortable and pain-free while you're playing. Nonetheless, you should just use this option every bit worst-case scenario.

This is because playing with your bare fingers and hands will assistance y'all develop the hardened skin that forms over time through regular practice. Even so, wearing these gloves or caps creates a bulwark where this peel volition course much slower, and you may go reliant on them.

As you can see, in that location are plenty of ways y'all can reduce finger and paw pain while you're playing the guitar. The about important matter to remember is to not let the hurting put you off, as it'southward guaranteed to get better over time with regular practice.

However, listen to your body and don't put yourself in any pain or cause injury if yous don't need to. Your well-beingness should ever come up offset, no thing what you're doing in life.

Music, sports, and blogging – that's pretty much it for Gavin Whitner. A passionate musician, Gavin currently plays the guitar for his alt-rock band, and blogs at MusicOomph well-nigh musical instruments, accessories and other audio gear.