Size isn’t everything, but…
…big hands and long, slim, flexible fingers undoubtedly help for playing “monster shred guitar licks,” wouldn’t you say? (Think Rusty Cooley — have you seen the über-stretches required to play the licks on his instructional guitar videos? Mama mia!)
You all have heard me whine about my mutant pinkie and itty-bitty girlie hands. But being one of those annoying science-types with a bunch of fancy (but useless) letters after my name, I’m never satisfied to stop at conjecture and wild-ass guesses. I’ll leave THAT for the politicians. What is required here is objective and verifiable quantitative data! Yes, dear readers, I’m about to talk about my MEASUREMENTS.
Feel free to compare size (ha!) if you want to — and don’t be afraid to go metric; it makes things seem bigger.
In this study, I employed the following method to measure my tiny mutant hands with clinical precision:
1) Strech fretting hand as wide as possible (left hand in my case)
2) Place stretched hand on blank piece of paper
3) Make a drawing of the hand by carefully tracing around its contours with a freshly sharpened no. 2 pencil, then darken the lines with a thick black marker.
4) On the palm side of the hand itself, use a reliable ruler to take the required measurements for this study.
5) Note down the measurements (in millimeters) on the drawing.
The results of this study are summarized in the figure below:
(click the image for a more-or-less life-sized version)
Feel free to post your own measurements in comments! If you would like to send a photo (or drawing of your own large or small hands), put it in an email or let me know where I can download it. I’ll blog any I receive. You have until Saturday, Feb 24, 23:59 GMT+1.
The person with the smallest hands wins…………..
……..my deepest sympathies and a free lifetime membership in the Cult of the Mutant Pinkie 
Popularity: 5% [?]
Oops..we’re getting a bit intimate here, aren’t we?
I have no ruler handy (ha ha) but I guess for someone who plays drums (I could never call myself a ‘drummer’) I guess my hands are quite small..interresting test tho…I’ll try and make the deadline with an entry.
One thing I concluded from this study is, when you try tracing the contours of your hand with a permanent marker you get dirty hands with difficult stains to get rid off (I am such an idiot
)
Greetz Taz
Oooh.. *does the test thingi* and well look who wont win.. :/
Measurements of mine also in mm starting with the pinkie:
pinkie 73mm, ring 88mm, middle finger 95mm, index finger 90mm.
Distance from pinkie till index finger 155mm.
Distance from pinkie till thumb 212mm.
picture here: http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b367/yserim/iceyhand.jpg
PS Dont mind the blue stuff.. it was on the other side of the paper.. they’re some secret plans for my homepage.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/intGod/Various/myHandForLori.jpg
Lifesized! (At least on my monitor)
BTW: You have no idea how glad I am to read one of your more lighthearted posts. Thank you.
BTW2: Feel free to delete my comment and blog it separately.
Or start a mutantPinkies.feminoise.com
I’m just blabbing and I’ll quit now.
Up till now, I have the biggest hands I guess. From thumb to pinky about 23 cm. I’ll sent in mine tomorrow. At least the outline
well, i didn’t exactly follow procedure 100%, because I don’t own a ruler… but I put a ruler in my image margin in photoshop and made sure that it matched up properly with the 8.5 inch side of a sheet of computer paper, and it did, so I am considering it to be an accurate ruler. I hope y’all do as well. To make up for that unforgivable method change, i converted my inches to millimeters.
Pinkie to Thumb = 213 mm
pointer to pinkie = 136.5 mm
pointer = 73 mm
middle = 81 mm
ring = 66.5 mm
pinkie = 54 mm
…good to know. ha ha. thanks for the entertaining time killer, Lori!
Wow…. Im not going to even bother…
The measurement from my index to pinkie is 165mm
and from my pinkie to thumb…. its 223
Well… at least I have the biggest hands so far!
People are always telling me I have long fingers. Whether or not that’s true I’m not sure, but they’re nice round numbers…
Pinkie: 60mm
Ring: 70mm
Middle: 75mm
Index: 70mm
Pinkie to Thumb: 190
So in conclusion… Despite having slightly longer fingers than yours Lori, my handspan is shorter *insert raised eyebrow here*. That thumb has been broken before now though, and I’m constantly slicing bits off it…
I don’t have a scanner (that works) so I can’t upload the picture, but I’m assuming that even though the only permanent marker I had to hand (ha!) was red the measurements still count…!
…D’oh. My bad, change all those 8’s to 7’s.
[Your wish is my command! -- Lori]
mcophie! You rounded up that numbers on purpose!
Here are my sizes (never thought I’d use that sentence in public
)
- Thumb – Pinky: 245
- Index – Pinky: 162
- Index: 81
- Middle: 91
- Ring: 85
- Pinky: 68
Biggest so far, but not the biggest hands I’ve ever seen. At least my oldest brother and father have bigger hands.
So Lori, are you going to use this pinky-data for a big plan to take over the world for us pinky-fans?
well here are my sizes, hmm, I never knew that my ring finger was longer then my index..
thumb – pinky = 223
index – pinky = 160
index = 78
middle = 87
ring = 82
pinky = 67
and isn’t it true, that when you start playing at an early age (not just powerchords, but real playing) your fingers are considerably longer?
a
Pinkie:62
Ring:73
Middle:77
Index:74
Pinkie-Index:140
Pinkie-Thumb:211
Typical Postal worker hands!
Greetz Taz
wouldn’t it be wonderfull to be a fly on the wall and see everyone meassuring up their hand
hahahhahah
hugs
Gwen
Funny how Appelmoes?? has bigger hands than me (the pinkie-index and pinkie-thumb distances are longer) but that my fingers are longer than his.
