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Question:

what can I do when my fingers burn every after playing the guitar? it happens to me everytime even if I play?
...if I play everyday?

http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071224053354AAif18x

Which fingers, fretting or strumming? All of them, or just some? Electric or Acoustic? Where on the fingers?

Answer:

Not all guitars are created equal. If yours has a really large "action", the strings are further away from the frets and you have to push them harder, longer to make contact. Electrics require less hand trauma to play, as the amplifier does all the work, but the gear costs more. Nylon strings are very easy on the fingertips but only work for acoustics, of course. You could try the Elixer brand of strings. They cost more and are harder to find now that Guitar Center stopped carrying them, but Elixers last longer because the steel is coated with a plastic. They'll feel a little better on your fingers too. Make sure you aren't clipping your fingernails so short that you hurt the fingers, because those hard steel strings will find that spot. Are you fretting with the very tip of your fingers, not the sides? (Not with the index finger in a barre chord, of course, you've got to use the whole finger for that.) If some specific chords are giving you more pain than others, consider using another finger to help hold the string down on other frets behind the active fret. This will divide the string pushing work in half, if you have a finger that can help. Have you got calouses yet? Your skin will get thicker and harder on the fretting fingertips, and you can SEE it. But it takes a few days. And if you stop playing once you've got them, they'll separate from your fingertip. You can rip them off like a memo from a pad. As for strumming, you are using a pick, aren't you? I like to use large equilateral triangle shaped picks. Because they're easy to hang on to, you'll drop them a lot less. Because they're big, they need less force to grip them (less work for your fingers = less pain). They're also less likely to fall into your acoustic's sound hole if you do drop them.

Maybe the gauge of your strings is too small. You can ask for thicker strings. They won't alter the sounds you make much unless you switch to bass. . . . any "string selection vs. tone quality" concerns won't even begin to matter to you until far down the road, if they even exist. (When we're on the cover of TOTAL GUITAR, maybe.) And when you say "burn", maybe your guitar has been exposed to some harsh chemicals, either cleaners or bad finish? It's not splinters is it?

Have you been getting enough sleep and protien in your diet? The body only heals itself by growing new tissue when you snooze, with plenty of building blocks to do it with.

Finally, even if all these things are taken care of, playing much will still cause hand fatigue. But at some point you'll be having so much fun, you'll be playing for hours 'cause you can't stop and you won't give a damn about minor finger stress.

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