How should I do slides on guitar without hurting my fingers?

Question

I've been playing guitar for two years but I still can't slide without really hurting my fingers, plus, the strings live shorter when I practice slides compared to when I don't do any slides. Like, am I doing it all wrong or does it always have to hurt that way?

Answer 1

Simplest solution is to make sure your guitar has a low action, with not much height between strings and fretboard, strings that are not too tight - as in their gauge isn't such that they need to be hard to press down, and they're not rusty or corroded.

You may be talking about sliding one or two frets - a lot of legato playing uses that - or sliding many frets up and down. When you enlighten us, there will be an edition to this.

Answer 2

I suspect that your problem starts with you squeezing your notes too hard. It is very common; when my son was getting started, he drove himself to tears with unnecessary finger pain.

Other programs that the death grip can cause is slowing your playing, because you have to reverse the pressure when you change chords or notes, and pulling the notes sharp.

Start by fretting a note and picking over and over, then releasing the pressure until the note becomes a thunk, then add the slightest bit more pressure. That is the amount you need. Once you fret with the minimal amount of pressure, then sliding that note should be easy and painless.