@Alexander:
For guys it’s pretty normal to have your ring-finger longer than your index-finger. It has something to do with male hormones while being in your mommies belly. With boy-girl twins, the girl usually has a longer ring-finger too. Weird stuff huh?
Here’s my hand:
- Thumb – Pinky: 215
- Index – Pinky: 147
- Index: 66
- Middle: 75
- Ring: 70
- Pinky: 59
Very close to Lori’s one (but I’m a man *raised eyebrow*) as a bass player my pinkie-index is a little more developed (still I have little hands)
Wow I found I can stretch my hand a little more…
Pinkie-Index is now 154mm
*smile*
now I look at my sizes (oooh er…) I think my hands are malformed…
Pinkie – 57
Ring – 70
middle 78
index – 73
index – pinkie 15
thumb – pinkie 19.6
Taz: Sorry for my crummy instructions. You’re supposed to LIFT YOUR HAND OFF THE PAPER before tracing with the black pen…
Gwen: Ha ha! I was thinking the same thing! I can picture people with their tongues sticking out in concentration, carefully tracing their hands…
Thanks to all who have joined in and posted their measurements (and photos!). I’ll make a new blog for the photos (and announce the winner) on Sunday, after the deadline!
Oh, and Appel, don’t underestimate the dark subversive power of the Cult of the Mutant Pinkie…
OK…I found the thing I was looking for…check out this Racer X forum post
Dannyjoe Carter
http://www.dannyjoecarter.com/photos/dannyjoe_carter-video1.JPG
“Lamer”
http://www.lamer.wrzasq.com/stretch.jpg
….WTF…
“spkenn5″
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/3012/crazystretchbymystudenteg8.jpg
oops forum post
http://racerxband.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=12057&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20
OMFGWTFBBQLOLLERSK8Z!
Okay – here we go !
Pinkie: 66
Ring: 79
Middle: 82
Index: 79
Pinkie – Index: 156
Pinkie – Thumb: 212
Lori – I have an extremely “mutated” (Right-Hand) Pinkie…
Which quite honestly… is because of (ahem) – “U” – know who ! ! !
Love y’ Lots !
An hour late, but here goes..
Index: 76
Middle: 83
Ring: 76
Pinky: 66
Pinky – Thumb: 218
Pinky – Index: 150
Grtz, Hugo
Thanks for all your measurements, everybody! This was fun
And thanks for linking to impossibly-large-handed monsters, Laurie. That was too much!
Pinkie: 65
Ring: 81
Middle: 86
Index: 82
Pinkie – Index: 170
Pinkie – Thumb: 221
sometimes have small hands suks because you can’t play liks like the awsome tapping of perpetual burn…when i saw the tab i dind´t belive that someone can stretch his fingers fron the 5th fret to 12th fret…after all…the size isn´t everthing a clear exapple of this is michael romeo who has small and fat handas but he kick ass…
pd: sorry , i´m from chile so my english sucks a bit…
grettings…
COME TO CHILE SOMEDAY PLZ!!!
I have the same problem, my fingers are only slightly bigger than yours and I’m male!
Here’s the measurements
Pinkie:59mm
Ring:71mm
middle:75mm
Index:64mm
Your right about neck joints being important, I’m hoping for a neck through Jackson RR24 next. I’m using an Ibanez S470 at the moment, it’s a real slim guitar with a nice neck, although the bolt on is annoying for sweeping when standing up on the thicker strings. I believe Herman Li has very small fingers as well.
Keep up the good work
Regards Nathan x
I’ve come to the conclusion that working out and excercise MAAAD improves dexterity and speed on guitar… yesterday I worked out for 2 hours and had a run, followed by a joint, then i picked up my guitar and noticed I was playing alot fucken faster than I normally would ever be able to, also playing songs that gave me troubles with ease. In my own opinion i’d say I was pretty fucken close to shredding on one scale last night, alternate picking each indvidual note… one more step closer to my ultimate goal… being able to shred… and being so good that a girl would give me a BJ while playing! (sorry lori don’t wanna offend you but that would be fucken awsome! it’s also just a joke me and my friend’s have
) I’d post my hand measurements but i don’t have a ruler… My hands are quite small, i’d say average length in my fingers but yet nice and slender.
also… set up a forum where everyone can rant about guitar shit! Guitarists improve the most by being influenced and shown extra tips by other guitarists using different techniques.
I know I’m late! T.T but better later than never
Pinkie to Thumb = 183 mm
pointer to pinkie = 135 mm
pointer = 68 mm
middle = 75 mm
ring = 70 mm
pinkie = 57 mm
I used to blame myself by the measures of my hands I think they’re so small and then I see that I got almost the same measures of mcophie and Lori so I thought: “If one of the greatest guitar players got almost the same hands size as me that means that maybe one day I will be capable of playing like her” so I took my guitar wich is a Fender with a very slim neck and start playing the stream of passion solo at 190 bpm loudly
(I’ve practicing really hard!!! I know that 190 bpm its Lori’s slow playing but when I play that fast I feel very happy since I’ve been playing for 6 months and no one’s teaching me) at 2:00 am so I learn today 2 things:
1.- My neighbors blame me, and blame my sons, and the sons of my sons and the pet of my sons of my sons…
2.- Size doesn’t matter if you keep hardworking.
Weird thing: the size of the pointer of men tend to be smaller than the ring because of the testosterone and in women the pointer is the bigger one because of the oestrogen.
I know my english sucks, sorry :S
Hi Andres
Well that sure brought back a lot of nice memories.
Better late than never ?!
Never do today what you can put off ’til tomorrow !
By the way – your English doesn’t “suck !”
Love y’ Lori,
Stephen x x x
OOPS ! – HI “ADRES” – SORRY !
Love y’ Lori,
Stephen x x x