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Fingers

PostPosted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:52 pm
by Frank G T Robinson
Hi, Guitar players
I hope that this is not an inane question; If any of you play for, say several hours over a period of three days, do you get very sore fingers and what can be done about it (apart from stopping playing)?
A friend of mine rang tonight to ask me this question and I had no answer. Do any of you?
Thanks,
Frank

Re: Fingers

PostPosted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:09 pm
by Roger Pratt
Hi Frank...........All I can do is speak for myself in this regard. If I go for 2 or 3 days and don't play much then my fingers will be sore after playing for a long session, say an hour or so without a rest. Practice practice practice is the only cure I know.

Re: Fingers

PostPosted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:18 pm
by thenorm
Which fingers are you talking about and where is the soreness?

Usually the remedy is to play more as Roger says

Re: Fingers

PostPosted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:53 pm
by RandeDager
I've been playing regularly for so many years that the idea of finger soreness is a very distant childhood memory. I'd certainly have to go longer than a few days without playing for soreness to occur. Yes, the answer is to practice
so much for so long that you could almost light a match to your fingertips and barely feel it.

If you're talking about the soreness of the muscles themselves, that's a different situation but also requires practice
to condition them like any other muscle.

Practicing correctly also makes a big difference. Inefficient technique never improves through repetition.

Rande

Re: Fingers

PostPosted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:05 am
by Terry Tolley
When playing long sessions....for me more than 2 hours....I get to where I can't concentrate as well as I do when the gig first started. My posture degrades so that I am holding the instrument incorrectly, which puts arms and hands in a strain. Practice is the ONLY cure I know of to learn to maintain posture. I learned, after 45 years of looking, that there are no shortcuts. I'm sure everyone who has learned any fingerstyle guitar has the same story as I do. Barring someone who has an innate gift for fingerstyle guitar....practice is the key to perfection. Even the prodigies....and we all know of some....require practice to polish their performances. If anyone finds another answer...PLEASE write a book or make a video showing a way to AVOID these years of practice. I have Tommy Emmanuel's latest video, Chet's video, and Paul Yandell's video....and they all allude to practice....practice....practice.... Just try to do what they do without it and you can quickly see for yourself that most of this fingersyle stuff looks deceptively easy but is not so easy to duplicate. Fatigue is just one of those things you have to work at until you're able to play longer. Everything is hard at first, but after you practice it 3000 times....it gets a bit easier to do. This is why most of the songs I have fooled myself into thinking I can play only became easy for me after about 3 decades of work on them.

Re: Fingers

PostPosted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 7:29 pm
by Dale See
There is a product called Rock Tips that you can buy on the internet. It is not a solution for under-developed calusses, but it will get you through a gig when your fingers are sore.

Re: Fingers

PostPosted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 6:08 am
by Frank G T Robinson
Once again, many thanks to all of you who have answered my query; the site is a mine of information and very obliging guitarists.
All the best,
Frank