My short fingers, how to?

Hi, 

I have short fingers, and can't stretch far up to 4 frets per finger, sometimes my ring finger is replaced by the pinky finger to press the strings. 

If I see people playing the guitar with long fingers they only need to stretch their pinky fingers to reach the 4th fret, but me, I still have to slide my fingers to reach the strings I want.

Are there any suggestions for being able to stretch my fingers further?

Have a nice day,

Kris

Hey Kris,

Easy.... All you need is a finger strecher!😅

All jokes aside, I had a similar issue when I first started and thought my hands were too small.

Turned out it just took allot of practice and my pinkey and other fingers just need to learn to move in different ways. I fell like it took a couple years to fully get comftorable to the point I could strect a 4 fret spacing in the open position with out even thinking oabout it.

The only advice I can offer right now is practice, or like other issues I ran into in my playing, I had to find other ways to play certain things.

The fact the you say that your ring finger replaces your pinkey.... I assume that it is due to a comftorability thing (most players (me included) have this), in that you are not as used to using your pinkey, this is a practice thing.

If one way is not working, try another.

Hope thsi helps a little and I hope I did not miss understand the ussue you are having.

Justin

I hope you are doing well and have moved beyond this.  However, I wanted to give a little positive spin to the "small hands" issue. 

I thought I had small hands and arthritis etc etc etc until I watched a friend play some Jimmy Hendrix on her Martin 16" radius acoustic looping the thumb and everything  I struggle with.

I asked her to compare hands she is 5'9" I am 6' and with my palm up against hers envelopes her hands. My pinky alone is .75 inches longer and my index is 1 inch longer.

It's just the stretch I still can't play Hendrix but I can bar most chords from the 1st to 5th frets with the 6th string F major shape. Trust me I am 55 and not that good so ...

Wishing you good luck

Mark

Hi gaanglatihan,

That infamous pinky-stretch comes more easily to some than to others. While of course we could all probably work towards stretching and expanding the range of our reach, there are also just some anatonmical differences between one guy-or-gal's hand and another.

I too find the pinky-stretch challenging, even after all these decades of playing! Make sure and experiment not just with the stretch between the fingers, but also ask yourself if there are any minor adjustments to the angle of your left hand that help when you get into tricky spots. 

If it really drives you crazy, you can try a shorter-scale guitar, perhaps a 7/8 size. 

Best of luck to you! - Lisa