Big hand size - Long fingers & proportion

[creamburmese]

Yes this post is unusual - the usual complaint is short stubby fingers being unable to reach! I have that problem so have investigated options for making life easier - I even wrote a post about it http://adultguitarjourney.blogspot.com/

I am totally unqualified to comment on big hand problems - though my teacher (who is 6'6" with proportionally sized hands) says that the problem most people with big hands have is with speed...

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by creamburmese

Yes this post is unusual - the usual complaint is short stubby fingers being unable to reach...my teacher (who is 6'6" with proportionally sized hands) says that the problem most people with big hands have is with speed...

My hands are a similar size as the OP's - 9" span, 8" wrist to middle fingertip (BTW I'm an average-size guy - 5'11"/185#)...

I met Muriel Anderson about 15 years ago at MandoBros; for those who don't know she is extremely petite - her hands are, quite literally, half the size of mine - and she does things on a full-width classical neck that still leave me shaking my head...

Jazz virtuoso Tal Farlow had huge hands - if you ever see old pictures, this guy looked like he could wrap his mitts around a telephone pole with no problem - and few players then or now can match him for speed...

I started as a jazzer, grew up on those early/mid-60's 1-5/8" (or less) speed necks, still my preferred width - got no more problem fingerpicking, flatpicking, crosspicking, doing inside chords, or single-note riffing than I did when I was ten years old; I am, however, very sensitive to neck contour - more so as I have gotten older - and this may in fact be part of the OP's problem, especially since CFM IV & Co. has gone to a beefier profile on this model...

My advice to the OP: Try a variety of different instruments (including electrics of various types) until you find a profile you can play comfortably for extended periods, match it as closely as possible in your preferred type of guitar - and practice...

[Cypress Knee]

My fingers are just a bit longer than yours. The only real problem I have is trying to place the "A" shape barre chord using my ring finger as the barre. It just will not bend at the right place, so I either mute the high E string or play a 6th chord.

My solution was to use my pinkie as the barre finger, and it works perfectly - I can get all six strings to ring out! The drawback is that you can't really play a boogie-woogie line like that.

Well, someone out there probably can! I just have to revert to the dampened high E with the ring finger and use the pinkie for the walking bass.

CK

[T1mothy]

Dont worry, man. Im right there with ya

Just take it slow :-)

This guy has quite large hands too.

[agfsteve]

What about the picking hand for someone with large hands? I guess my hands are considered large (9.75 inch span), and I'm learning fingerpicking, and it seems like a disadvantage to have overly long fingers. I would like to get down close to the strings for palm muting the bass strings, but then the fingers seem to get overly bent and cramped up.

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by agfsteve

What about the picking hand for someone with large hands? I guess my hands are considered large (9.75 inch span), and I'm learning fingerpicking, and it seems like a disadvantage to have overly long fingers. I would like to get down close to the strings for palm muting the bass strings, but then the fingers seem to get overly bent and cramped up.

Again, my hands are fairly large and I play finger style on guitar and mandocello as well as much shorter scaled instruments like mandola and octave mandolin. Most players I know don't do any exercise or stretching for hand flexibility. These exercises are similar to ones taught to me by John Moore at a workshop. Even if your hands don't get cramped I recommend doing these to maintain hand strength and flexibility.

[agfsteve]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

Again, my hands are fairly large and I play finger style on guitar and mandocello as well as much shorter scaled instruments like mandola and octave mandolin. Most players I know don't do any exercise or stretching for hand flexibility. These exercises are similar to ones taught to me by John Moore at a workshop. Even if your hands don't get cramped I recommend doing these to maintain hand strength and flexibility.

Thanks for that reply, but I'm not talking about actual cramp, I'm talking about the fact that long fingers have to be bent more awkwardly than short fingers when it comes to palm muting when fingerpicking. Being fairly new to fingerpicking, I've been experimenting with hand positions, making sure to get my thumb out in front of my fingers, but when it comes to lowering the hand against the strings to palm mute, the fingers have to fold up quite a bit, which makes it harder to play, for me.

[RustyAxe]

I have long fingers (nut to 9th fret if I spread 'em). Great for piano (it was my first instrument) but even there I get bunched up on tight chords. We adapt, we overcome, we make music. All of us deal with our physical peculiarities, and most can be overcome with practice.

[Hot Vibrato]

Interesting thread...

I have big hands, and my my fingertips are not slender. This makes it somewhat difficult for me to adjust to a guitar with a modern neck size. I've always felt more at home on vintage guitars with fatter necks. My favorite is the 30's Gibson V necks. I've gotten rid of really nice guitars just because the neck didn't suit me.

I've always felt like guitar manufacturers take the "slim neck" thing to an extreme, to the point that those of us with large hands have been alienated. Modern guitars are made for small hands, and if you have big hands then you have to adjust to a neck size that doesn't fit your hands.

I've finally found a smaller-necked guitar that I love enough to put up with the less-than-ideal neck size - it's an old Framus archtop that I finished restoring a couple years ago. I cut the string spacing as wide as I felt I could get away with, and while I still feel a bit crowded making certain chord shapes, overall I feel pretty comfortable with this guitar. I think my playing has improved because I forced my fingers to learn to play within the confines of this crowded neck. I still love the V neck on my old Gibson archtop though.

[colchar]

Originally Posted by From 8000 Miles

Call me crazy but is the niggling worry about hand/finger size and proportion a real concern for playing guitar and could it alter the playing?

I consider myself to have quite large hands with long slenderish fingers. I also wonder if my ring finger is a bit too long for comfort. It seems awkward and uncoordinated especially when barring chords higher up on the guitar neck and is harder to curl and hit the right spot. I know Hendrix had large hands and long fingers too (not sure what measurements) but he like everybody else would have had different finger proportions. There are many blogs and articles about guys and gals worrying about their smaller hand sizes and shorter or fat fingers but for me it's size and length. When my fretting hand is spread out it's a whole 9 inches from the tip of my pinky to the tip of my thumb. From wrist/lower palm to the tip of my middle finger it's 7 & 1/2 inches so quite large really. I try to do all of the exercises and stretches for guitar playing to improve along side practice. I'm here asking for some guidance, wisdom and advice from professional players or from people who have had similar experience to this in order to put mine and any other readers worries to rest. -Why won't my stupid hand do what I want it to do? Aaaagh!!!

I play a post 2012 Martin D'18 and it's the only guitar I own

I'm sorry, but you think your fingers are long? Take a look at this guy's fingers then take a look at yours:










The length of his fingers didn't stop him so your much shorter fingers shouldn't stop you.

[hotroad]

Not sure if this has been said. Keep using those fingers, whatever you got, so that they stay stretched. Thats ligaments, tendons, muscles, fibers. If I don't play some a few times a week, my fingers lose their ability to flex well. That also keeps up the strength. And a friend of mine uses a fingerstyle guitar with a 1.8" nut width but does not play fingerstyle. He has big hands and this guitar fits his hands better than a smaller nut width. I have a nice Wechter six string with a neck that is for fingerstyle if interested. Its for sale.