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To: BEJ

Thank you. The finger pain is often the main reason most people give up playing, and therefore needs to always be factored in. It’s much worse than people realize until they experience it for themself! Just keep the bandaid trimmed good so it doesn’t hit other strings if you can, and maybe even wrap a piece of tape around the nail area to keep it in place if needed, but it allowed me to play on many days I otherwise couldn’t have.

One other suggestion I would give is to not only learn the names of the chords as you describe, but also don’t be afraid to dive right in and go to learning the “tabs” of your favorite songs, right away. Some purists may try to talk you out of that, but I got so much better once I started doing the tabs that I quit my lessons and got more actual enjoyment out of playing than ever before. Here’s a good site that offers a lot of free ones, per Google. Good luck!

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com


19 posted on 03/28/2026 8:23:31 AM PDT by Golden Eagle (Principles, not partisanship)
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To: Golden Eagle

Actually, probably the biggest thing a “new” guitar player should do, but most don’t, especially if they bought a entry level guitar (which most do to start out), is go and take that guitar and get it set up PROPERLY.. not tuned, but properly set up, get the action set low and proper.. you will still hav e finger pain, but not remotely as bad as trying to play a $150-$250 guitar with the insanely high action they come from the factory with.

If there was one thing I could go back in time and done that I didn’t when I first started playing guitar it would be that. I spent six months playing with the guitar as it came from the factory, and I stuck it out, but man did I make my first 6 months far harder than it needed to be.


25 posted on 03/28/2026 8:32:32 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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