Small hands making playing impossible???

Hello!

I am a small female with VERY SMALL HANDS (like, the size of my 10 year old daughter's hands). I have a 3/4 size Jay Turser acoustic guitar that has a nice low action and have been practicing for about 10 weeks. In that time it has become very apparent to me that my hand size is a huge issue. :confused:

I thought I would start by learning the major chords but so far I can only manage A, C, and D. B and F seem impossible. Even if I manage to stretch my fingers to the correct strings, they are way to stretched to even think about attempting to play. I know that it takes time, and I know that fingers get used to things but how can I improve if I cant even reach to play basic chords? Getting another guitar is not an option right now, and I have gotten discouraged to the point of rarely playing. I also have a palm pilot with a chord program on it that shows 4 different ways to play chords.......and this hasnt even helped.

I would really appreciate any advice, and no ukelele jokes!!! :D

Shannon

Yeah, this is how everybody feels at the beginning. You'll be fine, it just takes practice. Eventually your hands will get used to the stretching. Don't hurt yourself trying too hard, though, if your hands start to hurt badly, stop playing and rest for a bit.

Or you could just try ukelele ;) :D

Originally Posted by: weeshanHello!

I am a small female with VERY SMALL HANDS (like, the size of my 10 year old daughter's hands). I have a 3/4 size Jay Turser acoustic guitar that has a nice low action and have been practicing for about 10 weeks. In that time it has become very apparent to me that my hand size is a huge issue. :confused:

I thought I would start by learning the major chords but so far I can only manage A, C, and D. B and F seem impossible. Even if I manage to stretch my fingers to the correct strings, they are way to stretched to even think about attempting to play. I know that it takes time, and I know that fingers get used to things but how can I improve if I cant even reach to play basic chords? Getting another guitar is not an option right now, and I have gotten discouraged to the point of rarely playing. I also have a palm pilot with a chord program on it that shows 4 different ways to play chords.......and this hasnt even helped.

I would really appreciate any advice, and no ukelele jokes!!! :D

Shannon

totally normal. just keep practicing. p.s. angus young of ac/dc is like 5 feet tall and does not possess big hands, i believe he did practice alot though ;)

I've been playing for almost a year and I still stretch my hands. If your hands start hurting just take a break. Shake'em a little and stretch'em. Get back to playin....................

If you take a look at your guitar fretboard, you will see that the frets are smaller from fret 8 and up.
So, I always recomend doing your: warm up, streaching, and speed exercises on those frets, and then work your way down, were the frets are bigger.

Originally Posted by: equatorIf you take a look at your guitar fretboard, you will see that the frets are smaller from fret 8 and up.
So, I always recomend doing your: warm up, streaching, and speed exercises on those frets, and then work your way down, were the frets are bigger.

Now there's a good idea :) The string tension is lower higher up the neck as well, so your fingers have less distance to cover, and less pressure is required to fret the note.

Also, if I was going to guess, you might benefit from arching your hand more around the fretboard - pushing your wrist forward - thumb in middle of back of neck etc etc....

It will still hurt though... it's what makes it fun! :eek:

Thanks for all the advice. Guess I thought it was once again a "smallness" issue and not just something that everyone goes through. Now that I know I will just keep pluggin away at it and try to vent my frustrations towards playing more instead of less.