Ch. 10: Stronger Fingers for Guitar Playing

Guitar playing is one of the most popular ways to personally play and enjoy music. The appeal of the guitar is mostly due to its presence in practically all popular and rock music recordings. Furthermore, it is an instrument that is very portable, versatile enough for many kinds of songs and occasions, and is more practical as an accompaniment to vocalists or other instruments.

Playing the guitar requires more than the requisite musical ability, dedication and practice. A guitar player’s fingers must be dexterous and agile to allow quick single string or chord changes in rhythm or solo musical performances. However, those fingers also need to be tough and strong to be able to press the strings enough during those quick changes to produce clean tones.

All beginners will remember the first time they played the guitar for an extended period. Our fingertips are originally soft at the very end, with thin skin protecting them. First, we feel pain after pressing down on the strings too much.

After continuing to play, blisters will develop on the fingertips of the hand playing the fretboard, specifically all fingers except for the thumb. If the aspiring musician hasn’t given up by then and continues to practice playing, the blisters will eventually dry up and leave calluses on the fingertips. These calluses will protect the fingertips from the pain of playing, for a little bit.

Eventually, the pain builds up again, until the calluses keep building up and you end up with the thick rough fingertips of a guitarist’s left (or fret) hand. And graduating to full chords, the entire 1st and 2nd fingers, which form bar chords across the strings, will also go through the process of pain, blisters and calluses. This process toughens up the guitarist’s fingertips, and makes it easy to press on the strings to produce the needed musical tone on the guitar.

The most effective way to strengthen the fingers and improve dexterity is to practice scales and chords on the guitar itself. Chords and scales will help the beginner become familiar with the different chord progressions and musical setup of the fretboard.

In other words, it will help the student master the instrument. Knowing and playing chords and scales will embed the musical secrets of the guitar to the player and make it simpler to read, learn and perform music, and to create or write your own music for the guitar. As an added bonus, all that practice will greatly improve the strength and agility of the fingers. With the dual advantage of musical training and strength and endurance improvement, a guitarist can develop the ability to perform several full pieces or songs in a long performance event.

However, there is a danger of over-training. Tendonitis is a common affliction of over-exercising and is widely prevalent in professional athletes and musicians alike. Tendonitis is caused by repetitive action of a limited set of muscles, causing inflammation and possible damage to tendons and joints. Because certain athletes and musicians tend to use a focused set of muscles in their activities, they share a certain propensity to this injury.

But this can be easily avoided. Many persons over-train when they choose to ignore pain during practice and instead continue to do their activity. This directly leads to tendonitis. For guitarists, once you feel pain on your wrist or the tender par of your hands, stop. You should incorporate 5-15 minutes of rest in between sets of scales or chord practices. Put the guitar down and shake your hand for a few seconds. If you are not tired but still feel pain, change the practice method: if you are doing scales, switch to slow strumming with full chords, instead. Changing the set of muscles you exert can help avoid injury and increase the strength of your fingers.

Finally, like an athlete, a guitarist should take care of his body with exercise. Following are two stretching exercises that will improve the flexibility and strength of your fingers:

Stand straight with your arms at your sides and hands facing forward. Stretch your fingers down and outward as far as you can and count to ten. Relax and rest for a few seconds and make three repetitions.
With the same posture, hold the four fingers of your left hand 9except the thumb) with your right and push them towards the back of the hand. Hold the stretch for ten seconds then relax, doing three repetitions.

Remember, strength and agility is achieved by practice, proper rest, and stretching exercises. Now play on!