Name me some famous guitar players with small hands.

[DaleH]

SRV

 

Opps!!! never mind.

[Poster Nutbag]

I've got smallish hands (I think), and it seems to come down to a difference in technique.

 

If you've got large hands you've got the reach to stay stationary and have a lot of notes at your disposal.

 

If you have shorter hands, you need to do more hoppin around, so accuracy on fretting hand movement up and down the board may be something to focus on to get around the lack of reach.

 

In the end, the difference in technique would also contribute to your own distinct tone and vibe. So really, it's not what you got, but how you use it. HA - I guess it's the good 'ol "size matters" argument.

[Doctor49]

 

My wife's hands are considerably larger.

 

 

my dad told me never date a girl with big hands.

[Nomomnom]

Danny Gatton and Lenny Breau.

 

I have small hands and I like your 27'' scale guitars.

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

My hands aren't that big, and my fingers are kinda small (not stubby, though) but I actually feel more comfortable on 25.5" scale guitars. I play lotsa barres too.

 

Just takes practice really.

[MadAudioMan]

I've never had problems with stretchs and such, but middle finger is about 4.2 inches long XD

 

Also, the rhythm guitarist from Testament has small hands, and hes pretty good.

[Goofball Jones]

Goofball Jones.

 

 

[blazingblake]

Hasn't anybody mentioned the late great Randy Rhoads?

[stratotak]

Shawn Lane had small hands..

[treedroppings]

I have small hands and I like those cs fender boat necks!

[bebenavole]

[Smokin' Joe]

I have small hands, and it sucks. Make me feel better by listing some famous guitar players who also have small hands.

 

Some guitars are made with smaller and thiner necks....something to think about.

[kherman]

Hasn't anybody mentioned the late great Randy Rhoads?

 

+1

That's who I was going to say.

 

[MikeCampbellCKY]

I don't know if mine are small or not. My middle finger is almost 5 inches my other two are almost 4 inches my pinky is two inches. Is that small? and my fingers are boney, not fat.

 

 

Example:

 

Are those long fingers??

[Kuroyume]

Average, Mike Campbell? My middle finger from knuckle to tip is 4", pinky just under 3". I play just about anything that I can get my 'hands' on - but there are some things that I avoid due to my hand size (some Hendrix stuff where he just wraps his hand around the neck a couple times). I had a Petrucci method book but the early stuff was already beyond my stretch without surgical alteration. His hands can't be that small.

[RaVenCAD]

 

EDIT: Doh! Shoulda read page 5 before posting Randy..

[Kuroyume]

No problem. Great guitar player who would have been legendary otherwise.

[Doctor49]

 

Having small hands would make mandolin playing easier I would think. But what do you do when you have thick sausage fingers that are short too?

 

 

play like Warren Haynes.

 

Seems to be good enough for Allman Bros and Govt Mule among many other gigs.

[Emory]

Glad someone mentioned Django.. I had a poster of Hendrix, and a strat. Put the strat up against the poster:same size (read: life size). Hendrix's fingers had a least an extra joint length on me. Spider fingers.

I think my small hands are the least of my shortcomings....

I guess ya gotta play the hand you're dealt, or don't play at all....

[SuproSuper Man]

I think hand size can be a problem when your trying to exactly copy the fingerings used by other guitarists....

 

for example even though he has years more experience Your never gonna see roy clark trying to play a song using the exact same fingering positions that paul gilbert would , it just aint possible, ,,but that dont mean that Roy clark and Paul gilbert would not both be able to jam together in a song and both be able to hold their own ground musically by each using their own way of fingering .....so even though we may struggle to play the way others do we can perhaps find a way to do it our own way...

 

It aint just size Its SHAPE too - me and my brother have hands about the same size when we place our hands up against each other , the difference that makes him able to play somethings better than me is when we start to bend our fingers or slightly close our hands like you do when one forms a chord, his fingers remain fairly straight while mine tend to curve inwards a bit which limits drastically my finger reach along the fret board...

 

he can do a blues shuffle off a A7 bar-chord very easily while because my pointing finger and pinky bend in wards slight i end up struggling to play that same shuffle because i really have to try hard to make my bent finger reach that note....so even though two people may have the same size hands its how the fingers form when the finger joints start to bend that also can effect how easily or hard something can be to play...

 

i tend to think that people with long straight fingers have it a bit easier on guitar, or are at a bit of an advantage over us with short or limited reach,,,But it just means that us folks with bent up pigs feet for fingers will just have to try a bit harder and be a touch more creative in how we approach playing the instrument ...

 

I once saw a documentary with the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin and he spoke about a petite lady who was a famous violin player, he said her playing technique was opposite to all the the other great players who had smooth flowing technique because she had small fingers,. he said her hand would be jerking and bouncing all about the neck yet still she manged to become one of the great female violinists...so in the end it was the music that mattered and not how she played it so long as the result was top notch sounding music...and from what i gather Yehudi Menuhin was saying her music definitely was top notch...wish i could remember who she was or her name..

 

.side note - check out your local library for the video series that Yehudi Menuhin made called "The Music of Man" its a great and fascinating journey through the origins, history and evolution of music right up to the modern age,,,:thu:

 

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

[Otis McGonigle]

my dad told me never date a girl with big hands.

 

That's right, I always prefer women with small hands. That way, when they grab onto it, it looks bigger. Just a little tip from Uncle Otis.

[Otis McGonigle]

Seriously, though, be glad you have four working fingers and don't worry about the size of your hands. That's like worrying about the size of your dick; you can't change it but if you know how to use it you'll probably get by.

 

I only have two fully functioning fingers on my fret hand-index and middle. I can use my pinky to some extent, but my ring finger is just there for looks. Industrial accident, I don't want to go into it again, but most of you have four working fingers so what do you have to worry about?

 

And yes, I know about the famous players like Iommi, Les Paul, and Django who also have/had disabilities. Like being dead.

 

Edit: I sorry if I come off as being snarky in this post, I'm not complaining, nor do I feel sorry for myself. I actually play better now then I did when I had all my fingers and I probably have a more distinctive sound. Also, a lot of this is meant tongue-in-cheek, it just doesn't come off as such when written down.

[Jkater]

Clint Armstrong. Great player with little short sausages as fingers.

[danhan1113]

Michael Romeo

[wrathfuldeity]

 

I studied this piece for my final examination when studying classical guitar. How old's that guy? Pretty cool if your hands are still flexible enough to do these acrobatics at that age!

 

 

Years ago used The Segovia Technique, BOBRI, Vladimir (1974) to help deal with my small hands and his scales study really helped in development of moving around the fret board. btw he died in 1987.