Yes. Don't give up!. Yes do choose a small guitar. But note: It is not so much the width stretching as the length of the fingers reaching across to play, in particular, Barre Chords. Having lovely long slender fingers like yours is fortunate. The neck of a classical Guitar is wider than an acoustic or electric etc and that's the issue! Please measure your 1st finger mine is 50mm I bet your finger is an extra 20/25 mm longer. I have 1st hand (pun) experience and I advise people on a couple of You Tube videos I've uploaded because I've experienced the hard way. Best wishes.
An update to an earlier post. Allen, I started studying/playing classical guitar back in the 70s. I also have small hands with somewhat "chubby" "beefy" fingers and my middle finger on my fretting hand is a mere 3-1/4" from inside palm to tip. Back in the 70's my hands and fingers were very flexible and nimble and with the exception of full barres and 5 fret stretches I had no issues. All my guitars back the were full sized 650mm scale with 52mm nut dimensions and I was able to play complex pieces. Back in 2001 I was in an auto accident. Several months after the accident I started noticing spasms in my left arm and some numbness in the fingers. To make a long story somewhat short an exam showed that my neck at c4-c5 was deteriorating and in need of a cervical fusion. I had the operation and when I awoke in the recovery room I was in extreme pain. Turns out the doctor who was a highly recommended sports surgeon to some big professional teams had botched the operation. He had actually tore my left rotator and damaged the nerves and he never bothered to inform me. I was in extreme pain from the neck all the way down my left arm and hand, and had servere nerve damage too. My Index, Middle and Ring fingers were totally numb and I basically loss all sense of touch in them. This ended my playing guitar for almost 20 years. Lived with the pain and loss of dexterity. For reasons I can not explain I never sold my guitars, I could not see parting with them. I had 3, an acoustic, an electric and my Burguet spanish. Fast forward to mid 2020 and I started to notice the numbness in my fingers subsiding, the pain from the neck down was still there, but heck I'll take the plus over the negative. I pulled my classical out of it's case and home of 20 odd years and attempted to play a few notes. It felt good. Nothing complicated because the manipulation of my fretting still caused some pain to radiate up my arm to my shoulder. But I slowly play simple pieces and some cords and barre. But I was somewhat limited to the length or extent of practice time, 30 minutes max. I got on google to get playing tips and of course came across your UA-cam lessons and tips and of course other players channels. One had a demonstration on smaller scale guitars. One in particular covered Cordoba's C10 Parlor. I wondered if maybe a smaller scale (630mm) 7/8 size might help, so I bought one. I'm happy to say it did help. I still have the pain in my arm and hand, but you learn to push it back. But the shorter scale length allows me to practice/play longer. Sorry this took a lot of your webpage real estate. But I thought I would chime in so that others out there may see that YES a smaller scale guitar can make a difference. Love your tips and lessons.
thank you for sharing your story, yes, the 25.5" length guitars are too long for me as well. Am getting the shorter ones 24.75". I hope you're back to enjoying guitar again!
I have small hand, but I manage to stretch my hand to reach the high note with my pinky, that is by slanting the bar at an angle. Sor Study #17 is a good exercise to do this, Failing that, you can take a short cut by using capo at first fret, rather than buying a 63cm guitar, because that doesn't really make too much difference when it comes to stretching problem. Use the capo only for the stretchy pieces that you can't do without.
On the topic of small hands... I'm an average in terms of hand size. My sister has her hands a little over half the size of my hands. Yet, she plays the piano beautifully. Good technique will greatly improve your playing and help you overcome your limitations.
Cheers Alan. Your vids are great. My hands are indeed small. I’ve only been trying to learn classical for a short while and was struggling. I found a capo on the second fret helped a lot. So much so that I could learn a piece I was seriously struggling with, move the capo down a fret after a couple of weeks. Rinse and repeat until I could play it without the capo. Nevertheless I might look into a 7/8. Got a birthday coming up …
I don't have small hand but I whish my hand is bigger. I also played a lot of rock music back in the eighties with practice I was able to stretch pretty good but again I was very young at the time and it translate to classical guitar as well.
