How To Callous Your Fingers: Playing Through the Finger Pain

How to callous your fingers probably sounds like a ridiculous statement when it comes to anything. (even playing the guitar) However, any experienced guitarist will vouch that developing finger callouses when learning how to play the guitar is essential. I just want you to realize, here at How To Guitar Tune, finger pain and developing callouses is a common process to developing your guitar skills.

Many beginning guitarists get discouraged from finger pain and blisters when learning a guitar tune, but developing calloused fingers is essential to becoming a good guitar player. Yes, you're going to experience a week or two of slight discomfort, pressing your fingers against the metal of the strings, but you need to learn how to play through the pain.

After that painful week (or two) you can welcome steady improvement to your guitar skills by playing scales, practice riffs, or whatever guitar tunes your little heart desires. The important thing is realizing how to deal with one puny week of discomfort.

A large portion of beginners, including myself when I began learning guitar tunes, have tiny blisters form on their fingertips instead of callouses.

I can understand that this might be a semi-gross topic to discuss, but I feel it's something that should be confronted. Of course, the best (and easiest) way how to handle a blister is to...

dun dun dun...

Pop it. Yep, it's gross, but honestly, those blisters will either grow and grow and grow and just hurt (like little sons of you-know-whats) unless you pop them. It's not important how you do it (keep the gory details to yourself) but pop and drain those blisters. You might see them regrow and you'll have to repeat the process.

The important thing is to keep your fingertips clear for callouses that are vital to playing the guitar from here on out.

And you know how to keep callouses on your fingers? Keep playing! That one's simple.

I apologize for this health lesson on phalanges and their development, but calloused fingers really ARE important. Teach yourself to play through the pain if your time hasn't come yet and you'll be playing guitar tunes in no time.

4 comments:

Collegegirl said...

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How To Guitar Tune said...

Thanks Collegegirl! I went over and voted for your blog. I hope that you win your nominations!

-Kyle

Jessica said...

Thanks for the help. I'm dying from blisters at the moment. Maybe you can answer one more thing for me- if I keep playing on the blisters, will they pop or will the callus? I don't totally want to have them pop on the strings... seems like a lot of new fresh raw skin would then be out. Sorry for the graphic details, and thanks for helping out.

How To Guitar Tune said...

Jessica,

That's a great question. Actually I was in the same situation before.

I played on my blisters for awhile and they popped, but what happened was that the dead skin actually formed calluses on top of them. haha

So, I actually had to peel that skin off in the end anyway and calluses formed underneath on the fresh layer skin.

Hope that helps you out!

-Kyle

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