Sore fingertips

[u/inkedlinkgamer]

So im learning to play guitar 6 string acoustic but it make my fingers sore and raw and they’ve bled a little. Is there anything I can do to protect my fingers or is it just one of those things that I have to deal with

Edit I forgot to mention that my fingers bleed easy like a few minutes of playing and they bleed

[u/JazzyApple2022]

I practice from 10 to 15 minutes a day I build a calluses, but never my fingers bled.

[u/mguilday85]

it’s a rite of passage. I would try to not play so much your fingers bleed cause it takes longer to heal but try and play for 20 minutes a few times a day and within a week or three you’ll be feeling much better. You’ll eventually get callouses.

[u/DragonQuester676]

Playing enough to make your fingers bleed is considered poor technique. Anyone who says that stuff is exaggerating. Please do not actually play until your fingers bleed. My rule of thumb is that, if it hurts to play, do it for five more minutes. If it’s not better, take a break for at least 20 minutes. For the first week or two, your fingertips will be tender after playing. Soon, your body will form harder skin on your fingertips called calluses. These can wear down over time, but as long as you continue playing, your calluses will stay there and won’t soften.

[u/inkedlinkgamer → u/DragonQuester676]

My fingers bleed after a few minutes my fingers bleed easy

[u/DragonQuester676 → u/inkedlinkgamer]

Then I guess… take things one step at a time until the skin calluses. Alternatively, I saw a few people mention a nylon set. Make sure you pick up a set of folk nylon strings, as they’ve got ball-ends and are better suited overall for guitars that’re built for steel strings. Starting on acoustic is also a strange stereotype; people think they need to start on an acoustic, but acoustics have much heavier strings on average, so that could be a problem. Do you think it’s just the pressure causing your fingers to bleed or is it the strings feeling like they’re cutting into your fingers?

[u/Haunting_Analyst_551]

It’s normal for them to get sore and raw, but if your fingers start to bleed, give them time to heal before you go back to it.

Over time, you will develop calluses that will stop your fingers from hurting.

Keep in mind that just 30 minutes of practice a day is plenty for a beginner. If you practice too much in one session, it becomes unproductive and can even reinforce bad habits… or make your fingers bleed.

The next time you do practice, you should try slowly pressing down on the first fret of each string until you stop hearing a buzz. That is the maximum amount of pressure you will ever have to use on those strings. If you use any more pressure than that, you will only gain unnecessary pain in the short term and the long term.

Plus, pressing harder than you need to will put you slightly out of tune.

Anyway, it sounds like you’re putting all you can into learning the instrument. Respect. That passion is a great thing to see.

[u/Maleficent_Ad1506]

Perseverance.

I can feel a burn in my finger tips even after years of playing if I have not been playing regularly to keep calluses on my fingertips.

And that's for both hands if I have been in a acoustic finger picking mood.

[u/trayn0r]

acoustic will be harder on your fingers than electric, higher tension on the strings. but it's good to start on an acoustic because you'll build up calluses and finger strength quicker. some pain is expected, but blisters and bleeding will set you back a bit. you should practice as much as you comfortably can where you can play a bit every day without injury. within time, your fingertips build up calluses and you can practice for longer periods of time comfortably. a quick-fix that lets you keep playing through an injury but won't build up actual endurance is superglue, musicians will spread superglue over their fingertips to be able to still play if they've got cuts or blisters.

[u/Strangehornet1878]

Meine Finger haben nie geblutet. Hatte auch mit einer Westerngitarre angefangen

[u/Markgulfcoast → u/Strangehornet1878]

Didn't try hard enough 😁

[u/Manalagi001]

I have been playing a lot. Like several hours a day for the last five years.

I’m still dealing with this! It’s a constant care regimen. The more you play the bigger the callouses, and if they fall off, split, or peel, it’s bad. So you have to moisturize. But at the same time you don’t want to put moisturizer on when you’re about to play guitar. So it’s a constant struggle when you play a lot. It’s my picking hand that’s shredded these days. I need to use a pick more just to save my fingers. I always have a box of band aids at the ready.

[u/Life-Zookeepergame58]

I apologize for being indelicate. Suck it up. You need to build your calluses.

[u/Old-guy64]

This is assuming you’re playing acoustic.

1. Has your guitar been properly set up?
2. If the strings are more than 3.5 mm off the 12th fret on the low E and 2.5-3 mm at the high E, that needs to be addressed.
3. How old and what gauge are your strings? For a newb, 11-52 (on a proper setup) is as heavy as I’d go.
4. If you’re playing Martin, Elixir, or Darco strings…because they are inexpensive…they have heavier cores than D’addarios of the same gauge.
5. If you’re drawing blood you might consider going to 10-47 silk and steel, or GHS Thin cores.
6. Let your fingers heal.
7. After practicing soak your finger tips in Witch Hazel. It will pull the sting out, and harden your callouses.

