Changes in guitarist's fingers

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tele

Posts: 1468
Joined: Aug. 17 2012

Changes in guitarist's fingers

Anyone else noticed changes in fingers when comparing left hand with right after years or decades of guitar playing, for example, pinky finger being longer on left hand and index and middle fingers slightly bent towards the ring finger from the middle up, while left hand index and middle fingers are straight(improved shape for picking strings I think)

Just curious how the body adapts to the instrument

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 16 2024 21:19:05

gerundino63

Posts: 1749
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to tele)

For sure! Different hands.
Did you turn your hand also over to compare the inside? Left looks more muscular (if you are right handed)

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 17 2024 8:29:27

Ricardo

Posts: 14976
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to tele)

It is your imagination guys, sorry. You did not take data before to compare to now so you have a bias. My friend tried to claim this about himself some 30 years ago, so I have been observing my own hands. No, it is in your mind.

Maybe you guys saw that movie the illusionist? He does a trick with his back turned asked the lady to hold up her hand to her head with the coin in it to “project it” to him mentally. Then put her hand to her sides…he turns and guesses the correct hand. How? The blood pools up in the hand that dangled, so the darker hand did NOT have the coin. I realize that the situation of guitar makes some guitar players superficially look like the right hand has beefed up and the left looks more normal, but it is an illusion of the blood flow that just balances out later.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 17 2024 11:42:55

metalhead

Posts: 135
Joined: Apr. 15 2023

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to Ricardo)

My left hand fingers are actually slightly longer too. Never noticed this before playing guitar, only noticed this few months ago. I wish I could take a picture

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 17 2024 13:34:12

silddx

Posts: 602
Joined: May 8 2012
From: London

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to gerundino63)

There are very few muscles in the hand.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 17 2024 20:18:14

tele

Posts: 1468
Joined: Aug. 17 2012

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to metalhead)

Noticed that it's not only the pinky that's longer it's indeed all the fingers on the left hand.

One luthier just pointed once to compare the pinkies on guitarist's hand and that made me notice the matter.

Right hand middle finger, anyone else has bent slightly towards the ring finger, up from the middle joint?

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 18 2024 0:43:07

Norman Paul Kliman

Posts: 91
Joined: Dec. 5 2023

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to tele)

quote:

anyone else has bent slightly towards the ring finger, up from the middle joint?

Mine are like that. I’m right handed. On the left, the middle’s fairly straight and the index and ring curve toward it after the middle joint. On the right, the ring’s fairly straight, and the index and middle curve toward it. The curves are more pronounced on my right hand. On both hands, the nails are off center (a little closer to the side away from the thumb). Extended, they look pretty ugly but everything seems to line up right when they’re bent in playing position.

I think Ricardo’s right. I’ve seen photos of Sabicas with fat, gnarly fingers, but I think it was just his old age when the photo was taken.

Short fingers on plump hands seem to get the most consistent results. Melchor and many others. The thing is, Paco had long (and maybe twisted) fingers, and nobody has played as well as he did.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 18 2024 12:51:42

Ricardo

Posts: 14976
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to metalhead)

quote:

ORIGINAL: metalhead

My left hand fingers are actually slightly longer too. Never noticed this before playing guitar, only noticed this few months ago. I wish I could take a picture

Like i said, I have been running this experiment for 30 years now, before I was even playing flamenco proper (I used a pick back then). My RIGHT HAND pinky is still larger than my left hand pinky since I noticed it as a kid. Fingers are curved on both hands, etc. My hands are fatter only. My favorite YouTube comment after having posted videos for a decade or more, some guy said “Every new video this guy puts up he gets fatter. Doesn’t he know going to the gym doesn’t bother the hands??”

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 18 2024 16:29:58

rombsix

Posts: 7849
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to Ricardo)

quote:

“Every new video this guy puts up he gets fatter. Doesn’t he know going to the gym doesn’t bother the hands??”

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Ramzi

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 19 2024 2:59:46

Auda

Posts: 249
Joined: Sep. 28 2019

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to tele)

No I have not but I have noticed the tip of my left hand index finger now leans away from the middle finger. I noticed it about 2 years after I started to play flamenco. It is my contention that it is due to all the stretches from finger movement when playing barre with the index finger. Has this occurred to anybody else?

