Two Finger Guitar Playing
Fingers Bruise Easily From Playing Guitar For Beginners
Fingers Bruise Easily From Playing Guitar Chords
Bruises Guitar Tutorial

Subject:

Stretch before you play. So basic, so simple, yet so few do it. Stretching can be a great practice to.
Playing guitar is a favorite pastime for many, but the finger pain associated with playing often turns people off. In order to play the guitar, you must press your fingertips along the strings which are often made of metal. The constant pressure from the guitar strings causes pain and often bleeding or blisters.
Playing the guitar seems fun and easy until people experience the pain and frustration that plague all beginners. Just like any physical activity, this can tiring and excruciating. The fingers can get particularly sore because they are at work all the time.

RE: Are bruised fingertips common?

Not sure if that's a bruise, probably just dirt from your guitar fretboard and/or strings. Clean the strings with a tissue and do the same for the fretboard Other than that - use hot water to help.

From:bbelle
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 10:58 AM
I went through a period of my fingertips being red and swollen and very painful, but not visibly bruised. I kept practicing but for short periods of time. It takes a while for good calluses to build up. The other problem I had was blisters on my picking fingers ... I learned to pick with different fingers during that time to ease the blisters.

I belong to the Flatpick L list and there have been a myriad of discussions on calluses and what to do when your callus peels off and you gotta play. Most pickers subscribe to the super glue method.

Here are a couple of suggestions which I copied out of my email.

'Some time ago I remember the list discussing what to do about skin cracks on the ends of fingers. Note that there is an article on page A1 of The Wall Street Journal today about dermatologists who recommend using Krazy Glue for small paper cuts. This may be of help for calluses that crack. The article also mentions Dermabond, a cement approved by the FDA for use on skin that is more flexible. I assume a doctore could prescribe this, but not Krazy Glue.'

'For me the use of isopropyl alcohol daily on the fingertips will build stronger calluses over time that won't crack. Although the super-glue trick is a good short term fix, nothing beats tough, leathery calluses. Also using a cottonball with the alcohol on the fingertips will clean out the dirt/rust from playing, allowing for a faster recovery. At the Kamp I was wiping down my fingertips 3-4 times a day, it definitely helped.'

I'm going to try the isopropyl alcohol method, myself. I've now got pretty good calluses, but they need to be better if I'm going to play for hours on end.

Good luck ...

moonchild

Learning fingerstyle guitar is difficult – That’s why we’ve assembled these 10 awesome guitar fingerpicking patterns to supercharge your playing!

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In this free lesson you will learn…

10 guitar fingerpicking patterns
What syncopation is & why it’s important
How to fingerpick using all five fingers
Four-finger fingerpicking patterns
A new way to approach guitar playing!

Learn To Pick With These Guitar Fingerpicking Patterns!

Welcome to your complete guitar tutorial for guitar fingerpicking patterns!

Whether you are new to the guitar, new to fingerpicking, or bored with the guitar fingerpicking patterns you know, today you’re going to take your playing to a new level.

Strumming the guitar with a pick is powerful and fun, and you can get a lot of sound out of the instrument with a pick.

Using guitar fingerpicking patterns gives you a very different result with a little more dynamic range and warmth.
This lesson is going to help you to broaden the range of sounds you can make with the chords you know and love.

Put down your pick and get ready to put a lot more variety into the way you play!

Guitar Fingerpicking Patterns For Absolute Beginners

One of the main purposes of fingerpicking is to accentuate the guitar’s ability to sound like more than one instrument.

With fingerpicking, you can make your guitar into both a rhythm and lead instrument.

You can make it sound like several guitars, or even like a guitar and bass.
In most guitar fingerpicking patterns, your thumb has the job of the bass.
It is in charge of the root of the chord, or the lowest note, and keeps the rhythm steady.
Your other fingers, whether it’s just two others or all four, are in charge of ornamentation – emphasizing certain notes, and making things sound interesting and pretty.

Guitar Fingerpicking Patterns: The Chords

Two Finger Guitar Playing

You can practice the following patterns over any progression you choose, but we’re going to use the same four-chord progression for all of today’s patterns.

This way, you can compare how things sound with the different patterns over the same chords, and you can begin to invent your own fingerpicking rhythms.

It’s necessary and helpful to practice the chord changes beforehand so you don’t have to think too much about your fretting hand while concentrating on your picking hand.

The changes for today’s lesson are from Simon & Garfunkel’s “59th Street Bridge Song,” although it’s a pretty common progression with a nice descending bass line.

C (x32010)

(If you don't understand the above image please read our article 'How To Read Guitar Chordboxes In 60 Seconds'. It will make everything clear!)

G/B ( x20033)

Am7 (x02010)

G (320003)

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Guitar Fingerpicking Patterns 1: Basic Three Fingers

For this pattern, your thumb is assigned to the A and low E strings.

Your first (index) finger is assigned to the G string, and your second (middle) finger is assigned to the B string.

Try it first with just the C chord.

Pick the A string with your thumb, the G string with your first finger, and the B string with your second finger.
With the G/B chord and the Am7 chord, your thumb will still be picking the A string.
Your first and second fingers also stay on the same strings.
The only difference with the G chord is that your thumb will switch strings, picking the low E string.

Here is your first fingerpicking pattern.

Guitar Fingerpicking Patterns 2: Three-Finger Arpeggio

Whenever you’re playing a chord one note at a time instead of strumming the whole thing at once, you’re playing an arpeggio.

All of the guitar fingerpicking patterns shown here use arpeggios.

This variation on the basic three-finger pattern uses the same thumb pattern and changes only what the other two fingers do.

If your thumb is doing its job (playing the root or bass note and holding down the rhythm), you can begin to use your other fingers more creatively.

In other words, the thumb is mandatory and the other fingers are optional.

Try this pattern:

Repetition is key for learning all of these guitar fingerpicking patterns.

Just as we had to repeat chord shapes over and over before our fretting fingers learned to make the shapes, we have to play these sequences over and over to teach our picking fingers the sequences.

Pro-Tip: The more relaxed your picking hand is, the easier it will be to sustain a nice even picking pattern. If you catch your picking hand turning into a tense and uncomfortable claw, take a break and shake it out!

Four-Finger Guitar Fingerpicking Patterns

If you’ve got the basic three-finger guitar fingerpicking patterns down, let’s add the ring finger into the mix.

Your third (ring) finger is going to be assigned to the high E string. All other string a

Fingers Bruise Easily From Playing Guitar