by Ryan Langford
6. January 2012 19:48
The easiest way to think about developing strength and endurance in your fingers for playing the guitar is to think of each of your hands as an Olympic athlete. Huh? Yep. If each of your hands were an Olympic runner and had an event to compete in, there are a few things your hands would have to do:
- Train every day
- Progressively work to improve skills
- Celebrate each victory and then take on a new challenge every time a goal is achieved.
If we set up a strength and conditioning program for your hands, and you actually do the practice every day just like an athlete who wants to win, you will find your playing gets better really fast.
In order to play guitar, the first thing that must learn some endurance is your fingertips on your left hand. Your fingertips need to develop callouses so that your fingers can press the strings against the fingerboard and make the note ring in a crisp and clean sound. This means you must practice in a slow and steady way each day to allow the skin on your fingertips to grow and thicken into callouses. No matter how strong your hand is, if your fingertips hurt, you won’t want to practice!
The most effective way to work with your fingertips and avoid the discomfort of developing callouses is use the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th strings of the guitar. Even though these are thicker and heavier strings, and it seems like they are harder to press, they actually are more comfortable on your beginner fingertips. The wrapping on the string makes pressing them less intense than the 1st and 2nd strings.
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