Allen, I left a similar comment on Bradford Werner's UA-cam page regarding "Short Scale" guitars. I started studying classical guitar back when I was twenty years old, a good while ago. Back in 1970. Back then seldom was ever mentioned about "Short Scale"/"Parlor" guitars. Back then unless a student was very young they purchased the standard size guitars with the standard lengths, 645mm to 650mm nut to bridge. The first classical guitar I owned and learned to play on was a late 60's Martin 0028C pawn shop purchase it had a 645mm scale. As I got better in playing I later purchased from my instructor at the Peabody in Baltimore, a 1966/67 Hiroshi Tamura flamenco (650mm scale) with wooden tuning pegs. To this day I am so sorry I ever sold either of them, but hey I was young and did not realize what fine instruments I had in my possession. I now play and practice on a 1996 Burguet 2M (650mm). Yep a standard sized guitar, but one I will never sell. I have small hands and the stretch between my Index finger and pinky finger "chiquito" is a mere 7”, which does make playing some pieces a bit difficult. I have permanent nerve damage to my fretting hand due to an accident and a botched operation and admit barre cords and stretches can be and are a challenge at times. Had I known back in 1996 when I made my last purchase that solid wood models in a 7/8 scale, Parlor size were available, I may have given them a look. But back then when you walked into a music store that specialized in high-end classical guitars, the majority of these stores had full sized studio and concert models and they were all 650mm. Now recently I have come across several UA-cam and guitar site forums that say all you need to do to shorten the scale length on you standard 650mm guitar is to…. (1)Install high tension strings if you don’t already have them on the instrument. (2) Then instead of using standard tuning for the strings to just “down tune” all six strings one whole step and capo the 2nd fret. This method some say works for shortening the stretch for some players like myself that have smaller hands and can be beneficial to players with small tip to tip distances between the pinky and the index finger. The only issue you might run into I guess would be if you are playing a very complicated piece that has notes below the 11th fret. This way you can avoid purchasing a new smaller scale model and keep your current guitar. And have somewhat the same intonation. By the way Allen I enjoy both yours and Bradfords tips and subscribe to both. I'm just glad to see there are folk like yourself and Mr. Werner that are helping and inspiring people to learn to play classical guitar.
I play electric guitar, even the narrower neck of the electric guitar seems big for my hand and fingers. So I opted for shorter scale guitar ie 24" as opposed to ordinary scale of 25.5" or 24.75". It is easier to play since the frets are closer but the problem with 24" scale is that they are not widely available.
Zola, Au contraire, I own a Guild/DeArmond Les Paul that is 24.25" for the high three strings (G, B E) and I own an Epiphone Joe Pass jazz box and the sacle is 24.50". The bridge is fixed on the DeArmond, but the Joe Pass has a floating bridge.
Thanks Allen. Yes, it's my issue. When I had a master class with Frederick hand in the 70s. He made a comment about the size of my hands . Of course I took it personal and was ready to break my guitar. He was only mentioning it to my teacher to focus on certain exercises. More hand form, less repertoire. (Villa-lobos), right about that time I was drafted in the Vietnam War. End of story!!
I’m doing guilian’s arpeggios. I’m on group 2 #92 out of pumping nylon. Holding down that G7 so all the notes ring clear is MURDER! Córdoba C9 crossover is on my list.
I don't necessarily have small hands, but they are simply not too flexible. I suffer a little with bar chords and basically any streched positions. I believe I started to play a bit too late (in my 30s) so my hands were already a bit rigid from working. Thanks for the tips!
I have small, delicate hands more like a woman of 5'4 than a man of 5'9. Here is what has worked best for me, but it may not be for everyone...I have learned to buy nylon cutaways with a a nut width of 50 mm (as opposed to full body with a nut width of 52mm). (a) The first advantage is obvious..the neck is thinner which takes some pressure off the hands. I imagine the distance between the strings is decreased as well, but I'm not 100% sure. (b) The second advantage is that it allows me to tune down a half step and put the capo on the first fret to be in standard open tuning. This decreases the distance between frets and effectively short-scales the guitar. It wouldn't work as well on a full body guitar, because the 12th fret would become difficult to access. (c) A third thing I do is have a guitar tech lower the action. I go to someone who is accustomed to working with classicals, so they don't go to far and create a lot of fret buzz. (d) And the fourth thing is I use normal tension strings, instead of high tension. I hope this is helpful to some people. I know for those aspiring to a professional classical repertoire these compromises might not be acceptable, but I think it could help a lot of people. I didn't come to this solution until my 40's, but it has helped me so much and made the world of nylon string guitar much more accessible.
