Tiny hands?

Is this really a problem or more of a perceived one? I hear a lot of folk saying that the tenor fretboard is too big for their tiny hands? I would think then these folk could never approach a guitar. Is this true?

Well, I can't reach a lot of things on a tenor and I was an absolute fail on guitar. So for me, yes, that is true.

I'm one of those people - I've compared my hands to little kids and they're about the size of the average 8 year old's, plus my pinky is ridiculously curved, so my left hand can realistically only span 4 frets on a tenor and that's on a good day! I can play basic chords on guitar, and first position chords on a tenor uke, just fine, but for the more acrobatic stuff (I do a lot of 4 or more fret stretches) I'm limited to sopranos and concerts. I think it depends on the kind of playing one does - probably not so much an issue for simple strumming.

BlueLatitude said:

Well, I can't reach a lot of things on a tenor and I was an absolute fail on guitar. So for me, yes, that is true.

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That's sad to hear. I'm so glad they make the soprano and concert then. I find them a little small for my hands but can manage them. Would a mandolin work for you? I think they are pretty neat instruments.

Icelander53 said:

Would a mandolin work for you? I think they are pretty neat instruments.

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I suppose so, but I'm not really fond of the sound.

Icelander53 said:

Would a mandolin work for you? I think they are pretty neat instruments.

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Mandos actually come with their own set of obstacles - I thought with my little hands, the slim neck would be a breeze. Turns out those steel strings aren't nearly as easy to fret as uke strings are! Takes a bit more strength in the hands.

janeray1940 said:

Mandos actually come with their own set of obstacles - I thought with my little hands, the slim neck would be a breeze. Turns out those steel strings aren't nearly as easy to fret as uke strings are! Takes a bit more strength in the hands.

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Yes, that's what I found too, when I felt one.

janeray1940 said:

Turns out those steel strings aren't nearly as easy to fret as uke strings are! Takes a bit more strength in the hands.

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Not to mention that they are doubled so you're not just pressing down on one string at a time, but on two!

There are some things I can't reach on tenor, and I've kind of nested around the concert size as being "the one" for me. Love soprano too, but concert just feels right.

I've actually had a high school student who had hands too small to play clarinet, and fingers too skinny to cover the holes properly. Thank goodness, she grew over the summer and is doing fine now.

Icelander53 said:

Would a mandolin work for you? I think they are pretty neat instruments.

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Actually, a mandolin takes a lot of finger stringth (intentional misspelling because I just thought of that as being the perfect word for talking about the strength required to finger strings). Yeah...it's been a long week and it's only Monday evening...

Anyway, mandolin strings are under higher tension than guitar strings and they are all doubled. When I started have twinges of pain from playing guitar after many years with no problems I thought to myself, "self, get yourself one of those little mandolins they've got to be easy to play!" It tore up my left wrist and hand badly enough that I had to get a short scale bass (I actually gig on the bass so couldn't stop) for a while to relieve the stress. And it was a decent, well set-up mando, too.

Anyway, the bottom line is that in almost all cases the "scale too long" feeling is really a combination of the scale being long and the fingers not having the strength to operate well when stretched...so for someone who has trouble with a tenor uke I would say a mando would probably be an unwise choice, even though the scale is a little shorter.

However, very often one can "work up" to a longer scale. Many people who feel a tenor is too long find that after playing concert for a while the tenor is actually doable, then the baritone, etc. The opposite is true, too. When I started playing ukulele I managed to convince myself that I just couldn't play soprano because the fingerboard was too cramped. After playing mostly concerts and a little tenor for a couple of years I discovered that I could handle a soprano scale just fine.


John

Well you likely have more stringth in your fingers than most. But it's all very interesting.

My personal history follows the pattern John mentioned. Soprano felt a bit cramped, concert felt right, tenor too much scale (and I sold my first one almost immediately). After several years with concerts, I got a tenor and that was OK, then a baritone (OK too).

Today, for all my newcomers, I recommend a concert as the best compromise unless the person has some really fat hands/fingers and then I recommend a tenor. Those beginners who get a tenor seem to be able to accommodate the longer scale length w/o difficulty (at least for the open chord forms where we all start)

My hands aren't very big and for me, size matters. I've found the concert to be the best size for me.

When I work really hard to build up my hand stamina on tenor, the best I can manage is about 45 minutes on a tenor, versus 3 to 4 hours on a concert.

Guitar...a single picked verse of Hotel California and I'm done. (I don't know how to play the guitar, and have only done this as a party trick, using just 4 strings. )

About a year after starting the uke, I got an inexpensive mandolin. Trying to play it felt like my fingers were being flayed.

I had no idea the Mandolin was so tough. I'll stick with the uke

I have a mandolin as well, a decent, well setup Eastman 615 f-hole with Schertler pickup - it is a lot more difficult to play than a uke due to the steel strings - they really do hurt your fingers while you build up calluses, rather like an acoustic guitar does. Doesn't help that the chord shapes are actually quite difficult as well. Nonetheless, I do persevere with it, i have a classical bowl back Neapolitan mandolin as well, which is a tad easier to play - again setup is absolutely key on a mandolin as it is totally unplayable with a bad setup, even more so than a uke.

You think you have tiny hands? Too small for a tenor uke? Check this out:

http://kotaku.com/can-anyone-find-these-north-korean-kids-smaller-guitars-1471036086

BlueLatitude said:

Well, I can't reach a lot of things on a tenor and I was an absolute fail on guitar. So for me, yes, that is true.

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This is me as well. Thank god for soprano ukes! I suppose with enough practice I could possibly come up with ways to stretch and hit all the right chords on longer/fatter fretboards.

Those North Korean kids are scary... :-/

Yeah, I wonder what they threaten to do to them if they don't hit all the right chords? LOL

PhilUSAFRet said:

You think you have tiny hands? Too small for a tenor uke? Check this out:

http://kotaku.com/can-anyone-find-these-north-korean-kids-smaller-guitars-1471036086

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"Small guitars do exist, they make them at 3/4 and 1/2 sizes precisely for the purpose of teaching children. On the other hand, it is really not that rare for children to start their guitar lessons right away with full sized instruments, lots of teachers will say that smaller guitars don't sound "right" and that they are pretty unnecessary training wheels.

This kind of statement is what prompted my initial query in this thread.

A long time ago I got a broken guitar from the garbage behind the local music store, my Dad was a carpenter and in no time it was playable.
We did not know there were different scale lengths or 3/4 or 1/2 size guitars, we only knew it was a guitar. To enable me to play it without too much of a stretch my Dad made me play further up the neck where the distance between the frets is smaller. He made a capo out of an elastic band and a short section of a pencil. As I became more proficient the capo moved towards the nut. Jim.