Don’t struggle with your fingertips feeling like they’re on fire after playing the guitar?...
You can stop reading this now 🙂
This won’t help you (unless you want to read the article for fun.)
...But if you want an easy way to build up strength in those fingers keep reading…
One thing before we start… everyone who starts on the guitar experiences this.
The feeling of your fingers on fire after pressing down those little metal wires for minutes on end…
And for most they get told that the solution is this:
“Just practice more and that feeling will go away…”
Which is true...
But what if we could speed up the process?
There’s a little-known exercise that can help to remove that burning sensation faster. And it’s not by practicing more.
Imagine you’re a Roman going into battle. The only thing you have with you to protect yourself against the enemy is a shield.
In this scenario what would you rather?
A strong shield that will keep you protected? Or what I call an utterly pointless “rice crispy” shield. (You can imagine what that would be like.)
Of course we want the strong shield... right?
So how do you build "shields" for your fingers?
By building what's called "calluses." (If you don’t know what these are, it’s the hardening of the skin on the fingertips.)
When you build stronger calluses on your fingers it gives you a way to fight back against those evil strings.
You might be thinking - “Great! But how do you build calluses?”
I’m so happy you asked! Next time you’re at your guitar, try easy four-step process:
1- Place all four fingers on your string six (the closest to your face…)
2- Press down the strings like normal…
3- Slide your fingers up to fret 12… SLOWLY
4- Slide your fingers down to fret 1… SLOWLY
… then repeat steps three and four.
When you first try this you're going to notice that you can only do this exercise for a few seconds. The better you get you’ll be able to do it for longer.
I hope this little tip was useful for you?
Let me know in the comments!