How to Stop Your Fingers from Hurting When Playing Guitar

Guitar playing is a fun hobby that is accessible to everyone. Used guitars are inexpensive, and you can teach yourself to play by playing online videos. As you start to play, you will notice that your fingers hurt. This pain is from the pressure you place on the guitar strings as you make chords.

The best way to stop your fingers from hurting when you play the guitar is to play for short amounts of time and take frequent breaks until calluses form. These calluses are natural finger protectors that stop the pain.

You can take steps to minimize the pain as the calluses are forming and speed up callus formation. If you would like to learn more about stopping finger pain, as well as other guitar injuries, keep reading. We will give you practical steps you can take to stop your finger pain.

Why Your Fingers Hurt

Playing the guitar requires using your hand and fingers to produce music on the instrument. The different moves you make, from making chords to picking the strings, can make your fingers hurt. This condition is known as “guitar finger” and is common among new guitar players. As you practice and play more, you will begin to develop calluses that will blunt some of the pain.

Guitar Strings Hurt Fingertips

When you are creating chords on your guitar, you press down on the strings on the neck of the guitar. Depending on where you press down on the strings, you produce different notes that will make up the music. Guitar strings are very thin, made from metal and vinyl, and can be quite sharp for new players.

When you begin learning the guitar, you will spend hours learning notes and chords. The repetitive practice causes blunt force trauma on the soft tissue of your fingers. This damage to your fingertips is what hurts. Constant playing wears away the outer layer of skin, exposing more sensitive skin underneath.

Remember To Take Frequent Breaks

Many new players are enthusiastic about learning and are tempted to play through the pain. Remember, pain is often a way that your body is saying that it needs a break to rest and recover. Continuing to play on exposed finger tissue can cause long-term damage. You could even lose sensation in your fingertips completely.

In the very beginning, you should limit your playing to 10-15 minutes at a time. This will let you build up your guitar skills without overdoing it. Taking breaks from practicing gives your body a chance to heal. The new skin that grows in will be tougher, and eventually, you will develop calluses that let you play pain-free for longer.

Calluses Blunt the Pain

When you are in pain, it might seem like you will never get past it. This is true for the development of finger calluses. However, calluses form relatively quickly, protecting you from pain while you play. You can have fully formed calluses in about two to four weeks. How quickly calluses form depends on a number of factors:

How often you play: If you only pick up the guitar every few days, it will take longer for the calluses to form than if you played every day. Rest is good to protect your fingers from damage, but too much can slow down callus development.

What type of strings your guitar has: Guitars generally have nylon or steel strings. Nylon strings are softer on the fingertips than steel ones. If you play a guitar with nylon strings, it will take longer to develop calluses.

If your fingertips are already tough before you begin to play: If you have another hobby or job that has toughened up your hands and fingertips, your calluses will form faster.

The type of guitar you have: Classical guitars have nylon strings. Electric and acoustic guitars have steel strings, but electric guitars have lighter gauge strings that are easier on the fingertips.

What techniques you use: If you fingerpick the strings or strum with your fingers rather than use a pick, your calluses will grow faster. Chords that are more complex will also help with their growth.

You Can Help Speed Up Callus Growth

If it’s taking longer than you would like for your calluses to form, there are a few things you can do to speed it up.

- Practice more often for shorter periods: Remember, in the beginning, you should only practice for 10-15 minutes at a time. If you practice every day for a short amount of time, your fingertips will be tougher, and you can extend your practice time. Don’t forget to rest, though, and let your fingers recover.

Play with a steel-stringed guitar: Since steel strings are tougher on fingertips than nylon, playing on one will help calluses form more quickly. These strings are more painful, however, so you need to decide if that’s worth it.

Desensitize your fingertips even when you’re not playing: There are less damaging ways than playing to desensitize your fingertips. Use the thin edge of a credit card or similar object to press down on the fleshy part of your fingertip to get it used to the feeling of the string. This is also a good practice if you cannot play for a few days.

- Dry out your fingertips with rubbing alcohol: Use a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol to dry out your fingers and encourage faster callus growth.

Use Thick-Gauge Strings: Thicker strings will rub against your fingertips, rather than cutting them the way thin ones might. This rubbing helps calluses develop faster.

How To Minimize Finger Pain

While you are waiting for your calluses to be fully formed, there are a number of other steps that can minimize the pain and let you practice.

Use the Right Guitar Strings

If you bought a guitar with thin steel strings, you might think that you have no other option but to keep playing with it. However, you can replace your strings with some that are easier on the fingers as you wait for your calluses to build up.

Old and corroded guitar strings can damage your fingertips faster than new ones. There is no clear timeline for replacing guitar strings. However, the more often you play, the more frequently you will need to replace them. As strings age, the tone changes. If you don’t like the new tone or how the strings feel when you play, you should put in new ones.

Keep your guitar strings clean to make them more comfortable to play. When you play, dirt and grime build up in the strings, affecting the tone. You can minimize this by washing your hands before you play, but to clean the strings, use a microfiber cloth and run it along each string, top to bottom. Don’t slide too fast, or you might miss a lot of the dirt.

Take a Break

We keep stressing the importance of taking frequent breaks when you are learning to play the guitar because they really are one of the best ways to prevent your fingertips from hurting. Start playing 10-15 minutes three times a day. As your calluses form, you will be able to extend that playing time.

Think of building calluses like building muscle. You wouldn’t go into a gym for the first time and work out for hours expecting to be able to do it again the next day. Your fingertips need to repair themselves, just as muscle does after weightlifting.

