Physical ailments with guitar: gifts and burdens

[revolead]

I was practicing Eric Johnson's Cliffs of Dover today. Anyone have any idea how tall tha guy is? Or how big his hands are? I'm 6'5" and I have huge hands, so guitar has always been easy for me to catch onto ridiculous intervals. How do you guys with smaller hands fair? I know my guitar instructor could play the whole song and he has tiny hands, so I guess size doesn't matter as much as how you use it (No innuendoes implied).

Take this for example:

 

|-1O------------|----12-14----|---------------12------|

|-8----------12-|-15-------15-|-----------------------|

|-O-------12----|-------------|-------1O-15-----------|

|------12-------|-------------|----12-----------------|

|---------------|-------------|-1O--------------------|

|---------------|-------------|-----------------------|

 

Now one can easily play that D on the 10th fret of the E, but he's got it on the 15th of the B. While I can handle that jump alright, I can't imagine some guy who's like 5'4" trying to play this song the way its written. Any comments or ideas?

[yamsa2000]

I can play it - do I get honorary membership of the 6'5" club?(I'm 5'10") All I can say is regardless of size - where there's a will there's a way. More often than not it's not really a question of stretching your fingers to unheard of lengths, just hand placement ie. shifting the position of the hand in relation to the neck.

[Blue Strat]

Honestly, your example doesn't look too hard to play. I've got wide hands, but short fingers, but I believe that I could play that. The lead intro part to "Fade to Black" by Metallica looks harder, and I can play that.

[pauldil]

Originally posted by revolead:

...I can't imagine some guy who's like 5'4" trying to play this song the way its written. Any comments or ideas?

I'm not sure what height has to do with playing guitar? I'm not tall but I have big hands (and I still can't play for sh*t )I used to work with a guy who was 6'2" and had the smallest hands I'd ever seen on a grown man. Pat Martino is not tall, but can play some amazing things. And of course there's Django! I mean, talk about a burden! I think one just adapts to the size and shape of their hands.

 

Paul

[revolead]

i was thinking proportionally guys. Don't worry, I was never trying to say I will be a better player or blah, blah, blah. I was just curious what you guys thought of any physical ailments or anything.

Bluestrat - I don't think that solo is harder than Cliffs of Dover. Now, while I haven't mastered either, I can play Fade to Black way better than Cliffs of Dover. It took me about a week or two to learn Metallica. I've been on EJ for a couple months, and I still suck.

[doc taz]

Originally posted by gotMYgit:

I can play it - do I get honorary membership of the 6'5" club?(I'm 5'10") All I can say is regardless of size - where there's a will there's a way. More often than not it's not really a question of stretching your fingers to unheard of lengths, just hand placement ie. shifting the position of the hand in relation to the neck.

Don't forget the way your guitar's positioned, especially when standing. Unless you're Zakk Wylde, I don't think most folks can do wide intervals on the fretboard with the guitar slung super low without hurting something.