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Newbie with short fingers??
I CANNOT for the life of me get my fingers to form the chords. 2 days I have tried. Is this normal? It seems my fingers cant expand to reach across the frets to hit where they need to be. I am SO discouraged 🙁
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9 Replies
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Welcome to TAC @laurie-d-jacksongmail-com
Just yesterday another new member posted here about having small hands. I will link to that thread below so as not to have to repeat myself.
So 2 days? Have you been playing all day long for 2 days? If so that is counter productive. The program is minimum 10 minutes daily. You can go a bit longer but after 20 minutes you should definitely take a break. You can only absorb so much while doing something completely new like learning guitar. The movements are completely unnatural and are not replicated in most anything we typically learn to do in our lives.
I’ve been playing for close to 2 years and started with TAC 18 months ago. I got decent command of the C chord probably about 3 months into my journey
the G chord about 4 -5 months in
the B7 was right after that.
Many of the chords that I thought I had under my fingers at this point I really didn’t because while transitioning into them or making modifications to them I would be muting strings all over the place, especially the D, E and C chords.
It wasn’t until about 6 months ago (a full year after joining TAC) that I was able to play an F mini (barre chord) with any consistency.
Don’t be so quickly discouraged, you are only a few days into your journey. It will take a few years to learn guitar, at least for most people not 16 or under!
link to yesterday’s thread “I have small hands and just can’t get a clear G chord“
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What type of guitar do you have? Is it a full sized guitar?
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Good one @Skyman911
I had this on my mind too. I’m no small guy, about average (5′ 11′) but my favorite guitar to play is 3/4 size. More importantly than it’s the length, the body thickness is about 3 1/2 inches, compared to 4 3/4 on my full size Takamine.
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Hi, I struggled for a long time on some of the chords. But i worked on the mantra, that if i made that chord just one time i could with time and practice learn to make it everytime.
I also spend time switching between two chords for two minutes and writing down how many i did in a minute, that way is encouraging as you do eventually see those numbers go up.
maybe try em to e chords, so only one finger moves, then e to am, so all the fingers move down one string.
Small wins will give you a big boost of confidence.
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Hopefully @laurie-d-jacksongmail-com will at some point see that a number of fellow TAC members have responded and give us some feedback.
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Laurie, I agree with Pete that it will take a little while to be able to stretch your fingers to make clean chords, especially as you have small hands. Hang in there! You can do it!
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Many famous guitar players had small hands/fingers. Nancy Wilson, Paul Simon, Prince just to name a few. No reason one with small hands or fingers can’t be proficient.
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I am so thankful for the encouragement and the advice. It’s just what I’ve needed.
I apologize for my slow reply. I have been working 12-hour days all week.
I wonder too if I have a different sized guitar. I will Google how to tell. I’m just not sure. My stepdad passed away and I inherited his guitar. He was small and I wondered if maybe it was too small. It seems luke the neck is short.
Sigh. I was so excited and was ok with my slow progress. But, WOW, it just seems almost impossible. I will keep plucking away.
I will also do the stretches. Thank you!
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Love these replies. I share Laurie’s issue. I have both a mini Taylor and regular size Taylor. My hands definitely fit the mini Taylor much better but I try to alternate to get my fingers stretching. It’s an ongoing struggle, but… I’m trusting the process.
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