Consistency

The key to good, measured improvement is consistency. Ideally, if you are a beginner, you will want to shoot for 30 min a day… EVERY day. You don’t have to do this all at once, three 10 min sessions are a good start, followed by two 15 min sessions as your callouses develop, eventually building up to 30 min at a time. As you improve, and your callouses develop, you will want to progress to 45 min, then an hour. If you’re really into it, and want to see what you’re really capable of, you can “deep dive” and start playing multiple hours per day. If you work up to multiple hours a day you will watch your ability explode; progress becomes exponential at this level.

Building Callouses

There are some obstacles to overcome when you first begin: your fingertips will get sore! Until you have developed descent callouses, your fingertips will be very sensitive and will become sore. This is perfectly normal. Try to push until they are too tender to push the strings down, then let your fingertips rest for a couple of days. Your fingers will develop callouses very quickly working this way. Continue with this process until you can reach the full 30 minute of playing every day. If you do this consistently, your finger tips will no longer get sore after about two to three weeks of playing.