Questions from newbie guitarists

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When you buy Steve Krenz’s Learn And Master Guitar course, you will be given access to a special members-only website where you can post questions and discuss your progress. Steve will answer your questions personally, often the very same day, as will other students. So students find that they are not learning alone, but rather with a whole community. Students often post videos of their progress for feedback, offer each other encouragement and support, and freely discuss their successes and setbacks. I thought today we could get a look at a couple of questions and answers from the Learn And Master Guitar forum:

Q I’ve had my course for one week and I have been practicing. I find after doing the picking exercises my left hand is shot and I’m done for the day. I have a hard time moving into the chord exercises. I’m finding the chords are fustrating because I can’t keep my fingers from pressing down on more than 1 string.
A Starting the guitar from scratch has a lot of physical issues that come up in the very beginning. The good news is these don’t last long. Your fingertips which probably have gotten pretty sore over the past week will toughen up here in about another week or so. When you are playing and they start hurting, then take a break and rest. There is no advantage to “playing through the pain”. “Playing through the pain” may work well in basketball but it doesn’t work on guitar. When they hurt, then rest and come back to it later. Your hand and finger strength will steadily increase as you continue to work on it. Just be faithful at this point. I know now it is frustrating, painful, and your fingers feel like you don’t have much control over them. But it will start coming. Slowly you will start to see gradual improvement. I would encourage you to read from some of the great folks on the discussion board that have gone through the same frustration and pain that you are but conquered it and are now on to bigger things. Keep being faithful, keep steadily working on it and in a week or two you will see that you are in a different place musically with new challenges and that the earlier issues are not that much of a problem anymore. When first learning chords your fingers will hit adjacent strings, eventually you your fingers will start getting more accurate and they will find the “sweet spot” of just hitting the correct string. – Keep up the great work. Results are just around the corner. – Steve Krenz

Q Brand new to this instrument, and are my fingers sore! I read some of the posts especially about pinky curl and inability to play chords because of fingers hitting adjacent strings. I have both these challenges. After reading the posts, I realize I’m not alone, and feel better (except my fingers). Although I’m just starting I am very happy and excited that I purchased this course.
A Unfortunately “sore fingers” are part of learning guitar. The good news is that your fingertip soreness and tenderness will go away fairly quickly. When your fingertips gets sore just back off and rest awhile. Then come back to it a little later. You will find that you will gradually be able to play for longer periods of time as your fingers strengthen up. Guitar playing is a wonderful long road that you are beginning to walk on. It can be challenging, frustrating, but even more so rewarding and fulfilling. Learn to enjoy the journey of your learning process. Be patient with yourself. If you have any questions along the way, please let me know and I will try to help you out as best as I can. Also, the discussion board is filled with wonderful people from everywhere that are walking through the same struggles and joys that you are. Keep up the great work and keep in touch. Keep going. Your finger strength to press down the strings on the frets will increase in the next week. Your finger and hand endurance will steadily increase over the coming week or two. When your hand gets tired, just rest and then come back to it a little later. Little by little you will be able to play for longer periods of time as your fingers toughen up. Keep up the good work. It will pay off. – Steve Krenz
There’s a lot of learning in Learn And Master Guitar for someone looking to stop passively observing the guitar and get down to playing it.

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