Anyone else have a short pinky on fret hand?

[cs51762]

Hi, folks,

The pinky on my fretting hand is quite a bit shorter than the other fingers. I've never really payed attention to other guitarist's pinkies, so I don't know if I'm normal or not. Comments?

[ricks]

I am in the same situation as you are.
But I don't think that makes us normal, rather the opposite.
The pinkie will usually reach to that first knuckle on the ring finger.
Yours in the pic, and mine do not make it that far.
We have been "shorted". BTW, I jammed mine quite some time back and it still has not completely recovered.

I saw Chris Proctor once and his pinkie is longer than my other fingers.
I'm jealous.

[wedge199]

Dude, you got ripped off. My pinky extends about 1/4" past the last crease of my ring finger. I have been told many times that I have great hands for piano.

Regards, Jack

[oldgeezer]

It looks perfectly normal to me. My pinky is the same length in relation to my ring finger as yours. The problem I have is that my left hand pinky was broken and splinted wrong about 20 years ago, and as a result it has a permenant bend at the tip, which lessens my reach.

[Chicago Sandy]

Count me in as another "shortie." My pinkie is about 1/8" below the first knuckle on the ring finger. I would kill for longer fingers, but I know long-fingered people who have trouble forming "crowded" chords and claim that fretting dexterity is more a matter of strength and muscle memory.

[Mark Bolding]

Dude!,
How did you get a picture of my hand? The only difference is you don't have a black dot in your palm from getting a pencil jammed into it 41 years ago in kindergarten and my pinkie just barely gets above the ring finger joint.
My daughter often "thanks" me for giving her midget hands but what can you do? Just gotta make the best of what we were given and keep on playing.

Cheers
Mark

[TBman]

My pinky is about 1/4 above the crease line of my ring finger, but overall I have relatively short fingers. Kinda big feet though (size 12.5) Go figure.

[Straycat]

Ha ! I just stumbled across this post and had to add to it

[Straycat]

OOPS ! I hit the send too fast :P

Note: Most peoples fingers go to where the arrows are and my pinky and thumb are well below the average. I had to learn to compensate for this ... my BF wouldn't let me use it as an excuse - He was my guitar instructor. That's how we met

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Straycat

...my BF wouldn't let me use it as an excuse - He was my guitar instructor.

Hi SC...
Good for him! One of my best students have very tiny hands, and she plays a full width classical easily. Her favorite width neck is 1 3/4''. Some of her fingerings for inversions and chord clusters are very creative, and I've stolen more than a couple from her.

[denthird]

Originally Posted by Straycat

OOPS ! I hit the send too fast :P

Note: Most peoples fingers go to where the arrows are and my pinky and thumb are well below the average. I had to learn to compensate for this ... my BF wouldn't let me use it as an excuse - He was my guitar instructor. That's how we met

Nice bling!

[Chicago Sandy]

Wow, SC, didn't think anyone here had shorter fingers than mine! I've learned to "scamper" around the neck--even after all these years I have to lift my fingers up higher than is considered proper technique when playing scales. I'm lucky that my fingers are relatively slim for being so short, so I can try to stretch a bit further than one would think. Still and all, no way I can play fretless without looking, since if I went strictly by touch my intonation would be way flat. I have "cheat lines" inlaid on my fretless bass neck.

[Straycat]

I hear ya Sandy. Being girls, we already have slightly smaller hands ... and then to be short-changed from even having average sized fingers :P

My BF couldn't figure it out at first when he saw my arm twists and my elbow points back toward the cutaway ... I had to explain to him that pointing my elbow that way was the ONLY way I can reach the low E string with my pinky, especially on the first few frets !

I tell him I have " Pinky envy " because his PINKY is longer than my MIDDLE finger !!!

His response is " Sagovia had short stubby hands and look how well he played ! "

I get *NO* sympathy !!!

[Chicago Sandy]

I think banjos, mandolins and dulcimers are the revenge of the short-fingered (at least that's what I figure). Still trying to wrap my head around the fifths tuning of mandos but for some reason, 5-string banjo seems more natural, like the open G guitar tuning I used to play back in my Joni-wannabe days. I have a singing partner who has incredibly long fingers (stands to reason, as she's a 6-footer) but they're studded with rings. When I first asked her how the heck she could barre with all that bling, she replied that she never learned how and it was too late to start--and that the fretboard was just too crowded. I'm only 3 weeks younger, but the day I stop trying to learn new stuff is the day I hang it up and pack it in.

[weatherford]

I don't have short fingers per se, except relative to the breadth of my hands... and my thumb is short (well, so is the pinky)!

What really gets me is I can not for the life of me get my thumb on the low D (or any other note) while my fingers are playing a chord. I sort of can on the Gurian but not on the Everett - and it seems not to be the width of the neck as much as the shape/depth - that is my thumb also doesn't bend well enough (short from knuckle to tip) to handle a thin neck! Sounds absolutely backwards - but I don't have the problem (as much) on my other guitars!!

I wouldn't have thought of it had this thread not been started!

By the way, have you ever watched Livingston Taylor on YouTube?? Talk about hands! with LONG SLENDER FINGERS! grrrrrr!!!

Wonderful player, too!