BTW...

[hmpf]

I think my fingers are kind of too short. My index finger doesn't really reach all the way across the neck, so I can't depress all the strings with it at the same time, which is apparently necessary sometimes.

Then again, there are special online tutorials for people with short fingers who want to play guitar, so apparently there is a way... (and hey, Thom Yorke, who is my height exactly, also has really short fingers. Though maybe they're a tiny bit longer than mine, who knows. I'm not lacking much, just a few millimetres.)

There are also tutorials for people with thick fingers, btw.

I really do love the internet.

(Not that I have time to do more than five to ten minutes' worth of practice per day at the moment. Then again, the skin on my fingertips probably wouldn't appreciate it if I did more than that anyway. It still feels like I'm pressing my fingers down on knives' edges, sometimes. :D)

***

I'm not sure if I mentioned this here before, but this sudden interest in playing the guitar isn't all that sudden, really. It's been on my Wishlist of Improbable Things and Unwise Projects for more than two decades; I just never really dared actually buying one. But in the last few months a colleague of mine has started playing and has been encouraging me to try it, too, and then, of course, my uncle decided he was going to get rid of his old one, so... things kind of just came together.

Comments

[starwatcher]

.
When I played guitar, I found nylon strings easier on my fingers; they're substantially thicker than the metal. Your fingers will still be sore until you develop calluses, but not like a knife-edge. If you actively prefer the sound of steel strings, nylon could make an interim step; once your fingers are toughened up, you could switch back to the thinner steel.

Good luck with the learning; guitar is fun.
.

[space-oddity-75.livejournal.com]

Hee, your guitar looks great! I have a pretty boring one instead, which I bought in 1990 (after saving up for one year) and never really learned how to play properly. I guess I'll just give it to my daughter when she's old enough to play it. *sighs*

No worries about having short fingers, anyway: John Simm has short and sausage-y fingers, too, but is an excellent guitarist! ;)

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

>John Simm has short and sausage-y fingers, too, but is an excellent guitarist! ;)

Good point. Though his fingers are probably still a bit longer than mine, as he's taller overall, and thus probably also has larger hands than I. Thom Yorke - who has visibly tiny hands, and isn't any taller than I - makes a better role model for me, methinks.

Except maybe it's a bit frustrating to take him as a role model, as he started playing at age 7 and is famous and possibly a genius and so on. ;-)

[anduranova.livejournal.com]

Ich bin schon ganz gespannt wie es mit dir und der Gitarre weiter geht. Irgendwann in meinem Leben muss ich auch noch mal ein Instrument lernen.

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Ich bin auch gespannt! Dooferweise komm ich im Moment immer erst so spät von der Arbeit, dass ich das Gefühl habe, um die Uhrzeit kann ich eigentlich - meinen Nachbarn und Vermietern zuliebe - nicht mehr üben. :-(