Update I traded in my Cordoba GK Studio for a Cordoba Stage. It has a 48 mm nut width with a radiused fingerboard and is perfect for someone with small hands. And I don't worry about microphones, it's just plug and play
Hi thanks for this video I have small hands. I thought that 7/8 guitar size was 630 scale length, sorry just trying to find some things out here ? Can you recommend any models of guitar of this length or size but on a very small budget ?
it is a problem to assume that 630mm is 7/8 size as if there is a proper "correct" size. Proper classical guitars (historically) come in many different sizes and it more appropriate to refer to common sizes rather than standard sizes. Just because the current fashionable style of classical guitar (which is actually derived form Spanish folk guitars of the 1850s) is 650mm, does not mean that this is a standard. We really need to move past this dogmatic rubbish. From 1800 to 1850 where more music was written for the guitar than any other time the most common size of classical guitar is 635mm, but sizes varied considerably. There is evidence to suggest that makers in the 19th century adjusted the scale length to suit the hands of their clients. anything from 590mm to 670mm is common. Stauffer Legnani model guitars, for example, have 640mm scale length. Luis Panormo guitars of which Ferdinando Sor were usually 635mm. I have 3 classical guitars made in the early 19th century, 600mm, 635mm and 640mm and the thing that affects stretching is not just scale length, is it also neck thickness. The modern style of classical guitar has a ridiculously large neck (depth and width) making it very difficult to stretch with small hands.
If you are based in Europe, Admira make some good quality for their price guitars in a range of sizes. Their first level solid tops like the concerto are excellent value for money. Tbh, after a year or so with a decent professional teacher, regular lessons & steady frequent practice, your technique will have improved to the point where a “normal” size classical will feel perfectly natural & you’ll be able to make scales & stretches that you used to find difficult. Django Reinhardt, Tony Iommi, Beethoven & Dame Evelyn Glennie’s physical challenges didn’t stop them achieving musical zenith. Enjoy your guitar!
Hazel Isaacs thanks, I have have an Admira but looking to upgrade and also bought a flamenco guitar to facilitate my hands because of the lower action, this helped quite a bit but looking for 7/8 size or 630 scale length, but I thought they were one and the same thing, just trying to find out as difficult looking for them in a search engine if I don’t know what I’m looking for. I’m looking for guitars a around £500
Yes. Don't give up!. Yes do choose a small guitar. But note: It is not so much the width stretching as the length of the fingers reaching across to play, in particular, Barre Chords. Having lovely long slender fingers like yours is fortunate. The neck of a classical Guitar is wider than an acoustic or electric etc and that's the issue! Please measure your 1st finger mine is 50mm I bet your finger is an extra 20/25 mm longer. I have 1st hand (pun) experience and I advise people on a couple of You Tube videos I've uploaded because I've experienced the hard way. Best wishes.
Teaching and playing guitars are two separate art. You have them both!
An update to an earlier post.
Allen, I started studying/playing classical guitar back in the 70s. I also have small hands with somewhat "chubby" "beefy" fingers and my middle finger on my fretting hand is a mere 3-1/4" from inside palm to tip. Back in the 70's my hands and fingers were very flexible and nimble and with the exception of full barres and 5 fret stretches I had no issues. All my guitars back the were full sized 650mm scale with 52mm nut dimensions and I was able to play complex pieces. Back in 2001 I was in an auto accident. Several months after the accident I started noticing spasms in my left arm and some numbness in the fingers. To make a long story somewhat short an exam showed that my neck at c4-c5 was deteriorating and in need of a cervical fusion. I had the operation and when I awoke in the recovery room I was in extreme pain. Turns out the doctor who was a highly recommended sports surgeon to some big professional teams had botched the operation. He had actually tore my left rotator and damaged the nerves and he never bothered to inform me. I was in extreme pain from the neck all the way down my left arm and hand, and had servere nerve damage too. My Index, Middle and Ring fingers were totally numb and I basically loss all sense of touch in them. This ended my playing guitar for almost 20 years. Lived with the pain and loss of dexterity. For reasons I can not explain I never sold my guitars, I could not see parting with them. I had 3, an acoustic, an electric and my Burguet spanish. Fast forward to mid 2020 and I started to notice the numbness in my fingers subsiding, the pain from the neck down was still there, but heck I'll take the plus over the negative. I pulled my classical out of it's case and home of 20 odd years and attempted to play a few notes. It felt good. Nothing complicated because the manipulation of my fretting still caused some pain to radiate up my arm to my shoulder. But I slowly play simple pieces and some cords and barre. But I was somewhat limited to the length or extent of practice time, 30 minutes max. I got on google to get playing tips and of course came across your UA-cam lessons and tips and of course other players channels. One had a demonstration on smaller scale guitars. One in particular covered Cordoba's C10 Parlor. I wondered if maybe a smaller scale (630mm) 7/8 size might help, so I bought one. I'm happy to say it did help. I still have the pain in my arm and hand, but you learn to push it back. But the shorter scale length allows me to practice/play longer.
