Longer Fingers for playing guitar.

[AmazinAzian12]

I have sorta big hand but mainly they are bit because i have big palms. my fingers can stretch pretty good but i feel that fingers that are longer would help me play guitar better and faster and cleaner.

Are there any excersizes or stretchs that i can do to extend the length of my fingers? and does age also correspond wit this? like im 15 and am still growing. Do i just have to wait until im done growing???

Please dont think this as a stupid question. I cant tell wether or not its stupid or not.

[jaxadam]

Originally Posted by AmazinAzian12

Are there any excersizes or stretchs that i can do to extend the length of my fingers?

Stretching is good, but I don't know of any surefire way of making your fingers longer for you.

Well, there is one option. You could do what they did to my step-dad's leg.

He broke his leg in a 4 wheeling accident, and lost 3 inches of bone. So they had to break is leg a lot, put pins in and stuff and allow cartilage to grow in between the spaces.

[AmazinAzian12]

Originally Posted by jaxadam

Stretching is good, but I don't know of any surefire way of making your fingers longer for you.

Well, there is one option. You could do what they did to my step-dad's leg.

He broke his leg in a 4 wheeling accident, and lost 3 inches of bone. So they had to break is leg a lot, put pins in and stuff and allow cartilage to grow in between the spaces.

umm thats ok. i dont want to have to be in a whole bunch of pain.

[ibanez2005]

Try and build up the muscle in your hand. The muscle on the left of your hand, nearest you're little finger, is the one to build up. I suggest doing excersises with all 4 fingers, all the way up the neck.

[microdmitry]

I heard that if you practice A LOT (like hours each day) after a couple of years you will have longer fingers. They won't be any longer physically, of course, it's just your palms that will become a bit smaller.

I wish I had a longer pinky. There's not much I can do about that, since it's short relative to all the other fingers.

[crevis]

The tendons that connect your fingers together become more elastic as you play and if you've played for a while you should be able to stretch the fingers on your left hand further than your right. My left stretches about an inch more than my right.

[Tom Gilroy]

Long fingers aren't exactly the best thing in the world either. Paul Gilbert can't play two note per string pentatonics easily in most positions, and Vai has difficulty with barre chords. Also, wth long fingers, economy of motion becomes more difficult to attain, which would actually make you slower.

[AmazinAzian12]

Originally Posted by Tom Gilroy

Long fingers aren't exactly the best thing in the world either. Paul Gilbert can't play two note per string pentatonics easily in most positions, and Vai has difficulty with barre chords. Also, wth long fingers, economy of motion becomes more difficult to attain, which would actually make you slower.

hmm wow. didnt know that. so its better to have somewhat normal length fingers? but strech them so that the seem long? Like i play piano and so both my hands can stretch pretty well. so i guess just practice exersizes to get my fingers stronger will help with my speed.

[crevis]

Malmsteen has some serious sausage fingers, doesn't bother him.

[ChopTart]

Originally Posted by Tom Gilroy

Long fingers aren't exactly the best thing in the world either. Paul Gilbert can't play two note per string pentatonics easily in most positions, and Vai has difficulty with barre chords. Also, wth long fingers, economy of motion becomes more difficult to attain, which would actually make you slower.

Exactly.

My ring finger is really long, and doing scale runs that don't use it, it tends to get in the way. There's really pros and cons to having both long and short fingers, and neither is really completely better than the other. Just try and optimize what you do have.

Also, it's easier to stretch out short fingers than to try and shorten extra-long ones

[JJEMMER777]

what helps me is working on arpeggios in the lower frets. It takes a LOT of stretching to achieve some of the fingerings. No cheating and pulling off though!! If you don't know how to do arpeggios, PM me and I'll send you some tabs

[dangomles]

Originally Posted by AmazinAzian12

I have sorta big hand but mainly they are bit because i have big palms. my fingers can stretch pretty good but i feel that fingers that are longer would help me play guitar better and faster and cleaner.

Are there any excersizes or stretchs that i can do to extend the length of my fingers? and does age also correspond wit this? like im 15 and am still growing. Do i just have to wait until im done growing???

Please dont think this as a stupid question. I cant tell wether or not its stupid or not.

The important thing, is to realize that the lenght of the fingers really doesn't mathers.
I read that you're only 15, and if you start worrying about this sort of things, playing the guitar will become extremely annoying because you will always be thinking "i guess i could play x riff or x song if i had longer fingers" and that isn't true, try to focus your energy on solving problems, not attacking yourself.
You should check some Michael Romeo's videos at youtube, that guy has super small fingers but god, can he shred!
Also look for Django Reinhardt there , he couldn´t move two of his fingers (i don't know exactly why, anyone could tell us why ?,please) and his playing was just breathtaking.

Good Luck!!!!

[Onimacaroni]

Originally Posted by dangomles

Also look for Django Reinhardt there , he couldn´t move two of his fingers (i don't know exactly why, anyone could tell us why ?,please) and his playing was just breathtaking.

They got really badly burnt in a caravan fire when he was only like 18 or something. But he could play better than most guitarists nowadays can with 4 fully functional fingers! :P

But seriously, I dont think you should really get caught up in wondering "what if", just make the use of what you have Django being the best example of that by far!

[Demiurge]

EDIT: Onimacaroni beat me to it on Django. Also, Tony Iommi got the tips of two of his fingers chopped off in an industrial accident, and he's done alright, too.

Essentially, from what others are saying and what I agree with as well is that the physicaly size of your fingers isn't ultimately as important as the skills you develop and the conditioning that allows you to transcend perceived limitations. I was told that my fingers were too clunky to ever play because I couldn't even play a first-position A major when I started, not to mention that my ring finger is offset at about a 20-degree angle from breaking it when I was younger. You keep practicing and you reach the point where the limitation doesn't exist at all.

[mi2tom]

The way I see it people who have shorter fingers have better techniques than the longer ones, I've got long fingers although I like looking at em I don't really like it, It's just harder to sweep with longer fingers IMHO