Strengthen and toughen my fingers for playing guitar?

Question

I'm learning guitar and I only know a couple of chords, but how do I strengthen my fingers, and toughen my fingertips up? Any tips are helpful. I heard from someone (can't remember who) to put rubbing alcohol on my fingertips after playing and it can help a little, but it doesn't seem to help that much. Other than just keep playing (which I'm doing) anything I can do?

Answer 1

None of that helps, I just got done teaching a fifteen year old girl who said the same thing in the beginning. I warned her it was going to take about three months of playing daily to develop the callouses that you need before it stops hurting. You only need to do it for about twenty minutes a day and you'll see in a few months you'll have them, there not too pretty, but playing is more important. She now has them and it makes playing a lot easier. She had a lot of trouble making cords in the beginning also, but now she's jumping from an F cord to a G with ease, it all depends on how bad you want to play and how much time your willing to put into it. Are you starting with cords or are you learning with a teacher, reading music? I always tell people to go to Sam Ash and get a beginners book with a Cd in the back so that you can follow your progress. If your starting on your on with just cords play them about twenty minutes a day and after a bit you'll see it gets easier and easier, you'll be changing cords like a pro, as difficult as it seems in the beginning believe me you'll see the biggest difference in three months of daily playing. I know I see it all the time with my students. Don't give up too soon, you'll get there, and good luck to you !!!!!!

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Strengthen Fingers

Answer 4

Don't let your thumb go over the bridge of the guitar (so hold your thumb in the middle of the neck) and use your arm as like a right angle with your hand, bringing your fingertips around. This wont strain your hand when playing. When you're not playing the guitar to strengthen your fingertips I just recommend always gently jabbing your thumb nail into your fingertips and sitting there watching TV or whatever and just gently pushing a key into your fingertips also. This is basically what the strings of the guitar are doing but you can do it anywhere without playing! :-) Hope that helped.

Answer 5

Guitar Finger Tips

Answer 6

These days you can learn how to play guitar over the internet. Check out Mark McKenzie's guitar video lessons here: http://www.jamoramaguitar.com The videos are very easy to follow and to my surprise extremely helpful even for advanced guitar players. For beginners I would have to say this is a gold mine.

I was able to improve my skills in just under 4 weeks and I am an intermediate-to-advanced guitar player; I've been playing guitar for the past 6 years and I was on stage with my band a lot of times.

I live in New York City, I wanted to go to a pro guitar teacher but that would have cost me over $1400 per month. Good thing with this internet, $1400 it's a lot of money for me. Good luck!

Answer 7

Just keep playing. At first you might only be able to play for an hour, but the more you play, the more your strength and finger toughness will increase. I know - I'm a guitar player.

Answer 8

The secret to success is keep your left hand thumb always at the bottom of the neck. This makes for fast and accurate fingering. It is very hard at first, but once you get used to it, you will never change. You see a lot of people with their thumb sticking up above the neck of the guitar....wrong. Stretch your fingers apart and work all four fingers. Practice, practice, practice, makes perfect. I've played for years and I've never had a callous. Maybe it is the nylon strings, but maybe I'm doing something right? It's all in your heart....how bad do want to play......?

Answer 9

Yeah, I know how much that sucks. There's two things I would recommend. First, for your fingertips, once you're done or sick of practicing, just put each of your fingers on a different string and just run them up and down the neck, which will make your fingers tougher and tougher. For your actual fingers though, google this thing called a grip master; they're like twenty bucks and kind of like a stress ball. It really helped me.

Answer 10

I'm a guy, and individually, I don't like long nails. I actually know a lot of like lengthy, painted nails cause they're "so pretty", but I don't like them.