I am doing the fingerstyle beginner lessons with Lisa.
Everytime after a few minutes of playing the exercises along with Lisa, my fingertips on left hand would feel painful. That said, I couldn't practice for more than 10 minutes because of the pain.
Sometimes the pain feels like being stung by electrcity and sometimes it feels like it extends into the bone of my fingers. I use acoustic guitar.
Any advice?
Building calluses can be difficult. It's the #1 reason people stop practicing guitar. The key is to not hurt yourself too much, while maintaining a practice reginmen. Don't let it discourage you! Thant being said, there souldn't be debilitating pain. Calluses are built on the skin and the pain should be felt on the skin and fingertips, not extending into your fingers and hands.
I had similar problems too when I was a begineer. I applied a lot of pressure on my left hand fingers when my both hands were engaged. I guess this happens because our brain is not used to that kind of multi-tasking. It needs training. The way I was able to fix that was by only practicing my fretting left hand enough prior to putting both hands together. I am not sure if it was only me, but things were completely different when only putting my left hand at work.
One of the main causes of the usual beginner fingertip pain being worse than it has to be is pressing much harder than you need to.
Experiment a little to see exactly how much pressure you need to apply in order to get the note to sound. Pressing any harder is just wasting energy. Also make sure your fingers are just behind the fret, which also allows you to get away with applying less pressure whilst still getting a good tone.
I wish this forum had a "block user" feature. Possibly I'm not the only one......
One disclaimer Lisa McCormick makes in GF1 is that Acoustic strings are far harder to fret than an Electric, so maybe build fingertip strength on an Electric then return to Acoustic. I recall in another of your previous threads that you wanted to skip the earlier fundamental chapters (chords). This is one of the pitfalls of skipping the basics, among others. By the end of the Fundamentals, you would have developed the necessary calluses for other techniques.
Do you practice spider fingers exercise, for at least 5-10mins before learning?
Am I the only one who plays multiple instruments? Let's be inspirational and find our muses everyday!
Originally Posted by: Music_MaestroOne disclaimer Lisa McCormick makes in GF1 is that Acoustic strings are far harder to fret than an Electric, so maybe build fingertip strength on an Electric then return to Acoustic. I recall in another of your previous threads that you wanted to skip the earlier fundamental chapters (chords). This is one of the pitfalls of skipping the basics, among others. By the end of the Fundamentals, you would have developed the necessary calluses for other techniques.
Do you practice spider fingers exercise, for at least 5-10mins before learning?
No, and I never heard of the exercise before, how does it work?
Originally Posted by: hemalmehta0223I had similar problems too when I was a begineer. I applied a lot of pressure on my left hand fingers when my both hands were engaged. I guess this happens because our brain is not used to that kind of multi-tasking. It needs training. The way I was able to fix that was by only practicing my fretting left hand enough prior to putting both hands together. I am not sure if it was only me, but things were completely different when only putting my left hand at work.
Man I tried that and I realized I need to use a lot lesser strength on my left hand. After doing only left hand like you said, adding right hand into the play while still maintaining a relaxed left hand is much easier. Thanks.
However, I realized that for chords like A(the one where u need 3 fingers on 2nd fret) will need two of my fingers to press harder than usual due to them being further away from the steel bar. When that happens, those finger will hurt. The longer I play that chord, a 'dent' will form from the fingertip flesh being pushed inward. The deeper the dent, the more painful my finger will feel.
Originally Posted by: DraconusJLMOne of the main causes of the usual beginner fingertip pain being worse than it has to be is pressing much harder than you need to.
Experiment a little to see exactly how much pressure you need to apply in order to get the note to sound. Pressing any harder is just wasting energy. Also make sure your fingers are just behind the fret, which also allows you to get away with applying less pressure whilst still getting a good tone.
Someone suggested to play only left hand, I tried it and realized I used much more force than I needed to. It was much easier after I was aware of that.