Sorry this took a lot of your webpage real estate. But I thought I would chime in so that others out there may see that YES a smaller scale guitar can make a difference. Love your tips and lessons.
thank you for sharing your story, yes, the 25.5" length guitars are too long for me as well. Am getting the shorter ones 24.75". I hope you're back to enjoying guitar again!
I hope you are better and your hand problem is solved.
Love how these guys with what I call "daddy long legs fingers" give advice about small hands.
I have small hand, but I manage to stretch my hand to reach the high note with my pinky, that is by slanting the bar at an angle. Sor Study #17 is a good exercise to do this, Failing that, you can take a short cut by using capo at first fret, rather than buying a 63cm guitar, because that doesn't really make too much difference when it comes to stretching problem. Use the capo only for the stretchy pieces that you can't do without.
On the topic of small hands... I'm an average in terms of hand size. My sister has her hands a little over half the size of my hands. Yet, she plays the piano beautifully. Good technique will greatly improve your playing and help you overcome your limitations.
If you have got Small Hands and you are worried about playing guitar, here are some solutions:
www.classicalguitarshed.com/small-hands-guitar/
Cheers Alan. Your vids are great. My hands are indeed small. I’ve only been trying to learn classical for a short while and was struggling. I found a capo on the second fret helped a lot. So much so that I could learn a piece I was seriously struggling with, move the capo down a fret after a couple of weeks. Rinse and repeat until I could play it without the capo. Nevertheless I might look into a 7/8. Got a birthday coming up …
I don't have small hand but I whish my hand is bigger. I also played a lot of rock music back in the eighties with practice I was able to stretch pretty good but again I was very young at the time and it translate to classical guitar as well.
Allen, I left a similar comment on Bradford Werner's UA-cam page regarding "Short Scale" guitars. I started studying classical guitar back when I was twenty years old, a good while ago. Back in 1970. Back then seldom was ever mentioned about "Short Scale"/"Parlor" guitars. Back then unless a student was very young they purchased the standard size guitars with the standard lengths, 645mm to 650mm nut to bridge. The first classical guitar I owned and learned to play on was a late 60's Martin 0028C pawn shop purchase it had a 645mm scale. As I got better in playing I later purchased from my instructor at the Peabody in Baltimore, a 1966/67 Hiroshi Tamura flamenco (650mm scale) with wooden tuning pegs. To this day I am so sorry I ever sold either of them, but hey I was young and did not realize what fine instruments I had in my possession. I now play and practice on a 1996 Burguet 2M (650mm). Yep a standard sized guitar, but one I will never sell.
I have small hands and the stretch between my Index finger and pinky finger "chiquito" is a mere 7”, which does make playing some pieces a bit difficult. I have permanent nerve damage to my fretting hand due to an accident and a botched operation and admit barre cords and stretches can be and are a challenge at times. Had I known back in 1996 when I made my last purchase that solid wood models in a 7/8 scale, Parlor size were available, I may have given them a look. But back then when you walked into a music store that specialized in high-end classical guitars, the majority of these stores had full sized studio and concert models and they were all 650mm.
Now recently I have come across several UA-cam and guitar site forums that say all you need to do to shorten the scale length on you standard 650mm guitar is to….
(1)Install high tension strings if you don’t already have them on the instrument.
(2) Then instead of using standard tuning for the strings to just “down tune” all six strings one whole step and capo the 2nd fret. This method some say works for shortening the stretch for some players like myself that have smaller hands and can be beneficial to players with small tip to tip distances between the pinky and the index finger. The only issue you might run into I guess would be if you are playing a very complicated piece that has notes below the 11th fret.
This way you can avoid purchasing a new smaller scale model and keep your current guitar. And have somewhat the same intonation.
By the way Allen I enjoy both yours and Bradfords tips and subscribe to both. I'm just glad to see there are folk like yourself and Mr. Werner that are helping and inspiring people to learn to play classical guitar.
Very nice video for learning guitar, keep up the good work
Have a Señorita Alhambra S-4P, ------- I have very small hands and still a challenge, but thank you for this.
I play electric guitar, even the narrower neck of the electric guitar seems big for my hand and fingers. So I opted for shorter scale guitar ie 24" as opposed to ordinary scale of 25.5" or 24.75". It is easier to play since the frets are closer but the problem with 24" scale is that they are not widely available.
Zola, Au contraire, I own a Guild/DeArmond Les Paul that is 24.25" for the high three strings (G, B E) and I own an Epiphone Joe Pass jazz box and the sacle is 24.50". The bridge is fixed on the DeArmond, but the Joe Pass has a floating bridge.
