Beginning Guitar: How to Build Up Calluses

There’s no way around it, learning to play guitar is sometimes a painful process. If you’re feeling like your guitar strings bit your finger, take this advice from guitar teacher Joe H.…

Struggling to hold down the strings of your guitar without feeling like you are going to cut your finger wide open? Do you put your guitar away after just a few minutes of practicing with your fingertips gleaming red and feeling raw? Don’t worry! This is a common problem for the first few weeks or so of playing until you start developing guitar calluses.

What’s a callus? A callus is “A thickened and hardened part of the skin or soft tissue, especially in an area that has been subjected to friction.” Plain English? The more you play guitar the harder the tips of your fingers will become, allowing you to play more and more comfortably without any pain. Today we are going to talk about a few things you can do right now to make things a little easier on your fingers until you build up this protective layer.

Finger Placement

Make sure you are pushing down on the string just behind the fret you are trying to. When we are pushing down a string, our goal is to make the string touch the fret firmly to make a solid connection so we can get a clear sound. If our finger is too far away from the fret we are trying to hold down, we have to push down all that much harder to get a clear sound. By holding right next to the fret we get can get that solid connection with much less pressure being necessary. In this case less pressure=less discomfort!

Try Lighter Strings

Many guitars come strung with thicker strings than might be appropriate. Thicker strings require more tension on the strings to be tuned appropriately. By putting lighter strings, this tension will be lessened, and this will allow us to push down on the strings with less pressure to get that solid connection we discussed in tip #1! Make sure you have someone who knows what they are doing (i.e. a more experienced guitar player or a guitar store tech) set up the guitar to make sure it is still in good playing shape after the change.

Have The Action Adjusted

The “action” of a guitar is how we refer to the distance between the strings and the frets. All guitars need to have this adjusted from time to time. Many beginner guitars come with very high actions that make playing very uncomfortable and painful. To make a guitar easier and more comfortable to play, the action should be lowered until just before any of frets start buzzing when played. Again, make sure you have someone who knows what they are doing do this for you.

Practice, Practice, Practice!