“I’ve got blisters on my fingers…”

Allegedly Ringo Starr uttered these words as he tossed his drum sticks across the studio after numerous takes of the Beatles song “Helter Skelter”. Reportedly there is a dispute as to whether it was actually Ringo that said those words on the recording, or if it was John Lennon. One of the arguments is that Ringo, a drummer, was not as likely to develop blisters as Lennon, a guitar player.

If you are just starting out on guitar, maybe just beginning guitar lessons or even shopping for your first guitar - you are soon to discover the results of pressing flesh to metal…Ouch!

Hold on - don’t run off just yet! Things will get better, I promise.

When I was 16 years old I got my first guitar for Christmas. My life long dream had always been to play in a band. Just like Davey, Mike, Peter and Mickey of the Monkees. They were my heroes!

Upon opening that little Harmony acoustic starter guitar, I made a beeline to my bedroom, locked the door and informed my parents that I was not coming out until I could play guitar.

Several hours later I finally came out with two things. A really bad rendition of “Jingle Bells” and…blisters on my fingers! Un-deterred, I put band-aids on my finger tips and kept going. I was obsessed.

Blisters are an unexpected by-product of playing guitar in the early days and can be quite a shock for a new player. How can something that you are doing for the sheer pleasure of it cause so much pain? If, as you are reading this, you’re thinking that flute lessons don’t sound so bad after all, please take heart, it’s not really as bad as it sounds.

Have you ever had to rake leaves on a fall afternoon? (Who hasn’t?) If so, then you probably walked away with some blisters on your hands. It’s just the result of exposing the flesh to something that it is not used to.

If, however, you continued to go out and rake leaves every day for a few weeks, your hands would eventually become calloused and you wouldn’t even notice the rake in your hands anymore. Guitar playing is the same way.

If you are taking guitar lessons and putting in some practice time, even as little as thirty minutes a day, you will quickly see those blisters turn to calluses. After a while you won’t even notice the strings under your fingers like you used to and playing guitar will be a breeze.

The degree to which the calluses on your fingers will develop is largely determined by how often you play. When I was a full time touring road musician, gigging almost nightly, my calluses were rock hard. However, now that I play predominately just on weekends I find that, if I do not practice much throughout the week, a hard weekend of playing will leave my fingers feeling pretty sore on Monday morning.

If your goal is to just play guitar casually, which is fine, your calluses will build up and protect your finger tips enough for an occasional session of picking. If, however, you go from that regime to suddenly playing a daily basis, you will see new blisters on top of your old calluses but eventually new calluses will develop in response to your new playing schedule.

I once owned a music store and regrettably saw a number of beginning students give up guitar because of the initial blisters and soreness. It was unfortunate to see students with potential drop out in the early stages. As with many things in life, if you can get past the initial pain you are rewarded with years of pleasure.

Even though blisters are a fact of life in the beginning, there are a few things you can do to ease the pain a bit prior to starting guitar lessons or buying that first guitar.

Next we’ll take a look at a few of those…

One thing you can do is to change your strings to a lighter gauge. Guitar strings come in various thicknesses and if you have heavier strings on your guitar, just going down one or two sizes will make a big difference. Guitar string sizes are listed in thousandths (.000) of an inch and are referred to in terms of the thickness of the 1st string (high E string). For example: a set of strings that start on the first string with a .012 gauge string is referred to as 12’s (twelve’s). A set that starts with a .010 gauge string is referred to as a set of 10’s (tens).

Changing your strings from a set of 12’s to a set of 11’s will make a huge difference to your fingertips - moving to a set of 10’s, even more.        



Electric guitar strings are generally lighter than acoustic guitar strings and are considered to be easier on the fingertips. They are more flexible and typically do not have a wound 3rd string so they are less abrasive in the beginning. I have even seen students that put a set of electric guitar strings on their acoustic guitar in the early days until the calluses start to build up.


If you are a parent shopping for a guitar for your child one thing to consider is the neck size on the guitar. Guitar necks come in various sizes and a thinner neck will make it easier for the student to form chords and play scales in the beginning. It may be a good idea to take your child to the music store and have them fitted to the right size guitar neck prior to purchase. Depending on your child’s size, a ½ or ¾ size guitar may be the best bet when your child first starts taking guitar lessons.

Also keep in mind that an electric guitar typically has a thinner neck (as well as lighter strings), making it easier on the hands and finger tips in the beginning. If the electric guitar sound is what you are interested in then it would probably be best to go ahead and start out with one rather than an acoustic guitar.


After you have been playing for a while there will still be times when you experience periods of soreness in the finger tips when you play more frequently, or harder, than usual. This is typical and if you keep at it, your calluses will build up even more. I have even known players that put a dab of Super Glue on their finger tips before a gig to help prevent soreness. (Disclaimer: I do not endorse putting glue on your hands, I don’t own stock in Super Glue, nor have I ever tried using it!)

Even though I have been playing guitar for over 30 years there are weekends after heavy gigging that my fingers feel like “hamburger meat”. But it all comes with the territory - if you have to take the good with the bad, then I can testify that there is a whole lot more good than bad - and it is worth every minute of both.

At the end of the day it is important to remember that playing guitar is a vastly rewarding and fulfilling experience and like anything worth doing; it takes work and effort to get good at it. Part of that effort involves going through some finger soreness in the beginning - a little bit of Pressing Flesh to Metal…Ouch! - but you will find that, if are willing to tough it out and persevere in the early days, then later on the guitar will give you back so much more than you could have ever imagined…so press on!

Staff - TopMusicLessons.com