Trim Your Nails

Longer nails make it harder to build calluses. They also make it hard to produce a good sound when playing. You want your fingers to press down on the strings when you are forming a chord. This is harder when you have long nails. Long nails can also make it so that your nails absorb the pressure when you press down, which can strain your fingers.

Don’t Play With Wet Hands

It is important that your hands are completely dry when you play the guitar. Even if your hands are dry, your fingertips are saturated with water if you have just gotten out of the shower or swimming pool. Wet hands mean that your fingers are softer than usual and more prone to irritation and pain. Wait until your hands are dry and not wrinkly before you play.

Use Low Action Height

On stringed instruments like guitars, the action is the distance between the fretboard and the stings. If the action is too high, you need to press hard on the strings to reach the fretboard and make a chord. This puts more pressure on your fingertips and makes it harder to switch between chords as you play.

A lower action height reduces the amount of pressure you need to put on the strings. Adjust the action if it is too high. Make sure your guitar is tuned, and the neck is straight before you make any adjustments.

Measure the action: The action height is measured at the 12th fret. Use a ruler to measure the distance between the bottom of the string and the top of the fret. Use a ruler that measures from the edge to get an accurate reading.

Determine what the ideal height should be: Each guitar type has a different ideal action height.

Electric guitars should be 4/46” (1.6 mm) on the high E string and 6/64” (2.4 mm) on the low E string.

Acoustic guitars should be 5/64 (2 mm) on the high and 7/64 (2.8 mm) on the low.

Adjust the bridge: Depending on which kind of guitar you have, you adjust the action height with the bridge on the body of the guitar. Consult your guitar’s owner’s manual for the best method for adjusting the action height.

Once you’ve made the action height lower, you should find that it is much easier to press on the strings and make a pleasant sound.

Don’t Press Down Too Hard

When the action height is correct, you shouldn’t need to press down too hard on the strings. New players tend to press down too hard until they get a better feel for the instrument. Ideally, you only need to press hard enough on the string for it to make contact with the fret. In addition to hurting your fingertips, pressing too hard can lead to tendonitis.

Don’t Pick at Your Newly Formed Calluses

You’ve worked hard to develop those calluses. You don’t want to ruin your hard work by picking at them. It is tempting to pick at them absent-mindedly, especially when they are soft after a shower, but leaving them alone will allow them to grow bigger and tougher and make it less painful to play.

How To Treat Guitar Fingers

Even if you take all of the precautions listed above, you will still develop guitar fingers as you wait for your calluses to form, even if it is less painful than it could have been. There are ways to treat your fingertips and relieve the pain.

Soak your fingers in apple cider vinegar: Soak for 30 seconds before and after playing. Using apple cider vinegar as a finger soak has two benefits:

The first is that it helps to relieve pain from playing.

The second benefit is the drying effect similar to rubbing alcohol. It will help your calluses develop quicker.

Ice your fingertips: Rubbing an ice cube before and after you play the guitar will both numb your fingertips while you are playing and relieve the pain that you have when you finish. Just remember to only use the ice for a short time and avoid letting the water soak into your skin.

Use topical anesthetic products: There are varieties of topical anesthetic products you can use to numb your fingers before you play. These include toothache creams and other numbing ointments.

Liquid bandage can protect cuts: If your guitar strings do cut through the skin, it can be extremely painful to play. Many players rely on liquid bandages to protect the cut from further damage while allowing the player to continue practicing.

Take a pain reliever: If your fingers are sore from practicing chords, take an over-the-counter pain reliever, like ibuprofen, to minimize the pain.

There are Remedies You Should Avoid

Not all treatments for guitar fingers are recommended. Most of the ones we will discuss are ways to protect your fingertips when you play, but they can have the side effect of limiting callus development, which means it will take longer to play without pain.

Superglue: Established guitarists will use super glue to seal cut fingers when they have no other options. It creates a barrier that acts as a false callus. However, this false callus prevents the friction on the finger that will develop the real callus. Let your calluses form naturally, and your fingers will stop hurting.

Sandpaper: Since the strings rubbing on your fingertips develops calluses, the idea behind using sandpaper is to toughen up your fingers. In reality, though, the sandpaper wears away the surface of your fingertip – and any calluses that might be growing. This counterproductive remedy should be avoided.

Finger Caps: Finger caps are protectors that go over the fingertip to minimize pain. While there is nothing inherently wrong with using finger caps, they will extend the period of time it takes to develop calluses, the natural finger protector.

It is tempting to find ways to avoid pain, but if you follow our earlier tips, you will be able to learn and practice in a way that will reduce guitar fingers while building protective calluses.

Other Injuries from Guitar Playing

While sore fingers are the most common injury that new guitar players develop, other conditions can develop if you are not careful. These include:

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: This condition is caused by pressure on the median nerve in the wrist and leads to numbness and discomfort in your thumb, ring, middle, and index fingers. It can also move up the arm and cause reduced arm grip.

Tennis Elbow: Tennis elbow develops with overuse of the muscles in the elbow that straighten your wrist. This commonly happens when you press too hard on the fretboard. Tennis elbow makes it hard to lift or bend your arm and grip an object.

Tendonitis: This is an inflammation of the tendons. For guitar players, it most commonly occurs in the wrist. The pain is a dull ache caused by muscle tightness.

Cubital Tunnel Syndrome: Caused by pressure in the ulnar nerve, cubital tunnel syndrome makes your ring and little finger numb, especially when you bend your elbow.

Most of the conditions develop from overuse. It is important to stretch before and after a long session and take frequent breaks. If you are feeling numbness or pain, physical therapy might help.

Finger Pain is Normal

Sore fingers are part of the process when you are learning to play the guitar. Persevere and follow our tips, and you will develop calluses. Soon you will be playing without pain and be able to practice and grow as a guitarist.