Help! This beginner’s fingers are sore!

[Jodi Ann Tolman]

My new harp teacher delivered a Troubadour harp today for me to rent! So today was my first day of getting hands-on experience and beginning to play simple tunes with just my second fingers. I didn’t play very long, but my index fingers are sore now! Is the best thing to just keep playing until I develop callouses? Are lots of shorter practice sessions better? What’s the best thing to do to get my fingers used to playing?

[carl-swanson]

You need to back off a little until you start to develop callouses. If you continue to play when your fingertips are hurting, you’ll get blisters, which are worse than sore fingers. For the moment, play in very short sessions several times a day. Don’t play for at least a half hour after your hands have been wet(washing them, washing dishes, showering, etc.) You should start seeing some improvement in a week or so.

[Gretchen Cover]

Jodi,

Congratulations on starting harp lessons!

[Jodi Ann Tolman]

Helpful tips. Thank you!

[kay-lister]

Jodi,

Just to add one more thing – make sure you are using the correct technique as well. Keep your hand/arm by the strings and let the pull of the string be with the fingers only. Don’t pull your arm back as if pulling the lawnmower cord! That could add to extra irritation on the fingers and possibly tear the skin as well.

CONGRATULATIONS on your learning to play the harp! YOU’RE GONNA L O V E it!!

Kay

[Jodi Ann Tolman]

Thanks so much! I’m already loving it! I’m trying to just go slowly and pay close attention to my technique so I don’t start bad habits. I’m really enjoying playing even my simple little beginner exercises–the problem is that I have to force myself to stop and not play too often or for too long so my fingers don’t get too sore! I wish I could keep playing longer!

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

You can alternate fingers. You can use the 3d finger in much the same way as the second. Increasing the oil helps support the skin, so use something lanolin based like bag balm, just wash clean before playing. Don’t apply a lot of pressure with the fingers yet when playing. Your skin will get used to this. But stop if it reddens, you don’t want to get a blister.

[Alison]

The plight of young soft hands has come to the fore lately with two pupils, one keen the other new, they seem to get very sore very quickly, so I guess I know the answer to this, is gut much harder on the fingers than nylon – it must be surely – but how do you get a ‘medium’ tensioned harp in nylon ?

[Author]

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