Sometimes I think it would be nice to play the guitar, but I hesitate because ev

Question:.... it hurts my fingers so badly that I immediately decide the pain is not
worth it.

Is there something you can do about this.....I think it would be fun to play, because I like folksongs.... and because I have seen guitarists
playing for singers, and they sound really nice to my ear ...

thank you in advance....

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: .... it hurts my fingers so badly that I immediately decide the pain is not
worth it.

Is there something you can do about this.....I think it would be fun to play, because I like folksongs.... and because I have seen guitarists
playing for singers, and they sound really nice to my ear ...

thank you in advance....

Sore fingertips on your fretting hand are inevitable when you first start learning to play, unfortunately. You just have to put up with it and after a few weeks, your fingertips toughen up and develop callouses so it doesn't hurt anymore.

A couple of suggestions to lessen the pain:

I don't know what kind of guitar you have or where you got it but you might want to bring it to a guitar repair person and have the "action" looked at and maybe lowered. The "action" is the amount of space between the strings and the surface of the fingerboard -- higher action means you have to press harder to push the strings down further to note them, which just makes things more difficult than they have to be. Ideally, your action should be just high enough that the strings don't rattle and buzz against the frets when you strum or pick as loudly as you're likely to want to play (IOW, if you strum really hard all the time, you're going to need higher action than if you strum or pick quietly). Any higher than that, IMO, is too high. Any competent guitar repair person can adjust this for you.

Secondly, if you have a steel-string guitar, try putting light-gauge strings on it instead of medium. They'll be a little bit kinder to your tender fingertips.

Thirdly, instead of doing all your practicing for the day in one marathon hour-long (or 2 hour-long, or whatever) session, try breaking up your practicing into little 15-minute increments and take breaks in between to give your sore fingers a rest.

Hope this helps....

honey, it's called a pic! YOu strum with that, not your fingers.

use a plectrum, you use that instead of your fingers to pluck at the strings. i had this problem when i started to play me guitar and i used a plec now it works fine and no pain.

Unfortunatley its one of the hardships you have to put up with if you're gonna be any good. I've been playing for years now and may finger tips are quite hard and I feel no pain.

Like they say "No pain No Gain"

Just keep at the guitar if your getting pain in your fingers when playing chord shapes that'll soon dissappear when the skin on your fingers thickens
just keep playing

I presume you are talking about the pain in the fingers on your left hand, not your strumming hand. Well, I'm afraid it's something you have to put up with until the fingertips harden up. Practice for 20 minutes every day and in a month or so you'll develop hard pads on your fingertips and it will not be painful anymore. Keep at it and good luck.

unfortunately there is no easy way around the sore fingers of your chording hand. When an athlete grows muscles it causes some pain, the same with guitar. Part of the getting started process is the pain. Eventually, as many have already said, it goes away but only by staying with it will you see it though.

Good luck

Rachel-S has told you true things and deserves the 10 points for best answer here, but let me add one thing--

Depending on the style of music you want to play, trade in your steel-string acoustic for an electric or a nylon-string classical. Electrics use thin guage strings, and you know from prior answers that thinner guages yield less pain. Nylon strings are the least painful of all, but they won't get you no funky low-down bluesy ballsy sounds (then again, if you want to play flamenco, they're absolutely essential!).

Its not just me then, I felt like this too.
I had one guitar lesson, and struggled to get to the end.

I decided not to go back, guitar just sat there for months, eventually gave it away, and have recently bought a keyboard. Its much easier and I am not getting frustrated by it. Found playing the guitar very hard on the fingers.

Have you considered playing the keyboard?
You can still play songs, once you learn to read music, and get song books and you are not limited to one sound.