Electric Guitar: Taking Care of Your Hands

Making sure that you do not damage your hands or fingers is of course extremely important if your goal is to become a professional electric guitar player. But in my opinion, you do not have to go to any great lengths to keep from using your hands.

Many years ago I read that certain electric guitairsts would refrain from certain activities to avoid hurting their hands, such as abstaining from opening doors or jars, never turning keys in locks, not typing letters or turning pages of books, not shaking hands with shovels, not squeezing sponges, not pushing away women with their fingertips when they tried to kiss them at gigs, etc.

Using your hands and fingers for a few activities such as typing or using keyboards may actually increase your guitar playing ability by building up certain muscles in your fingers.

My advice when it comes to taking care of your hands is to simply avoid do anything extremely dangerous, such as getting your hands too close to heavy machinery with many moving parts and revolving gears, or refraining from using hammers or smashing your fingers in any way. And not getting upset with your spouse or girlfriend and then slamming your fists into walls and breaking your knuckles (as I have done in the past), because remember that the walls and doors will always be victorious in the end. You will also have to keep your fingernails rather short on your fretting hand, and maybe the index finger and thumb of your picking hand (also your middle finger if you tap with it) also. Other than that, you should be fine.

Remember that if your fingers are all bent-up, gnarled, bruised, twisted and damaged, you will have trouble playing those sublime melodies and divine chord progressions you plan on sharing with the world. Although Django Reinhardt's fretting hand was badly burned when he was 18 years old (as I've read in numerous guitar magazines) and afterward he was forced to play using only his index and middle fingers of his fretting hand, he still went on to become one of the best jazz guitar players the world has ever known.

But chances are you do not possess the musical genius Django Reinhardt did and hence you will not fair as well in your guitar playing career. So remember to be sure and take proper care of your hands at all times. But who knows, maybe you are a musical genius on your way to attaining immortality with the electric guitar. I hope you are and that this article helps you greatly along the way.