Question on callouses

Tailgate

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 22, 2012
Messages
453
Reaction score
0
Location
Texas
Ok, fingertips sore after 4 weeks.. building some callouses. I have no problem continuing to practice, but is it better to let the fingers rest a couple of days or keep going?
I would think that keeping up the practice sessions would build the callouses faster and the soreness would eventually (when?) subside, but certainly don't want to get blisters or screw up the process.
.. kinda of a stupid question, but I'm really fretting about this :rolleyes:
 
Unless it's really painful, just keep going. You're unlikely to get blisters. The callouses will come. How long? After 4 weeks they should have begun already, but it depends on how long you practice for. They should be there soon.
 
:agree: when i first started i could barely put my uke down, so i was stuck between playing my beloved even though it killed, or letting my poor fingers heal. NEedless to say the temptation of a ukulele sat next to you is impossible to resist. the more you play the quicker they'll form, regardless of how much it hurts but trust me, its worth it!

Sam
 
regardless of how much it hurts but trust me, its worth it!

notsureifserious.jpg
 
Play through the pain. If you are like most folks here, the pain in secondary to playing. The longer you practice, the faster the calouses will form and the pain will subside. Mine took a good 6-8 months of playing for hours daily. That's a little radical for most people, but I have the time to practice so I do. I am now 16 months in and the calouses are there and the pain is not. Good luck.
 
Pain on finger tips - no big deal, play through it. If you play a lot you will eventually kill the nerves in the tips of your fingers and then even when your callouses are gone (from not playing for a long time) picking the instrument up again won't be painful. Actually, that may only happen with higher-tension steel instruments like guitars and mandolins. In any case, my finger tips are pretty much impervious to pain even though the hard exterior callouses from playing guitar frequently are gone.

Now, sharp stabbing pains up the fingers, wrist, or arm - those you don't play through. Those you figure out what's wrong with your technique because otherwise you might well be doing permanent damage to the old bod.

JOhn
 
Trim those calluses up.
My wife has a bunch of abrasive stones to fix up her feet when they develop calluses but I found one of her stainless steel boards that is EDM etched like a fingernail file that works great to knock down the callus build up on my fingers. You could use 180 grit sandpaper I bet, to try.
Real guitar players have to deal with this all the time. Every few weeks, spend 5 minutes dressing your finger pads to smooth them out and your problem will go away. Then, keep practicing.
Stay away from them cayuses. They'll hurt you if you let them.
 
Trim those calluses up.
My wife has a bunch of abrasive stones to fix up her feet when they develop calluses but I found one of her stainless steel boards that is EDM etched like a fingernail file that works great to knock down the callus build up on my fingers. You could use 180 grit sandpaper I bet, to try.
Real guitar players have to deal with this all the time. Every few weeks, spend 5 minutes dressing your finger pads to smooth them out and your problem will go away. Then, keep practicing.
Stay away from them cayuses. They'll hurt you if you let them.
I don't know about grinding them down, but I'll smooth them out with the same crystal file I use on my nails because they do tend to get a bit rough.

I'm sure I'm not the only person here (female, at least) that has snagged or ruined a pair of pantyhose trying to put them on because of rough callouses. ;)
 
Take the pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
i think i got away with it. i know i'll end up getting more blisters and scars in years to come, but for the past year i've been grinding away learning to play bass guitar, and through playing 'breed' by nirvana in our band, ripped my fingers apart. sliding from the second to fifth fret on the E string of a bass has given me some gnarly scars and callous. so i'm safe. or so i hope.
 
The way I see it: callouses are for steel strings, uke strings shouldn't hurt. You shouldn't need to press hard to fret notes at all. If you do then either the action is too high or the string tension is too high (some brands have more tension than others, especially for tenor ukes). Getting the right angle (~90 degrees) with your fingers also helps not having to press too hard. Keep your nails short and think light rubber-stamp. If it's the strumming hand that hurts, growing a tiny weeny bit of nails should solve it. You don't need to strum/pick as hard on a uke as you do on a guitar or banjo.

I don't have callouses and I've been playing ukes every day for the past year and a half or so. My first uke - a cheap but lovely Mahalo - used to hurt when I first got it because I had to press very hard, but then I put better strings on and got the action lowered, and suddenly playing it became a total breeze. I get all my ukes set up this way (apart from my Kiwaya because it didn't need it), and I've never had any pain playing ukes since that first week with the Mahalo.

Just my two cents...
 
Last edited:
I'm sure I'm not the only person here (female, at least) that has snagged or ruined a pair of pantyhose trying to put them on because of rough callouses. ;)

If only I had a dollar for every pair of pantyhose I've ruined. I could by all the ukes I want. LOL....Somebody had to say it.
 
The way I see it: callouses are for steel strings, uke strings shouldn't hurt. You shouldn't need to press hard to fret notes at all. If you do then either the action is too high or the string tension is too high (some brands have more tension than others, especially for tenor ukes). Getting the right angle (~90 degrees) with your fingers also helps not having to press too hard. Keep your nails short and think light rubber-stamp. If it's the strumming hand that hurts, growing a tiny weeny bit of nails should solve it. You don't need to strum/pick as hard on a uke as you do on a guitar or banjo.

I don't have callouses and I've been playing ukes every day for the past year and a half or so. My first uke - a cheap but lovely Mahalo - used to hurt when I first got it because I had to press very hard, but then I put better strings on and got the action lowered, and suddenly playing it became a total breeze. I get all my ukes set up this way (apart from my Kiwaya because it didn't need it), and I've never had any pain playing ukes since that first week with the Mahalo.

Just my two cents...

I agree. I don't have any callouses from playing uke. The tips did get a little sore occasionally, but they didn't callous. When I started to learn guitar, this was confirmed. Ouch!
 
Top Bottom