Well this week I took the plunge and bought myself an electro accoustic guitar with the intention of learning a few chords and demonstrate a few new songs to our ageing presbeterian congregation.

However, I can only play for about 5 minutes before my left hand fingers feel like they will bleed. I didnt think I'd suffer from this again after I started the fiddle 15 years ago I have tried painting my fingers with my sisters nail polish to try hardening them up.

So.....How can I speed up the process of hardening the skin on the tips of my fingers?

Play through it, it's character building.



I've got lovely callouses from playing fiddle and I also used to play guitar and after a week two didn't suffer with my fingers.

I've heard of people rubbing surgical spirit (don't let it get onto the varnish of your instrument) on their finger tips to toughen up the skin but I'm not sure if it actually helps.

I end up having to smooth my fingertips with an emery board to stop the callouses getting too rough.
Soon I'll have no fingerprints and then it's a life of crime for me.

Surgical spirit can help, but too much use might cause more problems.

Only advice I can give you is, don't stop! Obviously if you're in a lot of pain, do, but continuing to play regularly will increase the amount of skin on the fingertips.

hi malone i tried and failed to learn guitar my dad told me to soak my fingers in vinegear to hardner them i found if i played every day for two weeks they were ok but if i let it slip and forgot i was back to sore paws again i very very rarely pick up hubbys guitar these days

good luck with it you should find a piece of music that involves all the instruments that you play and record each part

how many instruments do you play now? i am now the proud owner of a wood block, tamorine,bouree drum a hunting horn ( was my grannys) a keyboard, a funny gord flute recorders bamboo flutes 2 fifes and a penny whistle

i spoke to my friends mum who has a violin in her waredrobe which i can try if i want to ( which i do hubby is dead set against the idea at the mo) so i will buy him ears plugs first

Far to many, but of course, flute is my main instrument which I practice for at least 2 hours a day followed closely by clarinet and piano. I still have weekly lessons for piano and am doing grade 6 in the spring
I play bassoon in two orchestras, thats the only thing I do with my bassoon at the moment and practice for about 1/2 hr on a monday before uni orchestra and maybe 10 minutes every other day. I play my fiddle at sessions which are mainly during the summer when I have my evenings (and following mornings!) free. Cello has really taken a back seat since I had to learn the bassoon more seriously! I have a trumpet lesson every friday from a freind who is doing a teaching diploma and needed a pupil to teach and do a case study on, so I get free lessons from him, but I hardly ever practice and he is a very dull, uninspiring teacher! Thats the majority of the instruments covered. I did grade 8 recorder when I was about 17 and have hardly touched it since But I have a recorder pupil starting after the october holidays who needs help getting through advanced higher so I'll have to brush up my technique in the next week or so before she starts.


My advice about the fiddle - Get a mute, just a normal torute mute and use that to begin with. It sounds less scratchy and ear peircing! I think I now own 4 fiddles because people just find them and give them to me as I am considered a good home!

I used to have this problem when returning to harp, even though I had played violin for many years.

Best solution I found was "little and often". Too long at a time can cause enough pain to actually make you just stop, whereas little and often may ache but will gradually build up the callouses.

I don't think I ever got callouses even when playing bowed strings regularly that I got from harp strings. No idea why it's so different they will be enough to protect you eventually though!!

Where are your 'sessions' Malone? I'd love to go along and listen because I don't know any regular sessions in Aberdeenshire. Maybe I could learn by osmosis and eventually join in when I'm able to remember tunes How did the audition for the Uni orchestra go?

When I started viola it was dead painful too, but after a week or tow, it dulled away nicely. So, as the others have said, it'll be a quick process that you can 'speed' up a bit by following the 'little and often' rulw - just like with most learning things.

On a related note, what's the best treatment for blisters? I've got a huge one on my thumb. While I didn't get it playing the harp (it's actually from too vigorous a game of Fight Night on the Xbox) it is in a place that makes it very painful to practise. Should I pop it and try and harden the skin with witch hazel or something? What do you think?

Are you in Aberdeenshire? There used to be some in a bar up near queens cross on Albyn place in Aberdeen called No.12, my freind worked there and she is a really good fiddle player but she has now moved over to skye. - Thats where the real ones are! Edinbane on Skye, and we had a couple on Isle of Raasay. Then there are heaps in August round the time of all the games. Go to Portree if you want real traditional! The people you meet are really bizarre!
Another place to go is the Blue Lamp on the Gallowgate in Aberdeen where there are sessions most mondays - they start at about 10pm and go on til early hours and the drinks just appear!!