Callus Building

Just getting back into learning to play the acoustic guitar after several years off. I'm going through the complete lesson plan here on Guitartricks.com. My question is about building calluses. I know the best way to build them is to play and play some more. So for my question: Is it better to play through the pain everyday or take a day or two off to allow the fingertips to heal and toughen up.

Originally Posted by: snpfarm

Just getting back into learning to play the acoustic guitar after several years off. I'm going through the complete lesson plan here on Guitartricks.com. My question is about building calluses. I know the best way to build them is to play and play some more. So for my question: Is it better to play through the pain everyday or take a day or two off to allow the fingertips to heal and toughen up.

Hi there ! My experience was to take a day or two off if the fingertips get really sore. It does take some time for the calluses to build up so you don`t want to overdo it during the first several weeks. The key is consistency : better to play 30 minutes a day than 1 or 2 long sessions a week. You`ll progress faster that way as well. As your calluses build up and your hand and finger strength increase, you can ramp up your daily practice sessions to 1-2 hours . That worked well for me.

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by: moosehockey18

Originally Posted by: snpfarm

Just getting back into learning to play the acoustic guitar after several years off. I'm going through the complete lesson plan here on Guitartricks.com. My question is about building calluses. I know the best way to build them is to play and play some more. So for my question: Is it better to play through the pain everyday or take a day or two off to allow the fingertips to heal and toughen up.

Thanks for the input. Since picking my guitar back up after several years off, I've been practicing about an hour a day for the past two weeks.

Hi there ! My experience was to take a day or two off if the fingertips get really sore. It does take some time for the calluses to build up so you don`t want to overdo it during the first several weeks. The key is consistency : better to play 30 minutes a day than 1 or 2 long sessions a week. You`ll progress faster that way as well. As your calluses build up and your hand and finger strength increase, you can ramp up your daily practice sessions to 1-2 hours . That worked well for me.

Hope this helps.

I just built mine up by playing every day. What I didn't do was play to the point where a bit of an ache in my fingertips, which went away after a couple of minutes resting before playing again, became what I would describe a "pain"

Originally Posted by: moosehockey18

Originally Posted by: snpfarm

Just getting back into learning to play the acoustic guitar after several years off. I'm going through the complete lesson plan here on Guitartricks.com. My question is about building calluses. I know the best way to build them is to play and play some more. So for my question: Is it better to play through the pain everyday or take a day or two off to allow the fingertips to heal and toughen up.

Hi there ! My experience was to take a day or two off if the fingertips get really sore. It does take some time for the calluses to build up so you don`t want to overdo it during the first several weeks. The key is consistency : better to play 30 minutes a day than 1 or 2 long sessions a week. You`ll progress faster that way as well. As your calluses build up and your hand and finger strength increase, you can ramp up your daily practice sessions to 1-2 hours . That worked well for me.

Hope this helps.

I agree. Occasionally I go thru longish periods away from guitar and the calluses and fingers suffer. I find that not only does cutting back on the one to two hour sessions help but that multiple, very short sessions (< 30 minutes) during the day help the calluses to come back faster.

Good luck, snpfarm. Have fun.