Question #2

Any hints on how to break-in the fingers on my left hand? I am in major pain after about 20 minutes of practice. Someone suggested switching to flat wound strings?

Answer

Are you talking about pain in the tips of your fingers or in your hand and arms? If you are talking about the tips of your fingers, the best thing is to develop calluses on the entire surface of your fingers( all 4 ). After you are finished playing for the day, irritate the entire surface of your fingers by pressing down on the strings with different parts of your finger. Sometime when your are just playing normally you will develop a callus on only one part of the tip of your finger. There for when you are playing and do not hit the callused part of your finger it is painful. Not to say that irritating the entire surface of the tips of your fingers will not be painful at first .... but it will help your playing since pressing down on a hard surface ( the callus ) takes less pressure that a soft surface. Not pressing as hard my help prevent other pain and or injury.

I would not suggest flat wound strings unless you have a hollow body electric, and are playing traditional jazz. The sound and feel is not appropriate for other styles of music.

Also see the lesson based on this question

Playing Guitar is a Pain in the …Part 1

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