First day of playing guitar and i have blisters on my fingers?

Question

what can i do. it hurts when i press the strings really hard. Im playing my dads acoustic guitar, im getting an electric for my birthday prob. next week. i hope the electric is better. that acoustic is killing me, BIG neck, hard to press strings and barely any sound. i played viola for 6 years. i always got blisters but im getting tired of it. and i could really jam on viola, i played rock songs on it and it had my class mates wowed.

Answer 1

electric guitar is a thousand times easier on your fingers. so much pressure is taken off. you dont have to press down nearly as hard.. If it doesn't ease up you might want to try some anti-blister gel and just apply it to your fingertips. I play the violin  and guitar and i had to use the gel for a while.

It really works well.

good luck.

Answer 2

use a guitar pick.

Answer 3

First off, you are not supposed to press the strings really hard. You only need to push them to a certain amount where they can make the note. The electric is way better than the acoustic because of a thinner neck, and closer frets.  Playing viola can only help a little bit. You need thicker calluses to play guitar. In less than a month you should be able to play without any fingers hurting if you play for about 5 hours a day, especially since it is summer, you will have more free time. Don't worry about it, it's all about building up your calluses. Once you have them, you can play for hours. Finger strength is another issue however.

Hope this helped!

-Nakayama Akira

Answer 4

your fingers should form calluses over time. Any kind of covering or bandaging would decrease sensitivity and therefore dexterity.

Answer 5

if I'm not mistaken, actually the blisters are good in the long run because they will form to calluses. the calluses will make it easier to press the strings down. I had trouble because they wouldn't form for me...

Answer 6

You just have to play through the pain all beginners fingers hurt when starting out, the guitar is on of the most physically demanding instruments, eventually u will build up callouses on your fingertips and you'll be somewhat immune to the pain.

For beginners I would recommend if your into rock and what not, that u learn power chords and bar chords, and major minor chords. check out tabs sites like ultimate-guitar.com to learn some songs as well. then learn some easy scales, pentatonic scales are good for beginners.

Answer 7

I had a friend that used a small drop of super glue on each fingertip. It gave an artificial callus to help him through the initial learning phase.

Answer 8

bandaging it or covering it with a piece of cloth would be the best option.