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Question #16
I'm a pretty small lady, only about 5 feet and my hands are kind
of small too... I am finding it difficult to make all of my left-hand
fingers reach the different frets in each chord. Is this normal?
Do they make guitars that are a bit smaller for smaller people?
Answer
I know you will hate to hear this after investing in your Alvarez,
but... Yeah, there are smaller guitars. I have run into this often
in my private teaching. I don't want to get myself in trouble
here, but my experience has been that many of my female students
are to small for full size acoustic guitars. And it is near impossible
for people with small hands to play a nylon string classical guitar.
Depending on the style of music you play, I might suggest trying
an electric guitar. It is still a full size guitar, but the neck
is narrower, and the body is drastically smaller. The full size
acoustic is called a Dreadnought. There are acoustics with smaller
bodies, sometimes called Concert or Constantina. Do not get a
nylon string guitar; the neck on this type of guitar is about
30% bigger than a steel string acoustic.
Below are some graphics to give you an idea of the size differences
between a Dreadnought, Concert, and 3/4 size acoustic guitar.
Dreadnought
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Concert
or Constantina
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3/4 size
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Struggling with a guitar that is too big for you is not any fun
:) I might bite the bullet and think about getting a guitar that
fits your hands. Now you know a little more about playing than
you did when you bought the guitar you have now. Go out and play
as many different guitars as you can. Try both acoustic and electric
guitars, and find one that fits you.
I had a woman take lessons from me recently. She had bought a
very expensive acoustic-electric guitar. It was a Jumbo Dreadnought,
bigger than a normal full size. Her hands were just too small
to play it. For awhile I just didn't have the heart to tell her
that it was the wrong guitar for her. But eventually she did end
up buying a new acoustic guitar. It was still a full size, just
a smaller scale neck and body. Her playing improved drastically
because she could now reach the notes and chords with ease. She
also could now see and reach over the guitar. On her old guitar,
it was a struggle to get her right arm around the guitar to strum
the strings.
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