Short Fingers?

If your index finger can barre across the fretboard, you can play almost any type of chords and solos.

If that fretboard is of a classical, then you can most certainly play anything on guitar.

So, finger length is less of a constraint. What those guys you see in videos have done is a LOT OF PRACTICE.

Go do some and you will be playing like them.

And believe me, you will find some people complaining that their fingers are too long to put all their fingers together while fretting a chord. The world has all species.

You're not doomed at all; you might need to make some adjustments to your fretting hand position, and you might want to shop around for a guitar with a more comfortable neck.

Also work on techniques that will allow you to develop a broader reach; read this thread for some tips from Noteboat:
http://forums.guitarnoise.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12937&hilit=fingers+spread

Here's a vid of a guy with really short fingers; look how he positions his wrist so that he gets a better reach, and how the neck is angled up as many classical guitar players do.
http://www.marcelcoenen.com/instruction/chldhfac.rm

I don't have that problem because my fingers are long, but I see my little cousin play guitar so well and he's just ten years old...

His fingers are shorter than me but he can play guitar anyway :wink:

You just have to find how to work with your short fingers and be comfortable while you're playing. Good luck !

Definitely "finger envy". :D

If your index finger can barre across the fretboard, you can play almost any type of chords and solos.

Actually, I can't. Not on the first fret. I can barely on the second on my LP Studio. That is, it will reach, but on the first fret, no matter how hard I try, I can't sound all the strings.

I think I'm hosed.

I've seen guys with hands so fat I was surprised they could fret one string without also accidently fretting the adjacent strings. But somehow they managed it just fine. My hands are long and sleder, and I figured this would prevent me bendingnotes well, but it turns out I can do that just fine with gauge 10 strings on a strat or an LP. I might even move up to 11's this year, but there are plenty of people who use .9's or even.8's.

Django managed to keep playing after severaly burning his hand. And either Joe Pass or Joe Diorio (can't remember which one) had a brain aneurism or something similarly major after becoming a pro, the result being that he lost the ability to play guitar. Still, he managed to re-teach himself and carried on with his career.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you can pretty much do anything, provided you have the right frame of mind to achieve it.

And don't forget, neck sizes and shapes differ. There are hand positions I can do comfortably on my strat, that I can't do on my classical.

The good lord has truely blessed me!

I have a very big hand yet slender fingers, the perfect setup for guitar ... IMHO 8)

If your index finger can barre across the fretboard, you can play almost any type of chords and solos.

Actually, I can't. Not on the first fret. I can barely on the second on my LP Studio. That is, it will reach, but on the first fret, no matter how hard I try, I can't sound all the strings.

I think I'm hosed.

Barring the 1st fret is difficult. Don't automatically assume you can't play. Ignore it in fact.
Only in the NBA of guitar playing will this make a difference.

Muriel Anderson says she has small hands. So what!!!!
Muriel still won the fingerpicking championship and plays great fingerstyle music.

When you can play what Muriel can then you can start blaming your shortcomings on small hands :-)

(I use her for an example because I'm working on 3 of her easier arrangements. I'll be working on them for a LONG time :-)

Thanks guys and gals.

I'll keep trying. It may be, too, that the action is too high on both of my guitars. I'm going to have my acoustic set-up soon; it's a cheapie, but properly set up it could be a lot easier to play. After that comes the LP Studio (it's already damn good, but it couldn't hurt).

Love this place. :D

A setup goes a long way in making a guitar play well. Even a cheap one.

If your index finger can barre across the fretboard, you can play almost any type of chords and solos.

Actually, I can't. Not on the first fret. I can barely on the second on my LP Studio. That is, it will reach, but on the first fret, no matter how hard I try, I can't sound all the strings.

I think I'm hosed.

Barring the 1st fret is difficult. Don't automatically assume you can't play. Ignore it in fact.
Only in the NBA of guitar playing will this make a difference.

Don't give up! I have short AND fat fingers, stumbled across bar chords and could not get the first fret clean. I went further down the neck and tried the other postions successfully for about 15 minutes. When I went back to the first fret I found I could do it, I just wasn't applying enough pressure. Shift around until you find the position that will work, my index finger nail was almost perpendicular to the fretboard but practice is helping build strength for a more "conventional" position. A setup is my next purchase and hopefully will help even more; I should have had it done sooner but I kept reading about tube amps, so you can guess what happened next :lol: Keep at it!

Don't give up. David Hodge has stated in his articles that he has short fingers but that has not stopped him!!

Keep at it. Like anything else, you will find a way to overcome that. Look at guys like Leslie West. He has small hands for a guy his size and he has no problems playing.