Call me crazy for posting twice within an hour, but it's taken that long for this lesson to come to fruit. After just a week of not playing, my fingers are already starting to throb from my first practice session. I can feel my calluses thickening, the skin feeling like it's stretching across my finger tips.
When you start practicing a lot, or when you haven't played in a while, you'll find that your fingers are going to be massively sore. You'll start getting these thick calluses, and you'll have to keep your nails short. The next thing that might happen (though I haven't heard of this happening to anyone else I know)-- you might find that your fingers are anomalously sensitive to heat. I remember the first time I happened take something out of the microwave after playing, and I nearly dropped it, it felt like my fingertips were on fire. The same thing happened to me in a hot shower.
And speaking of showers: don't pick up your guitar after you've taken one. Showering after you play isn't as big a deal; it might soften your calluses, but it won't wreck your fingers. Playing immediately after showering will. I of course learned this the hard way, when my friend warned me about an hour into my guitar-playing. I had been feeling great, my fingers weren't hurting at all since I had showered. When I was through, I realized the string had ripped a couple of layers into the shower-soften skin on my finger tips. Needless to say that hasn't happened since. Save yourself the pain. Please don't try it.
-Kal
No comments:
Post a Comment