Article: There'll be a point at which things will seem bleak: you can't quite get to each chord as fast as you want, your fingers are killing you, and it seems easier to put the thing back in its case. The reason most guitar players stop playing a few weeks in is that it hurts. After a couple of months and years of playing, callouses will build up on the fingers of your fretting hand that will greatly reduce the pain of pushing down the strings for long periods of time. Everyone who learns to play the guitar has to deal with sore fingers at the beginning. Learn to love the pain and associate it with everything that you love about music and the guitar. Ice your fingers after playing or soak them in some apple cider vinegar to alleviate some of the pain. Dipping your fingers in rubbing alcohol after playing can speed up callus build up. Just don't do it before you play. Guitarists have their own system of music notation called guitar tablature, or guitar tabs for short. The basic idea is to look at each line in the "staff" of the tab in the same way you look at your guitar. Each line corresponds to a string, and each number tells you which fret to hold down when plucking that string. For example, to play this tab-notated lick from the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Sweet Home Alabama," you would play two notes on the open D string, the B string at the third fret, the G string at the second fret, etc. E|-------------------------------------------------|| B|-------3---------3----------3--------------------|| G|---------2---------0--------0---------------2p0--|| D|-0-0------------------------0--0----0h2p0--------|| A|------------3-3-------------2---0p2-------0------|| E|-----------------------3-3--3--------------------|| Switching between lead-style licks and chords is exciting. You'll feel like you're really making music and not just "learning guitar." Make sure you've got your chord shapes down correctly and that you're not losing the rhythm entirely when you play a quick lick.
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Manage the finger pain. Learn how to read guitar tabs.