Hand Size

[James Collins]

I read a lot of people complain about having small hands on these forums. I am interested to know what it looks like out there. I think I have pretty average hands at about 22.1cm tip of thumb to tip of pinky finger. That's about 8.75 inch for you nonmetric folks.

There existed some big hands in music. Bach could open his hand 26cm or 10.25 inches. Rachmaninoff could span more than an octave on piano with over 30cm of finger span (12 inches).

So how wide do your fingers stretch? If you are right at the cutoff, I would pick the smaller of the two groupings. For example if your fingers are 26.0000 cm wide, pick 24-26 cm.

Also, I will point out my wife is around 10cm shorter than me and our finger span is the same even thought my palm part of my hand is bigger.

 

[bound'n'blocked]

BnB

 

[oldrocker]

For a bass player I think from the index finger to the pinky may be a better measurement. The thumb really doesn't come in to play for fretting a note. At least not for me.

Me:
Thumb to Pinky 23cm
Index to Pinky 18cm

 

[James Collins]

View attachment 3634524

BnB

My feeling is a lot of people think their hands are small because it is hard to play, but they are probably just normal.

 

[James Collins]

For a bass player I think from the index finger to the pinky may be a better measurement. The thumb really doesn't come in to play for fretting a note. At least not for me.

Me:
Thumb to Pinky 23cm
Index to Pinky 18cm

No, but it is a more standard measurement for the size of a hand that I can Google.

 

[Gorn]

0.137 fathoms.

 

[MynameisMe]

1.21 gigawatts

.

 

[xaosbass]

Having seen the late great Chris Squire, he had pretty big hands and did the thumb-over thing quite a bit.

 

[RyanOh]

I measured just over 20cm. If that's small, it's news to me. I always felt normal and play 34" and 35" scale basses. What about length of fingers? I use all on my fingers -- index to pinky stretch is 15.5cm -- maybe that's more relevant?

Someone please check my forehead, maybe I'm not ok.

 

[Bent77]

I measured just over 20cm. If that's small, it's news to me. I always felt normal and play 34" and 35" scale basses. What about length of fingers? I use all on my fingers -- index to pinky stretch is 15.5cm -- maybe that's more relevant?

Someone please check my forehead, maybe I'm not ok.

I have 20 cm but a head size in the upper 80%
One of us is built wrong...

 

[RyanOh]

I have 20 cm but a head size in the upper 80%
One of us is built wrong...

Maybe we're doppelgangers, my head is 24" around. I'm 6'1", and I like to play bass.

 

[Bent77]

Maybe we're doppelgangers, my head is 24" around. I'm 6'1", and I like to play bass.

I’m only 5’ 9”. So I tell everyone I’m 69”

And I’m ugly.

 

[Kmonk]

I'm 5 feet 10 inches (177.8 cm) tall. From thumb to pinky is 9.5 inches (24.2 cm). My thumb is 2.5 inches (6.35 cm), my index finger is 3 inches (7.62 cm), my middle finger is 3.375 inches (8.57 cm), my ring finger is 3.25 inches (8.25 cm), my pinky is 2.75 inches (6.90 cm)

 

[pbass74]

I measured my left hand. My fingers are longer on my left hand for some reason. Probably from playing bass for 50 years.

 

[Element Zero]

No clue on the cm measurement but thumb to pinky is 8 inches. Never have I ever thought that any bass (even a 7 string) was difficult to play because my hands were too small.

 

[Eidolon0274]

Mass exodus of middle aged men running to find their tape measures...

Alternatively: Are we all explaining to our wives why we need to borrow a tape measure for an online forum?

 

[fretter]

 

[2112]

Small hands crew checking in... my fingers are like cans of tuna.

 

[murph7489]

7 3/4 inches or 19.68 cm for metric folk
6 1/8 inches or 15.55 cm index to pinky strech

small and a 5 string player..when I first got that 5 string I wasn't sure I would be able to play it because of my hand size...I thought a P bass was big..but I got used to it and don't have much of a problem with it at all...Now a 4 string of any neck size seems small to me..its all perspective..

 

[Cutter8]

For a bass player I think from the index finger to the pinky may be a better measurement. The thumb really doesn't come in to play for fretting a note. At least not for me.

Edited to include inches:
I agree, but that thumb-to-pinky number sure sounds better! My thumb-to-pinky reach is a respectable 25cm/9.8”. My index-to-pinky spread is only 18cm/7”—but my wife insists that’s just perfect!