Cheers

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 19 2024 4:04:34

AndresK

Posts: 328
Joined: Jan. 4 2019
From: Patras, Greece

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to Ricardo)

My hands haven't changed for 30 years now. But maybe the sound they produce changed because a guy on YouTube told me that I sound like crap.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 19 2024 11:28:20

rombsix

Posts: 7849
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to AndresK)

quote:

But maybe the sound they produce changed because a guy on YouTube told me that I sound like crap

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Ramzi

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 19 2024 12:22:31

Stu

Posts: 2618
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to Ricardo)

quote:

Every new video this guy puts up he gets fatter. Doesn’t he know going to the gym doesn’t bother the hands??

Haha. Ouch. I spend a lot of time reading yt comments. It's like a developing art form. Some comedic gold down there

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 19 2024 13:07:23

kitarist

Posts: 1719
Joined: Dec. 4 2012

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to metalhead)

quote:

My left hand fingers are actually slightly longer too.

Maybe they always were, but if you are sure not, then it is the calluses that can make them appear longer. But no, guitar playing does not change the length of your fingers unless you are a kid who is still growing (even then it is just a correlation, not a causation. Did you know that kids with larger feet are better readers?).

This all started with a Segovia myth that his left hand fingers became significantly longer than right hand fingers, by like a half inch/ centimetre. Not sure if he himself claimed that or someone misinterpreted a bad photo (or just made it up), but it was a "known fact" since the 1970s or even earlier..

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Konstantin

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 19 2024 17:43:08

devilhand

Posts: 1639
Joined: Oct. 15 2019

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to tele)

Sooner or later everyone's fingers, particularly right hand fingers, will look fat and stiff.
Reliable source: Encuentro video - Merengue de Cordoba and Gerardo Nunez.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 20 2024 9:23:07

Stu

Posts: 2618
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to devilhand)

Man if you're making jokes, someone with your reputation should really start using emojis.

Cos as a joke that's funny.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 20 2024 9:51:43

Goldwinghai

Posts: 217
Joined: Mar. 17 2015
From: Virginia USA

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to tele)

The fingernails of my left hand are flatter compared to those on the right hand which are more tunnel-like shape. Is it caused by the pressure from the finger tips from years of playing?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 22 2024 0:10:57

Ricardo

Posts: 14976
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to Goldwinghai)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Goldwinghai

The fingernails of my left hand are flatter compared to those on the right hand which are more tunnel-like shape. Is it caused by the pressure from the finger tips from years of playing?

Do you ever use glue on your nails or some other product?

Looks like you do, and THAT is the explanation:

http://www.foroflamenco.com/tm.asp?m=113450&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=&tmode=&smode=&s=#319076

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 22 2024 11:37:56

Goldwinghai

Posts: 217
Joined: Mar. 17 2015
From: Virginia USA

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to Ricardo)

I did use that stuff on both hands for a short time. My natural nails are very hard but when there was a chip on my right hand fingernail, I put a little super glue on it.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 22 2024 13:41:35

Paul Magnussen

Posts: 1809
Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to tele)

When I was young, my fingers were more flexible: I could play the usual A Major chord with just the first finger of my left hand, bending it back to avoid the first string.

I could do the same thing with my fourth finger on a B Major chord (but not with my third finger, for some reason).

However, they don’t bend backwards any more (although there’s no pain or any other problem).

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 22 2024 17:51:03

Norman Paul Kliman

Posts: 91
Joined: Dec. 5 2023

RE: Changes in guitarist's fingers (in reply to Paul Magnussen)

quote:

However, they don’t bend backwards any more

Try doing it elsewhere on the fretboard. For example, this soleá cierre in E.

Partial index barre at second fret on third, fourth and fifth strings, leaving second string open:

--------------------------------------------
-----0--------------0-------------0------------
---------2--------------2-------------2--------
-3-----------3-------------3-------------3-------
-----------------5-------------2-----------------
------------------------------------------------0-

Arpeggios (p-a-m-i) in sixteenth notes, so beat 7 is F on fourth string, beat 8 is D on fifth string and beat 9 is B on fifth string.

If that doesn’t work for you, play it without a barre and start by fretting with ring and index, then little finger frets D and middle frets B.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 23 2024 8:36:03