Hi. Brand new to the site. Can anyone tell me what size hands are regarded as small hands ? Many thanks
Welcome to the site, Chris.
When it comes to playing guitar, I’d consider something like this to be “small hands:”
But seriously, your hand size is probably not as big a deal as you might think. I suppose there is a perfectly proportioned set of ideal hands for playing guitar, but very few of us possess those hands. And yet we still play just fine. Players with big huge hands and fat fingers. Players with short skinny fingers. Little kids. Strapping 6’3" lads. Et cetera. My advice is to not sweat it. Just work with what you’ve got and practice.
5 Likes
Welcome back Chris
Guitars also come with different neck widths and profiles from 2in wide to 1 5/8 and as thin as and inch. So I’m pretty sure you can find one the will fits your hands.
My wife has small hands and has no problem playing her Ibanez acoustic.
I’m a beginner who feels I struggle with small hands. (ETA: tip of thumb to tip of pinky measures 7.5 inch.) And short arms. Seriously, I have a -2 inch deficit in arm length compared to height where most people have 0 deficit or are even longer in wingspan than their height. Anyway, I play full size electrics (with thin necks) and a dreadnought acoustic. Playing these is probably doable for me, though I’m pretty sure what I’m feeling is that, the dreadnought especially, they’re too big for me to be fully comfortable. I have been playing some smaller guitars in the shops, and really really like the Martin 000 size acoustics. For electrics, I haven’t honed it down yet but would probably be one of the Fender small scale guitars.
I don’t know typical hand sizes. I am of modest size for a guy. 5’ 6”, 150 lbs.
My hand span, tip of thumb to tip of little finger splayed as far as possible, is roughly 8.5”. Likely, this is medium to small.
There are plenty of smaller people, especially women, that play classical with 52-54mm (over 2”) nuts just fine.
I play a classical 52mm and a 00 size with a 46mm nut. I have trouble wrapping my thumb on the 46mm neck (I don’t bother on the classical), and barely can fret the 6th string that way. On a more standard 44mm nut, it would be easier.
More important to me I think is the neck profile. Too thick and round would make it more difficult. Also, guitar body size/style. I feel more comfortable with smaller guitars, like 00 and OM.
That’s cool to know… I had to measure my hand and mine is 8 inches. But I suffer from short pinky syndrome… my pinky doesn’t quite make it to the last joint of my ring finger. Sometimes I think I would have been better off playing left handed cause my pinky on my right hand is 1/4 inch longer than on my left hand. LOL
Interesting, I just measured at 8.5" max, 8.25" more comfy spread thumb to little finger.
Since I have been dealing with hand issues over the last 5 of my 10 months with guitar, I will say this if you are past your young years, I started at 47.
Here is what I would have done differently:
–Learned forearm physiotherapy and practiced prevention daily.
–Practiced hand strength daily and not like a body builder.
–Started with my current travel guitar which is only 23.5" scale and 9-42 strings
–Don’t even think acoustic (I am glad I don’t care for that anyway).
–Kept practice to the Justin recommended 30 min for like 6 months then 45 min and not move to an hour until after a year.
That should also allow the hand to stretch and gently become more capable. I ended up pushing too hard, too soon.
Hi Chris!
There is probably a lot of correct anwers on this topic… if any help. I have short chubby fingers, but i do prefer a 25,5» scale with a 1,75» nut width. Witch is a normal neck length and wider than many necks ( i am talking about acoustic guitars, not classical…) With my short fingers you should believe that anything less than 1,75» would be the thing… but nope… the wider and longer the neck is. The better i like them…
The only thing that came to mind was bar chords being a bit harder for small hands, or just a different experience. It’s fine thought, there’s always workarounds.