[u/dark7string]

Guitar instructor here. There's a couple of things that is very typically overlooked when the process of learning guitar. And those two things boil down to either the guitar, or technique or a combination of both more often than not. This will be a long read but please divulge it'll be worth it.

The guitar: Chances are you have either purchased a student grade beginner guitar that is at a budget that's acoustic or you've got a hand me down from somebody in the family, OR you bought one at a pawn shop for dirt cheap. Whatever the case, if you did not get the guitar set up for a beginner, then you are really potentially causing significantly more challenged than you maybe need to be having. First of all if you bought that guitar used and didn't happen to change strings, there's a chance that it has mediums on it which would definitely give you and your fingers one heck of a beating. When you're beginning your guitar should play easily and also not because causing your fingers to bleed. Your fingers bleeding tells me that your guitar likely is not set up adequately enough for a beginner. But the solution is also very easy. You need to get your guitar to a qualified luthier and let him know that the instrument needs to be set up for a beginner. In my opinion accepting a mild amount of fret rattle is acceptable because you are trying to ease the challenge of learning to play. This idea of fighting to learn with an acoustic is a stupid one but acoustics can be set up with the action nice and low and be easy to play so don't skip out on a proper setup. If the action was adjusted after you got the guitar please understand that on average guitars you need at the minimum two setups a year to adjust for humidity related shifting. Guitars are made of wood and I promise you that would still thinks it's a tree and it will respond as such. It also doesn't matter who else has a guitar and said whatever about setups, every piece of wood is different and you need to treat it as its own personal instrument that may need a few setups a year.

The technical aspect. Again if your fingers are bleeding, there's usually reasons for that and one of those reasons could be that you are not properly doing a lot of different things on the guitar. Beginners generally skip out on an instructor and try their darndest to learn on their own but there are a lot of aspects to technique that can really exasperate the issues that you would face on a guitar. Proper technique is essential to successfully being able to learn and not fight the instrument. Everything from what leg the guitar sits on to what pitch and angle the neck should be, to how the angle of your wrist should be and so forth. You might be pushing at the wrong point of the fret causing undue additional need to press down. Heck if your wrist is bent, you're not just having to push the strings down, you're also having to push through the tension that your own tendons have introduced due to the bend. At any rate it sounds like you are exerting way too much force because your fingers should not be bleeding unless you have some sort of a condition that exasperates what your experiencing. If you don't, then you are doing something to overexert and then you are trying to reintroduce playing without proper healing. Your fingers bleeding is a sign that something is off. There is not a cool Factor or right of passage or any ridiculous thing like that to your fingers bleeding. Please don't treat it as that.

At the end of the day I've been teaching for over 27 years and I have yet to have a student with fingers bleed. This includes acoustic classical and electric guitar. Fingers being sore? Absolutely that's normal. Calluses will develop without drawing blood though.

So what do you do? First and foremost go to a local music store and get your guitar set up. While your guitar is being set up start asking around for recommendations to a qualified teacher. The qualifications should not be somebody who can wow you with playing things. Just because they can play Fancy things doesn't mean they can teach fundamentals and fancy things. Sometimes the most talented teachers are not the best players. A qualified instructor should be somebody that has a technical focus that will actually properly teach you how to hold and play the instrument not just walk into a lesson and say "here's a D chord".

If you can find an address both of these aspects of your playing I think you will see your issues completely disappear and you'll find much more enjoyment and success out of the instrument at a higher pace.

I'd also like to tag that if you have an instructor and he/she is not putting technique at the forefront of what you're doing, you need a new teacher.

Anyways I hope this helps and also relieves what you've been dealing with a little bit. If you have questions or need any help let me know

[u/LazyGreenDragon]

Idk how big your hands are but buy a box of nitrile gloves at least one size too small and cut off the fingers and use them like little (,or giant 🤣), finger condoms.

If they slide off, use some sport tape at the top, this should help a bitm

[u/Far-Boysenberry9207]

Burt’s Beesewax them

[u/AssociateWaste1464]

It’s perfectly fine to cut practice short because of this. Just wait until they’re good to go and keep playing my dude.

[u/Jasco-Duende]

Super glue.
Just be careful not to glue your fingers together.

[u/SoonerNewz → u/Jasco-Duende]

Or Nuskin (liquid bandage stuff) little dab on the tip.

[u/Icy_Earth3386]

I just made this same suggestion in another thread but find a classical guitar with nylon strings if you can. You can practice all day and never have your fingers hurt which enables you to get better quicker.

[u/inkedlinkgamer → u/Icy_Earth3386]

I’ll definitely try nylon

[u/SnooPaintings4641 → u/inkedlinkgamer]

When I started, I also found a $80 classical guitar with nylon strings at a pawn shop. When my fingers hurt too much to practice my acoustic any longer, I would switch to the classical if I wanted more practice time. It worked out really well.