There are a lot of misconceptions about taking guitar lessons. One of the biggest is that you have to 'toughen" up your fingers and fight through the pain. In my opinion, this is totally untrue.
In this two part series, we'll explore four sources of guitar playing hand pain and provide solutions for stopping it.
Reason 1. The guitar is not set up properly and the action is too high.
Action is the distance between the fingerboard and the string. If your strings are high off of your fingerboard, then you have high action. Playing a guitar with high action requires you to press down much harder. The simplest fix is to either buy a guitar that has low action or have your action lowered by a technician. If you have said to yourself "my hand hurts when I play" or if your child has said "it hurts when I play," you need to check out the action first
Reason 2. Playing on steel strings instead of nylon.
This is a very common problem. Steel strings are hard on adult hands and especially tough on children's hands. A better choice for children, and some adults too, is nylon strings. These strings have the same texture as fishing line and the touch is very soft. It will not make marks on your fingers and it will reduce finger pain by almost 100%. If your guitar action is already low, check out whether you have nylon or steel guitar strings.
Tune in next month for part two with additional reasons (and solutions) for hand pain, so that we can get you on the right track! As always, be sure to consult your Champaign School of Music teacher with any questions about how to alleviate hand pain on any instrument.
