Man I feel like such a wimp. "I have owies on my fingertips." But yes, if anyone has some advice I'd love to hear it. Been playing steel stringa coustic for around 3months now, prior to that was playing nylon string acoustic for 9months. So now, my fingertips are all peeling and sore, and I can barely practise some mornings.
I have a problem, why are my callouses not developing already?? This really annoys me. How long are they supposed to take? I mean, 3 months, come on. Is there anything you can do about this?
Buy an electric guitar and go back and forth between guitars to give your fingers a break. They are so much easier to play. 8)
If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing.
You say you have played nylon acoustic for 9 months.I have played them for 6 months and i guess i have some good callouses.
Maybe its the metal strings giving you a hard time.Just bear with it :oops:
It will subside in some time. :)
Rahul
hi
generally your fingers will hurt due to sliding between chords,or more spesifically,friction.i had this problem when i went through the nylon to steel transition[!]all i did was wipe my strings down with dr ducks axewax[yes it is a real product!]made a world of difference!
dimebag
"forever stronger than all"
dimebag darrell[rip]
Use a good skin moisturizer daily.
Keep your strings immaculately clean.
Those two steps will help your callouses develop and stay in place more than anything else you can do (provided you play daily as well).
Most people think that a good quality moisturizer stops callouses from forming. That's not true. What it does do is keep the surface skin healthy. The callouse develops from the inside out. By keeping the surface healthy, you reduce the tendancy to peel (which, not everyone has, but if you have it, it can be a real pain as you're finding out).
Keeping the strings clean is part of the same deal. Dirty strings means you'll get dirt and grime pressed into your skin, which can trigger pealing.
Other than that, it's just making sure that you play daily and build up the finger tips.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
Maybe a different brand of string or just some new strings would help. I don't know what yours are like, but some acoustic strings seem extremely rough to me.
I've only been playing for three months (steel string acoustic). Took about two weeks for my callouses to develop.
I wonder if it could be as Paul suggested above (ie. the brand of strings).
How often do you practice? Do you do a little each day? Are you playing through the pain? 'Cause if you are it's possible that you're going at it too hard ... and therefore not giving the fingertips a chance to heal and therefore form a callous. :?
From little things big things grow - Paul Kelly
I've only been playing for three months (steel string acoustic). Took about two weeks for my callouses to develop.
I wonder if it could be as Paul suggested above (ie. the brand of strings).
How often do you practice? Do you do a little each day? Are you playing through the pain? 'Cause if you are it's possible that you're going at it too hard ... and therefore not giving the fingertips a chance to heal and therefore form a callous. :?
From what I've heard on the forums calous development varies from person to person based on skin type. There's no real secret to building them up except to keep playing on whatever you're using. It just gets better as time goes on.
-Metaellihead
Thanks people for replies.
How often do you practice? Do you do a little each day? Are you playing through the pain? 'Cause if you are it's possible that you're going at it too hard ... and therefore not giving the fingertips a chance to heal and therefore form a callous.
yeah I play as much as I have the time to, and I play through the pain, cuz it's addictive. (Um, playing my guitar is addictive, not pain.)
One thing I did today that kind of helped is tuning everything down a couple steps but that's a very temporary solution because I can't play along to stuff.
I'm going to get new strings and follow the above advice if that doesn't work will start playing the nylon string again. I like the sound of steel way way much better but I have to be able to do something while my crappy skin forms callouses
What guage of string are you using?
You may consider a lighter guage.
Some people have alergies to metals, I am not saying this is the case with you but maybe you can try coated strings as well. I like the Dean Markley Alchemy strings myself, alot of people here swear by Elixers.
3 months of steel string after 9 months of nylon does seem like a long time to still be having problems with fingertip pain.