However, I realized that for chords like A(the one where u need 3 fingers on 2nd fret) will need two of my fingers to press harder than usual due to them being further away from the steel bar. When that happens, those finger will hurt. The longer I play that chord, a 'dent' will form from the fingertip flesh being pushed inward. The deeper the dent, the more painful my finger will feel. Those fingers need to use more strength to get a clear sound.
How do I deal with this?
Originally Posted by: Benjamin TanOriginally Posted by: Music_Maestro
Do you practice spider fingers exercise, for at least 5-10mins before learning?
No, and I never heard of the exercise before, how does it work?
I would explain here, but it's pointless as all GT tutorials work best where you're following along visually. Do you see now by skipping essential fundamentals you're not doing yourself any favours? You have a full subscription, so you should have access to them.
Best of luck.
Am I the only one who plays multiple instruments? Let's be inspirational and find our muses everyday!
Originally Posted by: Music_MaestroOriginally Posted by: Benjamin TanOriginally Posted by: Music_Maestro
Do you practice spider fingers exercise, for at least 5-10mins before learning?
No, and I never heard of the exercise before, how does it work?
I would explain here, but it's pointless as all GT tutorials work best where you're following along visually. Do you see now by skipping essential fundamentals you're not doing yourself any favours? You have a full subscription, so you should have access to them.
Best of luck.
Spider exercise isn't part of Guitar Fundamentals course. It is part of the warm ups section iirc. How hard is it just to mention that?
Like that has a lot to do with me skipping fundamentals? Months ago when I was still at fundamentals I don't even know this exercise existed. I also have the same finger tip pain but I didn't use forum much. Now I feel a lot more focused and purposeful, and I make more posts/ask more questions. If I make a similar post that time on finger tip pain what you're gonna say? Apparently me skipping fundamentals is out of the list.
Since joining fingerstyle right away I am able to learn chords faster, muscle memory builds much faster than when I was learning GF1, if you wanna know why, go back to the thread where I asked about skipping learning chords.
Originally Posted by: Benjamin Tan
Sometimes the pain feels like being stung by electrcity and sometimes it feels like it extends into the bone of my fingers. I use acoustic guitar.
That feeling is very miserable - I've been there. One thing I suggest is focusing on your playing posture. Do you stand or sit? If you sit try standing, make sure to keep your shoulder blades back and down, don't hunch over the guitar - I for years did this and I ended up pinching my cubital nerve causing the electro shock feeling in my fingers. I know this may sound counter intuitive, but when looking at the fretboard, look at the dots on the top of the neck - not faces. This helps you put less strain on the neck. I hope this helps!
I can 't even make it through the spider warm-up without quitting because of terrible pain. I haven't touched the guitar since June (and I started in May) because of the pain. Not sure if I'll play again.
Originally Posted by: jefflonowski81I can 't even make it through the spider warm-up without quitting because of terrible pain. I haven't touched the guitar since June (and I started in May) because of the pain. Not sure if I'll play again.
That's unfortunate. Fingertip pain is a common issue with all beginners. There is a lot of conversation on this forum about it with some useful tips on how to minimise it. You need to start off slow with your practice times, but be consistent until you develop callouses on the fingertips. One thing you don't want to do is go a long period of not playing cause whatever you started to gain will be lost and you'll be just starting over again. I would suggest just try going 10-15 mimutes of spider warm-up exercises, but try to do it daily until you start to get those callouses. Another thing that will help is check your equipment. Electric is a little easier on fingers than acoustic, but that can be fixed by putting lighter gauge strings on. Get 9's if you can find them, but no more than 10's. Your local guitar store can help you with that and while there ask them about performing a "setup" on the guitar. This will involve lowering the string height or "action" as it's called so your not pressing down so far.
It's all part of the process, but if the pain is that unbearable then maybe see a doctor to make sure you didn't do any permanent damage.
Moe
Originally Posted by: Benjamin Tan[Spider exercise isn't part of Guitar Fundamentals course.
It is. Chapter 2, lesson 8 : https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=22141&s_id=1777
The only real failure is the failure to try.