Thanks Allen. Yes, it's my issue. When I had a master class with Frederick hand in the 70s. He made a comment about the size of my hands . Of course I took it personal and was ready to break my guitar. He was only mentioning it to my teacher to focus on certain exercises. More hand form, less repertoire. (Villa-lobos), right about that time I was drafted in the Vietnam War. End of story!!
I’m doing guilian’s arpeggios. I’m on group 2 #92 out of pumping nylon. Holding down that G7 so all the notes ring clear is MURDER! Córdoba C9 crossover is on my list.
I don't necessarily have small hands, but they are simply not too flexible. I suffer a little with bar chords and basically any streched positions. I believe I started to play a bit too late (in my 30s) so my hands were already a bit rigid from working. Thanks for the tips!
Thank you so much 💕🙏🏼
What do you think about nylon string guitars with a 48mm nut?
I have small, delicate hands more like a woman of 5'4 than a man of 5'9. Here is what has worked best for me, but it may not be for everyone...I have learned to buy nylon cutaways with a a nut width of 50 mm (as opposed to full body with a nut width of 52mm).
(a) The first advantage is obvious..the neck is thinner which takes some pressure off the hands. I imagine the distance between the strings is decreased as well, but I'm not 100% sure.
(b) The second advantage is that it allows me to tune down a half step and put the capo on the first fret to be in standard open tuning. This decreases the distance between frets and effectively short-scales the guitar. It wouldn't work as well on a full body guitar, because the 12th fret would become difficult to access.
(c) A third thing I do is have a guitar tech lower the action. I go to someone who is accustomed to working with classicals, so they don't go to far and create a lot of fret buzz.
(d) And the fourth thing is I use normal tension strings, instead of high tension.
I hope this is helpful to some people. I know for those aspiring to a professional classical repertoire these compromises might not be acceptable, but I think it could help a lot of people. I didn't come to this solution until my 40's, but it has helped me so much and made the world of nylon string guitar much more accessible.
Update I traded in my Cordoba GK Studio for a Cordoba Stage. It has a 48 mm nut width with a radiused fingerboard and is perfect for someone with small hands. And I don't worry about microphones, it's just plug and play
What classic guitar white slim neck??
Huge palm but short fingers, any silicon finger tips for short fingers.
Hi thanks for this video I have small hands.
I thought that 7/8 guitar size was 630 scale length, sorry just trying to find some things out here ?
Can you recommend any models of guitar of this length or size but on a very small budget ?
it is a problem to assume that 630mm is 7/8 size as if there is a proper "correct" size. Proper classical guitars (historically) come in many different sizes and it more appropriate to refer to common sizes rather than standard sizes. Just because the current fashionable style of classical guitar (which is actually derived form Spanish folk guitars of the 1850s) is 650mm, does not mean that this is a standard. We really need to move past this dogmatic rubbish. From 1800 to 1850 where more music was written for the guitar than any other time the most common size of classical guitar is 635mm, but sizes varied considerably. There is evidence to suggest that makers in the 19th century adjusted the scale length to suit the hands of their clients. anything from 590mm to 670mm is common. Stauffer Legnani model guitars, for example, have 640mm scale length. Luis Panormo guitars of which Ferdinando Sor were usually 635mm. I have 3 classical guitars made in the early 19th century, 600mm, 635mm and 640mm and the thing that affects stretching is not just scale length, is it also neck thickness. The modern style of classical guitar has a ridiculously large neck (depth and width) making it very difficult to stretch with small hands.
If you are based in Europe, Admira make some good quality for their price guitars in a range of sizes. Their first level solid tops like the concerto are excellent value for money. Tbh, after a year or so with a decent professional teacher, regular lessons & steady frequent practice, your technique will have improved to the point where a “normal” size classical will feel perfectly natural & you’ll be able to make scales & stretches that you used to find difficult.
Django Reinhardt, Tony Iommi, Beethoven & Dame Evelyn Glennie’s physical challenges didn’t stop them achieving musical zenith.
Enjoy your guitar!
Hazel Isaacs thanks, I have have an Admira but looking to upgrade and also bought a flamenco guitar to facilitate my hands because of the lower action, this helped quite a bit but looking for 7/8 size or 630 scale length, but I thought they were one and the same thing, just trying to find out as difficult looking for them in a search engine if I don’t know what I’m looking for. I’m looking for guitars a around £500
I have small hands, play electric and I hate 24 inch scale, bad tone, but that's what's easier.
I have small fingers, im older than my brother and taller yet he has way bigger fingers
or you can buy a smaller parlour guitar
Would you recommend getting a 7/8 guitar from a Guitat Center?