- Hey Nate, you know we have a live lesson today, right?
- What's it on?
- Bending.
- Crap!
(electric guitar riff)
- Nate!
We've got a practice on the 1 right?
- What's it on?
- Bar chords.
(Nate sighs)
(acoustic guitar)
- Hey babe, can you help me record demos for my new album?
- Sure, when?
- Right now?
- Yep, no problem.
(acoustic guitar)
- Hey, I'm Nate Savage with Guitareo,
and I know that when you first start playing the guitar,
that it can literally feel like somebody is trying to
shove ice picks into your finger tips.
It hurts that bad.
And if you're a newer guitar player, you may be wondering,
is this every gonna go away?
Is it ever gonna get any better?
Well, I'm here to tell you today that it does get better
over time, and something you may not know is that
even more experienced players, people who've been
playing a long time like me, get sore fingers
every once in awhile.
If I go from a season where I'm not playing a lot of guitar
into a season where I'm playing a lot, my fingers do hurt,
just like when I was starting to play the guitar.
So in this video, I'm gonna give you eight tips
to help you deal with your sore guitar fingers.
Tip number one is to be consistent with your practice.
Now, you are gonna have sore fingers,
there's no way around that.
It's kind of a rite of passage for all guitar players,
but the more consistent you are with your playing,
the easier it's gonna be for you, and the faster
your fingers are gonna toughen up.
It's kinda like going to the gym.
If you only go to the gym once a week,
and you hit the bench press,
you're gonna be sore every week.
Same thing with guitar.
If you only practice once a week for a couple of hours,
you're gonna get sore and the next day you're gonna be like,
I don't wanna play at all.
It's better to do short little practice sessions,
maybe 20, 30, 40 minutes at a time and then take a break
and practice more often like five or six times a week.
That's gonna help you build up the calluses
on your fingers faster.
And speaking of calluses,
tip number two is leave your calluses alone when they start
to form on your finger tips.
Don't pick at them.
And you know, maybe try to stay away from long, hot showers
or staying in a pool if you like to go swimming,
for any extended periods of time.
During the season where your calluses are being formed,
if you leave 'em alone, and let them do their thing,
they're gonna get tougher a lot faster.
Tip number three: don't be afraid to take a break.
If your fingers are so sore that when you barely touch them,
it brings a tear to your eye,
don't be afraid to take a day or two off.
You're gonna wanna keep practicing four, five, or six days
a week, but there's no shame if it's just really hurting,
to take a break.
Again, it's just like going to the gym.
You're not gonna do leg day four days in a row,
you're gonna have a leg day, then maybe a recovery day,
then maybe you'll hit it again in another couple days.
Tip number four is don't push down too hard
on the guitar strings.
And by that, I mean only use the minimum amount of pressure
needed to make clean notes on the guitar.
So what you can do, is for example make a C chord
and put just a little bit of pressure on there,
to where it sounds bad, right?
And then just start increasing the pressure
until it sounds good, and that's the minimum amount
of pressure you need to make good-sounding chords
on the guitar, right?
If you press down too hard, it can make the chord
sound sharp, and it's gonna put unnecessary strain
on your fingers.
So really experiment with that
with your own particular guitar.
Tip number five might be a little bit controversial
out there to some of you, but I think it's important
and true, and it's this: stay away from gadgets.
There are things you can put on your fingers
to keep them from being sore, but when you do that,
you really don't address the root of the issue,
and you can become dependent on those little things,
so if you ever don't have them, you're gonna be
up a creek and you're gonna have trouble playing the guitar.
So it's worth it to just buckle down and
go through that time of toughening up your fingers.
It will pay off for you.
Tip number six is to get your guitar setup.
And all a setup involves is getting the action on guitar
as low as possible to play really easy without buzzing.
And the action on a guitar is just how high the strings are
off from the fretboard, right?
If it's really high off the fretboard,
it's gonna be very hard to push down, and it's gonna
make your fingers sorer than they need to be, right,
to start playing guitar.
If the action is nice and low, it's gonna be easy to play
and it's gonna be easier to push down.
So you don't have to take it to get it setup
by a professional, if you have a more experienced
friend that can help you out, that's cool,
if they have some experience setting up guitars.
But it is worth it to take it in to a professional,
for 30, 40, 50 bucks,
you can have a really great-playing guitar that's
not too rough on your fingers.
Tip number seven is to consider what strings you're using
on your guitar.
Most acoustic guitars come set up with 12-gauge strings,
and as a beginner, there's no shame
in moving down a gauge to like a custom model
which is like an 11-gauge and then working your way
back up to 12-gauge if that's what you want.
It might not be as loud, or the tone might not be as rich,
but it's gonna be easier on your fingers,
and you can always go back to 12s later on if you want.
The same thing goes for electric.
If you're playing on a guitar with tens, ten-gauge strings,
if it's really tough for you, if the bending's hard,
go down to some nines and then try to work your way up
to a set of ten gauges, if that's what you want.
Tip number eight is to improve your technique.
Now, all of us start out when we're playing the guitar,
and our technique probably isn't very good.
But if you work on consciously improving your technique,
it's gonna make it easier to fret chords and scales
and things like that.
So I have some technique tips for you,
as far as making some basic open chords, that help you
not have to press down as hard.
The first one is to just make sure that you're right behind
the frets when you're making these chords.
So for example, C chord, if you make sure that
that third finger's right behind the fret,
it's gonna be a lot easier to get a clean note
out of it than if you were at the back of the fret,
or in the middle.
That's just the way the guitar works.
So you wanna be really aware of that.
Another thing that can make it easier
to press down the notes on the guitar,
is to bring your elbow in.
That helps you come down right on the tips of your fingers
and it just makes it a little bit easier
to get a really good angle on the tag on those strings,
so you don't have to push down as hard maybe.
Another thing that I'd suggest for you as far as technique
is take a look at the way you're holding the guitar.
If you're using a casual method like I am,
right-handed guitar player, guitar sitting on my right leg,
you're probably gonna wanna have some way to bring
the guitar up a little bit, so you can get better access
to the fretboard.
And there are a couple ways you can do that.
You can use a strap to hold the guitar up.
Or you can use a footstool, usually I have a footstool
but today I don't have one and I end up using
my toes to kind of scoot the guitar up,
and that's something that can be really uncomfortable
after awhile, and if you do have a footstool,
that can bring the guitar up higher,
to put it in a better position for playing,
to make it maybe a little bit easier to hit those notes.
That's it for this video.
Don't forget to leave a comment below,
leaving any tips or tricks you've come across
over the years that have helped you through your times
of sore fingers.
And if you're having any particular issues with this topic,
leave a comment or a question below there,
we'd love to help you.
Don't forget to like and subscribe,
or if you're just starting out on the guitar
and you need a little bit of help, you can sign up
for the free beginner guitar start kit
by following the link below this video.
See you later.
(acoustic guitar)