Can Guitar Strings Cut your Fingers? Play Without Finger Pain

Playing guitar perfectly is one of the coolest things a musician can think of. Being an easy instrument for jamming, recordings, and shows, the Guitar is one of the most demanding musical instruments ever created. Are you a beginner guitarist practicing for long hours daily? In such a case you might have felt the pain in your fingers many times while plucking or playing sliding riffs on your guitar.

While playing the guitar, the strings are used extensively, however, there is a very low possibility that the guitar strings can actually cut your fingers or injure them. Unless you are playing with heavy pressure, the wrong way, or plucking or sliding it without control, the possibility of cutting your fingers is low.

In this discussion, we shall cover all your queries regarding the same.

Table of Contents

Can Guitar Strings cut your fingers?

Most of the stringed instruments such as guitar and violin have various types of strings used for playing them. Some strings are thick and blunt while some are thin and sharp in nature. As a guitarist, you must always try to play with ease, control, and proper guitar holding and playing techniques.

The possibilities of cutting your fingers are quite rare, however, you might injure your hands and fingers in case you are dealing with these issues:

Improper guitar-playing postures, holding the guitar in the wrong position.
Sliding too quickly on the thin strings of the guitar.

Plucking the guitar strings hardly with your soft fingertips.
Leaving the loose ends of the 6 strings attached to the tuning pegs free without buckling or twisting them.

How To Play The Guitar Without Hurting The Fingers?

At musicdetailed.com, our seasoned guitar mentors have come up with the below guidelines to follow while playing or handling acoustic, electric or metal guitars to avoid any hand injuries while playing the guitar:

Hold your guitar in a perfect position to avoid injuries while picking and plucking the strings. Rest on your left or right thigh and angle it properly to have best hand positions.
It takes a while for finger tips to handle the plucking of strings in your guitar. Initially the fingertips will be soft and gradually with time as we practice, the fingertips will harden and the pain and pressure gets reduced due to string plucking or sliding.
Take special attention while sliding your fingers on the 5^th and 6^th strings of your guitar which are usually thin and sharp for most of the guitars.

Use a small piece of rubber to buckle up the loose ends of the 6 strings attached to the tuning pegs to avoid finger injuries at sharp ends.
Do not keep the loose ends of the guitar strings free, rather suspend them by tucking below the strings to avoid loose ends of your strings.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1) What are the best string options for my guitar to avoid injuries to my hands?

We recommend our viewers to use the high-quality nylon strings from reputed guitar companies such as Fender, Ibanez, Yamaha, and Marshall to name a few. If you are using local brands, be careful about the strength and sharpness of the strings while playing with your hands.

2) How many hours of daily practice can I have without hurting my hands?

It totally depends on your aspirations, performance level and dedication. As a beginner you must focus on 2-3 hours daily if you want to be a professional guitarist in 2 to 3 years down the line. More practice would mean more hand movements, plucking and hence you might have a chance of injuries with prolonged practice.

3) How can I take up guitar classes online to learn playing the guitar without injury to my hands and fingers?

We suggest you to take up our 90 day Guitar learning course where our guitar mentors provide you with good instrument handling sessions to avoid finger injuries. Your guitar learning will also be very effective due to our organized content and live classes available 24/7 round the clock based on your Timezone and availability.

4) Which are the guitar strings I need to be careful while plucking and sliding so that my fingers don’t get bruised or bleed?

You must pay special attention during plucking and sliding the 5^th and 6^th strings of acoustic guitars to avoid finger injuries. Play with ease and comfort initially so that you don’t have any issues.

Final Verdict and Conclusion

There is a very minimal chance of injuring or cutting your fingers while playing the guitar. By following all the instructions and tips provided in this article, guitarists can easily get rid of painful fingers and also avoid cutting fingers.

For further insightful reading please visit our GUITAR section for other articles on Guitar techniques, tabs, and much more.