When I started playing 1 year ago my fingers hurt a lot and I tried to solve the problem by changing my 10-50 strings to 9-42 or 9-46, but what happened is that as my fretting wasnāt very accurate, the thinner strings kind of escaped under my fingers and caused that the notes I played were off pitch. I changed back to 10-50 strings and of course the finger pain is long gone.
I relate to this conundrum. I much prefer the feel of thicker strings under my fingers, but they are also harder to play, at least at this early stage of learning.
The thinner string felt like they would cut into my fingers (not literally, of course) and were less comfortable.
I have 11s on my electrics now and one of them is tuned down half a step. I need to do that to the other as well, they are just a little too much. I like the flat tuning and it makes the thicker strings easier to manage.
On my acoustic I have low tension (Straight up Strings) 12s. These are pretty good and I donāt want to tune down the acoustic. I tried regular 12s and low tension 13s but too much.
I would almost recommend a beginner to try a crossover nylon. That is super sweet under the fingers, but isnāt quite right for a lot of rock and metal rhythm playing. Since that is apparently not my bag (baby), it works for me, but I am afraid I will go soft Iām the fingertips!
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In short, the teacher saved me from giving up. I had been practicing consistently and getting nowhere fast. The teacher looked at what I could do, showed me that I could in fact, do more than I thought I could. I had real trouble with rhythms and chording at the same time. He set me some exercises to practice, gradually making them more and more complex. He got me to slow down the beats until I got chord changes better. The practice was boring, but challenging at the same time, but it produced results. Last lesson he threw me a couple of unfamiliar rhythms, and I picked them up straight away!! He then got me doing some hard chords (G and modern C), and started teaching me some Beatles songs primarily to practice rhythm and 4 chords that allow a wide range of songs to be played. I have also been set practice of arpeggios to program the muscle memory of my strumming hand for string picking. As a teacher he is great at analysing strengths and weaknesses - without him I honestly would have given up.
That is not to say Justinās course is not good, it is, I am a subscriber to the android version of his app. Online though cannot tell you how to fix a problem, you need someone to help you at the early stages. until you have enough knowledge to work out a problem yourself. Iām sure I will now zip through the online course, much, much faster than I otherwise would have on my own.
cheers
Gary
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Thanks for the update, Gary.
Nothing wrong with blending a face-face teacher with use of Justinās online lessons. Glad he helped you sort some things out and make progress.
Keep on keeping on and look forward to hearing your play in due course.
Thatās a really cheery update Gary - thanks for the insight and itās great you have a new found belief and commitment to keep going. 
Sounds like good news all round Gary. Thanks for sharing.
