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rombsix -> Left (fretting) hand LONGER than right hand (Apr. 28 2012 0:35:47)
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Hey mates,
I was asking a classical guitarist friend of mine about instances where a half-barre is required for example over strings 4, 3, and 2 while keeping string 1 open to ring (like in that PdL falseta from the jaleo "Olé" which I commented on with photos but have yet to receive responses). I was telling him that my left hand is just too short, altogether, and each of its components (fingers and their segments).
He said, "You need to lengthen your left hand." So I assumed he was joking, but he assured me (with clear photo illustration) that practicing a lot of stretchy pieces and working the left hand hard actually made his left hand LONGER than his right hand.
I use the word "longer" because the fingers actually no longer coincide when the two hands are put together palm to palm. It is obvious that the creases at the finger segments do not align anymore, clearly showing how the left hand and fingers have become longer than the right. He told me that he was not born this way, but this was a result of 5 or 6 years of practice. He told me that other guitarists he knows have experienced this too.
This notion is interesting because those of us that complain of short hands / fingers have hope after all. [8D] Surely the hand won't become 3 inches longer, but it does get longer and in my case, maybe that will give me a bit more "finger" to do that half-barre like Paco without having to suffer from it (unless y'all have words of wisdom for me about that issue) or get a narrower string spacing.
What is more interesting to me though is how this happens from a scientific standpoint. We know that the growth plates of bones are sealed by puberty, and thus bones don't usually lengthen after that time. In acromegaly for example (excess growth hormone release by the anterior pituitary gland), the hands characteristically are enlarged, but mostly in width / bulk due to soft tissue effects. Patients with this disease however are said to become taller due to lengthening of bones in the legs...
Any thoughts on this matter?
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