Play the guitar with small hands

People with small hands or short fingers find it difficult to bring the right guitar. However, there is no bookish formula to say boldly that this guitar is a perfect fit for you. The guitar which you can hold comfortably,  & play with immense joy is undoubtedly a perfect match for you. In today’s article, you will come to know everything that will help you to play the guitar perfectly with small hands.

Does hand size affect guitar playing?  

It surely does. If your hand size is smaller than the average size, then it would be difficult for you to grip the chords. Perhaps!  You are unable to do great in guitar playing & that’s why you’re cursing your hand’s size. If that is so, then here is good news for you.

• Almost every beginner finds it difficult to stretch their fingers to the right position regardless of hand sizes. I’ll show you two examples.

• My friend’s hand size is bigger than mine. Still, he complains that he is unable to play those chords. Surprisingly, my 7 years old younger sister plays big-sized guitar like a breeze after taking the training.

• Did you get the point?  Well, the proper practice can even depilate the physical barrier.

Can I play full-sized guitar with small hands? 

People with smaller hands than the average stature often prefer a reduced size guitar. What if we suggest you try something different!  There are some reasons to say this. Let’s know them.

• As the name implies, the full-sized guitar doesn’t mean a big sized one. Besides, there are many guitars of similar name but different sizes on the market.

• For this, you may find it impossible to play a few guitars with small hands, at the same time, you may feel comfortable trying something else.

• In simple words, that happens due to the variations in a full-sized guitar in terms of their body & neck.

However, these two play a huge role in your guitar learning journey. So, in the next, we will give you a broad view of them.

Which sized neck is suitable for a small hand guitarist?

The first & foremost problem any small-handed guitarist face is wrapping the finger around the neck & then fretting the strings. Their fingers fall short of that time. Even though you manage to fret the strings, a weak sound produces & you end up getting nothing but pain in your fingers.

Here come the solutions :

• You should bring a guitar with a neck diameter of 9 “to 15”.

• For easy-going, you can check the guitar from the back to see whether it is c shaped or not.

• In a nutshell, the small guitar not only comes with a small neck width and depth, but a full-size guitar can also be made with the same design.

• You can follow the aforesaid tips to bring the right guitar for you.

What should be the fret size for small hands?

When the frets are situated closely, we find it very easy to play chords & lead riffs. But, may arise some complicated situations too. For example,

• When the frets across the neck, they turn out small. So, the higher frets get squeezed as the lower frets are already small & you feel short off spaces.

• Still, you can manage to take advantage if you don’t want to play a lot of high lead guitar. However, if you want to play high lead guitar (solo guitar), you should consider a normal-sized one.

Which guitar body to choose for small hands?

The size & shape of the guitar is key to decide the comfort level with regards to hands size. Just imagine yourself holding a bulky size guitar. Is it easy for you to reach the strings with your small hands?  Of course, not. But, it is super easy to hug a slim & trim shape guitar to go close to the strings.

Here are some options of the body size :

• 3/4 Size: It is considered the littlest body guitar. This one is getting famous due to easy handling. But, you have to compromise the sound quality if you go with this guitar.

• Parlor: This variety of guitars are also a good option for small hands guitarists. They are reasonable in price. On top of that, they produce better sound than the ¾ sized guitar.

• Stupendous Concert: The size of the stupendous is bigger than the parlor guitar. It gives you a decent feel to hold & provides the flexibility to play in a variety of styles. You can get the full-sized guitar feel with this little one.

Acoustic vs. Electric: Which one is suitable for people with small hands?  

Seeing the external appearance, it is very obvious to guess which one is easy to handle – the electric one. The reason behind this is:

• The neck width of an electric guitar is smaller and the body is thinner than that of an acoustic guitar.

• Still, you can try acoustic guitar. Keeping the hand size in mind,  manufacturers make many small hand-friendly acoustic guitars. For example, a ¾ size guitar is an ideal option.

Tips you can follow to play better with small hands 

Being tricky may help you to perform better with whatever you have. To help you in that case, we will share some tips with you.

Know how to use the pinky finger :

• Small handed people often keep the pinky finger suppressed while playing the guitar.

• Besides, we always learn to use the ring finger for certain chords or lead riffs. Even if we can’t reach the right fret to play the note, our fingers get hurt due to overstretching.

• That time you can use the pinky finger to get a better reach.

Place your wrist correctly 

• For moving the fingers freely, we bend our wrist too much sometimes. That’s how we develop pain in our wrist joint.

• The fact is placing the wrist in the right posture lets you the flexibility to improve the motion of your fingers.

• For this, you should hold the guitar like a baby.

• Now, you need to bend your hand slightly inwards.

• This sort of posture will help you to get control over the fretboard.

Conclusion

Playing the guitar is more about techniques than having perfect body parts – small or large hands. It may contribute a half portion in making the guitar practice tougher. But, practice determines the major portion. Still, to soothe your issues, we provide you with some guitar suggestions along with some tips to eliminate the trouble level.