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Hand Size

What is your finger span

  • Less than 17cm

    Votes: 4 3.2%

  • 17-19 cm

    Votes: 7 5.6%

  • 19-21cm

    Votes: 24 19.2%

  • 21-23 cm

    Votes: 44 35.2%

  • 23-24 cm

    Votes: 19 15.2%

  • 24-26 cm

    Votes: 20 16.0%

  • More than 26cm

    Votes: 7 5.6%
  • Total voters
    125
#23
James Collins said:
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.
Click to expand...
Here's what people WON'T tell you about the hand size thing.....they'll say there's are plenty of ways to make up for small hands, that there's no disadvantage, to go watch kids play on youtube...but what they won't tell you is there is no disadvantage to large hands. In a comparative sense it is an advantage.
 
#24
murph7489 said:
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..
Click to expand...

To me small hands hurt more on 5 strings with right hand muting. Means you have to move more than some. But of course a lot of people's muting on extended range basses isn't the best. Even some good players I see on you tube have issues with it.
 
#25
pigpen1 said:
To me small hands hurt more on 5 strings with right hand muting
Click to expand...

Hmmm playing in general seems a little harder on my right hand. I use my fingers and it is a little longer distance. I am getting more used to it as time goes on, as I have only had it a couple of years. The muting I use a combination of both hands to accomplish that..It's nothing I had to learn really. The B string is the only thing I had to learn in the beginning because not being used to it, you forget about it and it starts rumbling because you are not muting it..I started out resting my thumb on it which worked well, but now I don't even need to do that..I have it down...
 
#27
Thumb to pinky? 23 cm. Oldrocker's pinky to index finger? Not quite 19 cm. I'll agree that this is probably a more relevant measurement, but... thumb/pinky is more prevalent. And, I wonder if the two go together - or not? Is there an empirical correlation between them? Does anybody really care? (There's a song in there, somewhere...) My problem with playing anything is that, while my hands are very large (XXL gloves are tight), my fingers are disproportionately short - and very thick. Troglodyte paws...Playing a 6-string guitar is...hard. A 12-string - or my mandolin? Close to impossible... :whistle:
 
#28
James Collins said:
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.
Click to expand...
What do you mean though? Pinky and thumbe width? Or, pinky and index? Cause my pinky and thumb is slightly over 9 inches, and I have pretty darn long fingers. I only know that length because I'm built anatomically proportioned. My foot is the length of my forearm, my arms spread finger tip to finger is tip is my exact height, my hand is the exact length of my....

To think people have a finger span of 10 inches without their thumbs is ludicrous! I feel very sorry for whoever they're married to.
 
#34
JeezyMcNuggles said:
What do you mean though? Pinky and thumbe width? Or, pinky and index? Cause my pinky and thumb is slightly over 9 inches, and I have pretty darn long fingers. I only know that length because I'm built anatomically proportioned. My foot is the length of my forearm, my arms spread finger tip to finger is tip is my exact height, my hand is the exact length of my....

To think people have a finger span of 10 inches without their thumbs is ludicrous! I feel very sorry for whoever they're married to.
Click to expand...
Pinky to thumb
 
#36
I chose thumb to pinky to measure because you can look up people's hand size that way. For example, it seems the largest fingerspan in NBA is 30.5 cm or 12 inches.

A lot more how goes into playing than hand size, and everyone seems clustered in the middle thus far. I play 34" scale and see no reason to go to 30" scale. I know people with much smaller hands still play DB which has a much longer scale length still.
 
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