When you are just starting out with guitar, what do you think is fundamentally more important to focus on? 

The physical aspects of guitar, or the mental?

If you said physical, we’re on the same page.

The mental side of things comes naturally, right, especially when you’re just starting out?

You want to learn how to play, and you’ve formed this mental image of yourself jamming out with friends or playing in front of a huge stadium of adoring fans.

Or maybe you prefer more intimate scenarios like serenading your special someone, or working out your song ideas in private.

Point is, you’ve already had the thoughts and dreams - that was painless.

Right now, the next step is figuring out how to turn those thoughts into something tangible, namely your fingers producing the sounds you only hear in your head now. 

And do this with minimum frustration...

The first steps are pretty easy. This usually involves using one finger at a time, on one string at a time.

I like to take a simple melody and teach it to my students.

It’s pretty exciting to be able to say you learned how to play a song in your very first guitar lesson, yes?

But to keep that excitement going, I’ve got to up the game and get my students playing chords pretty quickly. 

Otherwise, those little melodies are going to get pretty boring - fast!

The problem is, to play chords, there has to be a level of hand strength, and it can get very frustrating for a student who’s hands aren’t quite up to the task yet.

Not only are your fingertips taking a beating from the strings, but the muscles in your hands can get tired from clamping down on the guitar neck, trying to make the notes nice and clear. 

Here’s the ugly truth. The only way to get past this is to work through it. 

You have to commit to spending a few minutes every day practicing your lessons and putting your hands through exercises that will toughen up your fingertips and strengthen your hand muscles. 

But every day you do the work, the less discomfort you’ll feel in the muscles and fingers and the more you’ll be able to do.

It’s no different than going to the gym. The first day of workouts leaves you tired and sore. 

The next day, most people aren’t excited to go back and repeat the process that made them so uncomfortable, but going back is the only way to beat that discomfort.

The pain is an inconvenience, but the mental discipline to pick that guitar up and practice your lessons will quickly reward you with some good-sounding tones.

Que the hand and finger exercises.

There are a handful (pun intended ;-)) of stretches you can use to limber your hands and fingers up before and after playing. You can do them at the beginning of your practice session to warm up your muscles, which should help to minimize cramping in your fretting hand.

Nobody likes cramps… Nobody!

Learning guitar makes your hands do things they aren’t used to doing - pressing your soft fingertips onto steel wires that leave red dents… pinching and squeezing the guitar neck to try and force a clean tone from the guitar… That’s why they get sore. 

Heck, even the way we have to position our hands and arms to hold the guitar takes some getting used to. Your forearms may even get sore.

I put together a short ebook of stretching exercises you can use to help strengthen your playing. I’ve shared this before, but it’s worth putting out there for you again (I know how things get lost on a computer!).

Here it is again:

There’s a lot more we can do to condition your hands for guitar playing, and I’ll be back with more ideas for you next time. Talk soon...

Peace~

Dave