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Finger Strength


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Posted

Any ideas on how to get stronger fingers besides playing obviously? I'm having a hard time getting time in between work and college, anything I could do to keep up the calouses?

 

I was considering one of these for campus, but IDK if those would even work. Thoughts? Experience? Other types? No secrets besides playing?

Posted

Guitar playing doesn't require a great deal of hand strength. Most issues on the guitar are rather related to how the fingers are placed on the strings, rather than how hard they are pressed down. Barre chords require more strength than single notes, but even then, when the correct hand posture is used, a great deal of strength is not required, and definitely not as much strength as a Gripmaster would lend one to believe. For the most part, those products are snake-oil products for the 'quick fix' mentality. Playing the guitar can't really be replaced by anything other than playing the guitar.

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Posted

Guitar playing doesn't require a great deal of hand strength. Most issues on the guitar are rather related to how the fingers are placed on the strings, rather than how hard they are pressed down. Barre chords require more strength than single notes, but even then, when the correct hand posture is used, a great deal of strength is not required, and definitely not as much strength as a Gripmaster would lend one to believe. For the most part, those products are snake-oil products for the 'quick fix' mentality. Playing the guitar can't really be replaced by anything other than playing the guitar.

 

 

Yup - listen to this guy.

 

If you're exerting a great deal of strength when playing guitar then frankly, you are doing something wrong.

 

Regarding callouses on your finger tips, if you can't maintain them, then that's your bodies way of telling you that you're not playing guitar often enough to need them! Play guitar more and they'll develop.

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Posted

Yup - listen to this guy.


If you're exerting a great deal of strength when playing guitar then frankly, you are doing something wrong.


Regarding callouses on your finger tips, if you can't maintain them, then that's your bodies way of telling you that you're not playing guitar often enough to need them! Play guitar more and they'll develop.

 

 

Yeah. I think guitar playing is much more about leverage/angle than strength.

 

I would also suggest experimenting with different postures while practicing. The angle that your body approaches the guitar makes a huge difference.

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Posted
Do your exercises on an acoustic with thick gauge strings, your finger strength will increase and an electric will feel like playing on elastic bands
:)

I've found this to help for me too, especially with bends - after doing bends on my friends Les Paul with heavy gauge strings for a while, I can get considerably more lift on my Strat with light gauge. (Or that's what it seems like anyway - but it might just be the placebo effect...?)

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Posted

I like to think of it as finger agility. IMHO playing scales is the quickest route, paying close attention to approach/posture and technique for clean notes. Additional benefits are that it developes left/right hand coordination, ear and learning the fretboard. Years ago, played 1-2 hrs of scales a day on an acoustic and now continue to reap benefits of putting in that time.

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Posted

You know, it's been determined that the fingers don't have any muscle. The fingers are tied to muscles in the palm as well as the forearm.

 

So there really isn't such a things as "finger strength" but hand and forearm strength.

 

The lack of muscles in the fingers is one of the reasons they are capable of doing the intricate, agile, and precision things they do. Bulk slows you down.

 

So don't bother strengthening your fingers, cause you really can't.

 

This also kind blows the "muscle memory" thing out the window too.

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Posted

...definitely not as much strength as a Gripmaster would lend one to believe. For the most part, those products are snake-oil products for the 'quick fix' mentality...

 

 

Gripmaster is useful as a doorstop occasionally.

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Posted

You know, it's been determined that the fingers don't have any muscle. The fingers are tied to muscles in the palm as well as the forearm.


So there really isn't such a things as "finger strength" but hand and forearm strength.


The lack of muscles in the fingers is one of the reasons they are capable of doing the intricate, agile, and precision things they do. Bulk slows you down.


So don't bother strengthening your fingers, cause you really can't.


This also kind blows the "muscle memory" thing out the window too.

 

 

Not quite. Something has to remember what the fingers do. So its still muscle memory. Also the joints bones and cartilage have to be grooved so from a training standpoint, the idea of strength and force should not be shunned.

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Posted

I'll add that all of my light touch training goes right out the window when I'm playing a poorly setup guitar. I think a poorly setup guitar is the sole reason some young kids quit.

To the op:
Maybe your guitar needs a setup, and maybe you would be more likely to play if the guitar were setup and thus easier to play? just an idea. $30 at the mom and pop store should make every moment you spend with your guitar more enjoyable.

If keeping the callouses is what you are looking for then the gripmaster with the callous builder caps might help to keep around while in class.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ruff-Rider-Ruff-Grip-Callus-Builder-Caps?sku=423501

I understand not everyone has the same amount of time to practice. My friend says he LOVES to play his trumpet, but if you don't play every day, your llips get out of practice and then it takes a few days to warm up ... it's just not a pick-up-and-play once every few days sort of thing (at least thats how it works for him). If you don't have time to practice, the gripmaster callous builders (or something else to keep the callouses), might at least maintain those callouses so that next time you pick up to play you have an ENjOYABLE time playing instead of just plowing through the pain of near-bleeding fingers! :rawk:

btw: I was exactly the same way in college with no time to play - just play when you can and find the best way to enjoy the time you get.


Good Luck.

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Posted

I think that even fingers don't have muscles, certainly there is muscle memory and it is located in the brain, in a special section that deals with finger motion.

This is the brain section that we train when we learn to play any instrument.
And once properly trained, can work almost automatically, without too much thinking. The bad thing is that this memory erases itself if not used. So stop reading and play!!!! or at least play while you read.....:cop:

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Posted

The fingers are attach to the hand and arm muscles. When you refine your "fingering" you might use many muscles that might not get used when writing, typing, driving a cars, etc...due to the precision and finese.

 

So, while there might be muscles "woken up" just for playing guitar, if there's any muscle memory, it's not in your fingers.

 

This "woken up" thing is also a culprit of carpel tunnel and tendonitis. SO BE VERY CAREFUL to just pick something up that claimed to help you "strengthen your fingers" as they can cause harm to the REAL muscle that move your fingers.

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Posted

Yup guitar playing is about what goes on in the mind and how efficiently those motions are communicated to the fingers. It has nothing to do with muscle strength and everything to do with muscle control...

Put it this way, you can presumably hold on to a metal bar and suspend yourself above the ground using your 'grip strength'. Assuming you're an average weight that means your finger tendons and forearm muscles are strong enough to support 160lb or so with relative ease. If you can already do that why do you think you need to improve your grip strength to play guitar? The whole idea of a grip master is at best marketing bull{censored} and at worse a pretty good way of causing a repetive strain injury that'll actually make it more difficult to play guitar.

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Posted

Put it this way, you can presumably hold on to a metal bar and suspend yourself above the ground using your 'grip strength'. Assuming you're an average weight that means your finger tendons and forearm muscles are strong enough to support 160lb or so with relative ease. If you can already do that why do you think you need to improve your grip strength to play guitar? The whole idea of a grip master is at best marketing bull{censored} and at worse a pretty good way of causing a repetive strain injury that'll actually make it more difficult to play guitar.

 

 

Well stated.

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Posted

I'll add that all of my light touch training goes right out the window when I'm playing a poorly setup guitar. I think a poorly setup guitar is the sole reason some young kids quit.


To the op:

Maybe your guitar needs a setup, and maybe you would be more likely to play if the guitar were setup and thus easier to play? just an idea. $30 at the mom and pop store should make every moment you spend with your guitar more enjoyable.


 

 

A guitar with high action and/or thick strings doesn't require much finger strength either. And just because a guitar isn't set up so it's easy to play doesn't mean it's set up poorly.

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