Are your left hand fingers longer than your right?
Just a fun little topic I was curious about. Mine are substantially longer on my left than my right... perhaps almost a centimeter! My dad's also got a bit of a difference, but he really only plays guitar. Piano players tend not to have this difference, from my experience, but I'm wondering if it's simply hereditary? Anyhow, let's see how physically deformed we all are, haha.
(And on an unrelatedish note, are your ring fingers longer than your index? Studies have shown they produce a better punching hand...)
Replies (13)
Nah, my fingers are exactly the same length...Whoa, and I's been playin fiddle for 40 years. Hey maybe I's been doin' the wrong training. But why would this make fingers grow longer...Huh..?
I'm a biologist so my immediate reaction was 'come off it'. I checked by lining up the fingers by matching the base crease with the palm. And with that measurement the left fingers WERE longer, the little finger about 3 mm, the others only 1-2.
But then I had another idea. Line up the lower arms by standing the elbows side by side on a table. With this measure there was no difference. When I peel the hands back to see their alignment (rotate the lower arms to reveal the palms I then see that the forearms seem to the be same length (the wrist lines align). The difference is within the palm - the right finger first knuckle crease is further out than left. Also if I fold my fingers at the first knuckle (putting the finger at right angles to the palm) the top of the knuckles are the same. Thus the difference is solely in the fingers.
So what does this mean? As I interpret it, there is no difference in the actual length of the finger bones. Whats happened is that the first crease (corresponding to the first knuckle) has moved down. This is easy to imagine as a consequence of stretching, 'opening', the left hand with finger stretches.
But I wish you would repeat this analysis as you have more finger length difference to work with. The question is: is the difference due to longer finger bones or just to a downward shift in the skin-finger crease?
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yes Elise, I did what you specified and same result here. I think it should be clear that the difference will lie in the joints which have widened and not in the length of the actual bones!
yup, a retired professional cellist I know has a left pinky that is surprisingly longer than his right one.
As a life-long cellist, and now violinist, I find that my left index, second, and fourth finger are visually longer than those on my right hand, by about 1-3mm. The ring finger on both hands is the same length. I support Elise's observation that in my case the left hand is also a little longer, and wider, than the right; not by much, but it is there is you look for it.
Further, the lateral stretch between my left fingers, and their independence, is noticeably bigger than the right; in particular, the stretch distance between the tip of the index finger and the fourth finger of the left hand is 20mm more than than that of the right. No surprises there I suppose, in view of my background.
My right fingers are infinitely longer than the left, 'cause I ain't got no left ones.
This is just CRAZY. I can not believe I am sitting here sizing up my hands.....I must be really weird...my hands are exactly the same size, yeah and I done years of playing classical guitar and violin....??
Gotcha Lyle. I guess we should all be happy we have fingers to compare...
Of course it would be interesting to know if your right fingers are longer than they should be; trouble is we don't have a yard stick...
"Are your left hand fingers longer than your right?"
Dunno. Perhaps I should ask my wife! (wink)(smirk)(giggle)..
Wow, Elise. Insightful. And correct, haha. The bones of my fingers are the same length. My skin is stretchy, I guess. :P
Something to think about though, why have some people developed this more than others? It can't be how long one has played. I'm sure I haven't played half as long as most people on this site. Does the age you start at matter? Or the length of your bones before you even touch the instrument? Curious.
[and your sense of humor is impeccable, Adrian.]
Yeah, Elise, it's been 44 years since I had a full set of fingers and I don't think I ever compared them. I didn't start playing until 28 years ago at age 43. But I would think any changes in bone length would have to occur before adulthood. I suspect that this is mostly a random function, based mainly on heredity.
Suebin, I guess it may depend on the size of your hands: the obvious guess would be that the smaller the hand and the more you have struggled to 'open' the hand the bigger the effect. I wonder if there is any correlation with the time you started - I can't use myself as an example as I started in fairly early childhood (6) but only got serious in my 50s. So it could be a vestige from way back or a new phenom.
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September 30, 2014 at 09:35 AM · I actually noticed that too, that my left fingers are longer, but, since I only paid attention to this after I had trained my left hand for violin playing, I do not know if it is caused by it. For example my left pinky is almost half a centimeter longer than my right pinky. For the other fingers the difference is smaller. But note that you typically work a lot on your pinky. So yes, I think left-hand training on the violin really lengthens your fingers. I actually vaguely remember having even read that somewhere but I can't remember where.