What do you guys do when your figures get sore from practicing too much?

Also, does anyone else have problems getting to sleep at night because they can't stop imagining playing scales? Its driving me to delirium!

-EMF

EMF,

Just take a break for a day or so.   Ya gotta build them calluses up slowly..   If ya over do it and blister yourself up,  you wont be playing for at least a week or more...

As far as dreaming about scales?   I dont have that problem, so I dont know what to suggest on that subject.

Jim

lol thats funny =P

when i was learning to sweep i used to dream about it because i was spending a lot of my time after school learning it because i thought it was mint at the time.

still think it's mint but for the fun factor rather than the OMG factor xD

...two "old timer" suggestions:

1) TOUGHEN your finger tips by soaking them daily in hydrogen-peroxide solution.

2) PROTECT your finger tips by painting on that new "liquid" bandaid stuff, make about 3-4 layers thick.

Oh cool, that's something new for me. Thanks, I'll try that.

Old Tele man wrote:

...two "old timer" suggestions:

1) TOUGHEN your finger tips by soaking them daily in hydrogen-peroxide solution.

2) PROTECT your finger tips by painting on that new "liquid" bandaid stuff, make about 3-4 layers thick.

Ive done both of those. Dried Super Glue (the gel kind) on the finger tips works too but flakes off after a while.

I never did get a blister, but had chunks of skin come off from time to time.

After a while calluses build up and it doesn't hurt any more. calluses stop coming off too

Hello EMF, well at first I'd have to stop practicing 'cause it hurt so bad...actually made my fingertips bleed...sure was proud of that though...you know, shades of John Lennon echoing in my head.

After a year or so with the acoustic, I found out the action was way high, so you could check into that...take it to your guitar shop and have it measured and checked for playability...could help...I know it did once my acoustic was set right...made it about twice as easy...maybe more...to fret chords and I noticed my poor fingertips din't bleed anymore, even after 6 to 8 hour practices.

One other thing that was a turning point for me and my fingertips was one day when I was in one of my music stores and I overheard a very good guitarist saying that he din't have wrecked fingertips because he'd learned over his many years playing not to try to kill the neck.

Thinking to myself at that time, 'whoa, I'm guilty of that.'...so next practice I started concentrating on not pressing so dang hard and guess what...yep...callouses started going away some and now my fingertips aren't so ratty looking. Though I do admit freely here and now that I thought it was very cool for a long time to be able to show them off to other guitarists. No wonder that was met with a simple smile at times !

Cheers,

GuitarZen

Ah well over the time that this thread has been up, I think my fingers have calloused up pretty well.

I'm pretty sure the action on my guitar is fine. Its just that playing consecutively for so many hours can start to hurt your fingertips no matter what guitar you play on.

Thanks again for the input!

ha ha! yeah i know what you mean about dreaming about scales, just the other night right when i was about to fall asleep an idea for the harmonic minor scale popped into my head and i jumped out of bed and grabbed my guitar

A little late on replying but there's something I've learned about callousing. It's story time!

A long time ago in high school I started playing bass. My mentality was that if your fingers don't hurt you'll never get good and calloused. So I would play until I could see blisters several layers of skin down. It felt like my fingers were about to break open and bleed; but I kept playing. In time the callouses came.

I later started playing guitar. My fingers didn't take long to get used to the smaller strings. This was in California when metal was losing speed and Hardcore was big (in Cali anyway). When Hardcore "evolved" into Emo I put the guitar down and didn't touch it for a good ten years probably.

A few years back I decided to pick it back up. This time I played only 15-20 minutes a day to start. If my fingers started to get sore I put the guitar down until later or the next day. On occasion I would skip a day because my fingers were sore. I had read a few times that this was a more effective way to go until your fingers got used to the strings.

Here's the lesson I learned. The callouses actually took longer to develop when I was killing my fingers. It's the strangest thing but I guess it's one of the amazing things about the human body. As GuitarZen pointed out the callouses this time around aren't as ragged looking as before either.

Anyway, that's the story. Hopefully my ramblings will end up being useful to someone out there.

Lots of good suggestions in this thread, nice to know. My advice would be to do what everyone else has said but also, once you get your callouses keep playing the guitar even if it's only for 15-20 minutes each day. That will keep your fingers tough and you won't have to go through the pain of getting them back. [I have learned this lesson the hard way too many times to count!]

This is prolly repetitive as regards guitar playing and callouses, but I was in my fav music store and some old timers were talking about that very thing. One guy said his callouses got thnner and softer once he learned how to press strings properly.

Needless to say, I was all ears because at the time I was of the 'shredded and bleeding' fingertips school. This player...(and was he ever...he picked up an acoustic later on and tore off some blue grass fingerstyle that was as good as you'll hear)...went on to say things about guitar setup and pressing strings to the fretboard without trying to kill them. Also that day in the music store I learned that pressing much harder than necessary to sound a note can cause the note to go sharp. Food for thought.

Cheers,

GuitarZen

one da, i was walking down the hall with my guitar. just start messing around, press down a string (not very hard), and it came out so clear, that i didn't think i played that note. then i relized, i'd practiced the guitar long enough that i don't have to press down as hard as i used to, 'cause my fingers had gotten stronger. that, and i can now stick sewing needles into my finger tips and scare the pants off my little sis...

rub on bed sheet until they harden up then put vasilline on them youll see

again guitar zen is right. here is my input on that. i got a motorcyclye five years ago. how does that relate? well when i first got it i would ride for hours when i would stop my arms would hurt from holding onto the handelbars white knuckle tight. why because i was not compfortable holding on loosely for fear of letting go. after a few years of riding my grip loosend and some blood was then getting to my hands. now i can ride without feeling as though my hands are dead. p.s all guitar players should have a motorcycle. Why? no reason they are just fun and inspiring. lol