Advice for when your fingers hurt playing guitar

So one of my most popular videos on youtube is titled “Fingers hurt playing guitar? try this!” Where I show an exercises to make sure
you’re pressing down the correct amount (not too hard) and that you press in the right place on the fretboard.

But, it’s true that when you first play the guitar, or come back to playing after time away, it hurts the tips of your fingers

Truth is, this happens more if you’re playing open chords.

Your fingers are down sometimes for an entire song or all the time your practicing, which means that you’re always hitting the same position on your
fingers and always pressing down 3 or 4 fingers when your playing guitar.

This does not have to be the case.

Here’s my 3 tips

1 - alternate playing chord based songs with single note lines.

If your fingers really hurt, start with my minor pentatonic series where half the time, your don’t even have any fingers down!

After this, learn some melodies using the C major scale, which in many ways is the foundation of all western music

2 -learn to play chords with 1 finger

This is covered at level 3 of my beginners course

1 finger E and A chord is usually a classic rock or blues technique, but can be used anytime! Especially if your finger tips are hurting

3- Vary the chords that you use. If you just change between E and A in one practice session, your first finger is going to hurt because it
never lifts off. However, there are so many other things that need work, even at level 1 of my course, including strumming in time, reading chord sheets, and
playing along to the recordings of the songs you are learning.

Here's another video on this topic that you may find helpful.

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