short, fat bratwurst fingers

[bluecollarman]

(apologies to Bongo Boy for stealing his description of his fingers)!

I fall into the same catagory, short fingers which are not quite as lean and mean as they were when I was young and lean.

What additional challenges are there for aspiring guitarists with "short" fingers?

[nickwellings]

BTW: I think Shawn Lane has really sutbby fingers.

I think.
Meaning the challenge is mental.

Unless you need to stretch.

[EricV]

A few things come to mind...

Nick said that he thinks that Shawn Lane has stubby fingers. I dunno whether that is true. If it is, it makes Shawns playing even more amazing, cuz he can play amazing stuff, involving really wide stretches at about light speed. Paul Gilbert once was aksed about Shawn, and he played these insane licks, involving wide stretches with the left hand plus tapped notes from the right... and then Paul said "Of course, Shawn does all that with only ONE hand"...
Thinking about that, someone once said ( sorry I don´t remember who it was ) that he saw a classical player with very small hands / short fingers, who still was able to play the note C on every string... at the same time...

And someone else once said that it is even good to have short or stubby fingers, cuz it kinda limits you. You don´t even attempt stuff that people with long fingers do... and therefore there´s less of a risk of hurting yourself trying to attempt the 12 fret stretch...

I dunno whether it´s really a true limitation... I think it depends on where ya wanna go, how much you practise etc. I think you can compensate small hands, stubby fingers etc.
Eric

[bluecollarman]

Thanks, Eric. Appreciate the advice.

[Bongo Boy]

Originally posted by EricV
I dunno whether it´s really a true limitation... I think it depends on where ya wanna go, how much you practise etc. I think you can compensate small hands, stubby fingers etc.
Eric

...plus, always remember: it's not how big they are, but how you use them

[fortisimo]

when i sterted playing guitar, my first teacher wrote
me a differant fingerings than what i use today.
they were not orgenized by 3 notes per string,
it was orginized by what closer, so naturally they
were easyer. they were 50 years old fingerings
that jazz musicians used. so you might want to consider
using them. they're harder to build speed over.
but if your fingers are becomming a problem
it might be usefull. play till you drop!!!!

[RandyJ]

Please have you ever seen Michael Romeo's(Symphony X)hands!They're short and chubby but this guy can dance all over the fretboard!Believe me short fingers are not an issue for guitar playing!

[Rizla]

Let me tell you something, I have LONG fingers, but they're not fat, they're thin-ish, like steve vais fingers. They're quite weak really, and my span is USELESS. I can't put my first finger comfortably on the first fret, and then put my 4 behind the fret on the 6th fret, and I've seen guys going beyond that with smaller fingers than me. I should be able to stretch like stretch armstrong with my fingers, but no...

[jade_bodhi]

when i sterted playing guitar, my first teacher wrote
me a differant fingerings than what i use today.
they were not orgenized by 3 notes per string,
it was orginized by what closer, so naturally they
were easyer. they were 50 years old fingerings
that jazz musicians used.

My teacher is teaching me what he calls "short chords," three-note voicings, that require playing only three strings and muting the rest. These are favored by jazz guitarists because they are movable and therefore versatile across many tunes. I particulary miss the full sound of a five- or six-string resonance on some tunes, especially folky stuff. And muting is another technique to master, but the muted sound is good for comping a tune.

[warlock]

A few things come to mind...


Thinking about that, someone once said ( sorry I don´t remember who it was ) that he saw a classical player with very small hands / short fingers, who still was able to play the note C on every string... at the same time...


Eric

heh, i just came accross this.....I know it's and old thread but it was in a similar thread thing at the bottom of a page..........anyway....wouldn't you need six fingers to do that? I mean to play C on every string at the same time.......?

[forgottenking2]

Not if you tune all your strings to C

[warlock]

Heh, that would mean "no fingers" then

[forgottenking2]

Not if you play them on the 12th fret

[warlock]

You got me there.......

[forgottenking2]

ha ha I wonder how this guy really did it though. I am betting it wasn't standard tunning.