As Justin has suggested, anyone can play the guitar, regardless of whether their hands are large or small, their fingers are short or long, fat and stubby, long and skinny. I’m assuming that fingerstyle picking without the use of the ring finger is feasible. I lost the use of mine in a boating accident when I was kid. Anyone have any input/personal experience?
Just like everthing in life if you want it you’ll adapt and come
up with something that works for you.
The old blues players from the 20s 30s and 40s used just
their thumb and index finger.
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Django Reinhardt only had the use of two fingers on his fretting hands, but managed to find a way of playing that worked for him. Could you use your pinkie finger? Maybe build up the strength in it?
Some fingerstyle stuff I’ve learnt is without the ring finger & the instructors have said its easier that way (for some stuff). I find the ring finger the least useful of the three fingers and there is always a tendency to use index & middle if possible. Where you will notice it is on fast stuff and where four strings are required to be plucked at once. For the fast stuff I guess you will adapt and in some instances just slow the tempo. Where four strings need to be plucked its unlikely you’ll notice a massive difference plucking just three. I know people that have managed to rock climb to a high standard missing fingers and even an arm so pretty sure you can nail fingerstyle.
I would also suggest trying to incorporate your pinky.
I don’t really play finger style, but I’ve dabbled with it, and got the sense that the pinky would be quite viable if properly developed.
I’ve seen someone do fingerstyle with just thumb and index. It might make some complex stuff more difficult but you see famous players without formal training do fingerstyle all kinds of different ways
Yeah I don’t use my pinky - a lot of fingerstyle is just thumb and the three fingers , but I suppose if I didn’t have use of my ring finger you’ve got the pinky right there as the "third " finger