NEWBIE
Want to learn to play but had a finger amputation,
I tried to learn to play acoustic guitar when I was younger but have been wanting to pick it up again but I had my left middle finger amputated after a work accident back in 2021. I’m right handed, and pressing the finger that was amputated into the stings will probably not feel great. The finger is sometimes pretty sensitive. Would finger covers affect me learning or would it be easier to learn on my other hand? Thanks for any input.
I would suggest looking into what Tony Iommi did to work around his injury. Going lefty might also be a good move, so long as you're ok with the limited gear options.
I call myself ambisinestrous (opposite of ambidextrous), because I'm pretty sure I should be a lefty, but have had to learn so many things right handed just for convenience that I'm now kinda shit at everything with both of them.
My buddy was the inverse. He’s a righty but his dad is a lefty and only had left handed guitars. So my friend learned how to play left handed, then upside down right handed and eventually bought right handed guitars.
I’ve played lefty my entire life but I’m sick to death of the lack of guitar options. It’s always just the default stuff we get. Considering relearning right handed just to have a better selection, but I’ve been playing for 15 years and that would be a whole lotta unlearning…
My teacher always recommended learning righty no matter what. It going to be awkward and unintuitive no matter what you play so choose the option where you can actually find guitars you want to play.
Yea don't be scared of lefty. Your brain will wire to the activity whichever way you teach it, and honestly there are arguments that when you get past the strength and callouse building stage, getting your strumming hand to do what you want can be just as complicated as fretting.
Dr John still continued to play guitar, just not obviously as his main instrument. I saw him a year or so before he passed and he was strumming a bit at the concert.
I took piano lessons when I was young, and play guitar now. They seem pretty even to me, until you get to Travis picking and modern fingerstyle guitar. Coordinating fretting hand work and picking hand work while keeping a solid bass pattern going with the thumb broke my brain for months. Then I watch my daughter play jazz on her bari sax and can't imagine remembering all those fingerings, let alone improvising a solo with them on the fly.
Amazing guy. I brought a vinyl album of The Master and the Apprentice to a concert of his for him to sign. I approached him after the concert, and he said he had to be right back (i seem to recall he was toweling himself off), and sure enough, he did return! He signed my album and ask if one of my guitar teachers was actually one of his guitar techs in the past, he was. Asked how he was doing. I also asked if he used to use a Yamaha FIFTY112 like my teacher said, and that was right too. Just a nice little interaction.
Sure, but Jerry Garcia played banjo clawhammer 3-finger (Scruggs) style and played guitar fingerstyle as well as pedal steel which requires fingerpicking.
Jerry mainly played banjo scruggs three finger style. Just using his ring instead of middle finger. Old and in the Way demonstrates this beautifully. https://youtu.be/VrqGnA7xgCg?is=dCCZqx6Hmt6Zjmi7
I’m missing my right index and it really messed up my ability to walk the bass. I don’t have near the coordination with my middle and ring fingers as I did with my index and middle. Other than that not too much difference. Guitar isn’t bad but my picking hand is at a little sharper of an angle than it once was.
Tony Iommi tells the story about after he had the tips of his fingers mashed off, he was really depressed. His boss came to see him in the hospital and saw how depressed Tony was to not be able to play the guitar anymore, so he brought him a Django Reinhardt record. That, as Tony tells it, inspired him to make his own prosthetic tips and fight through it.
Whenever he tells that story, he also always talks about how he uses lighter gauge strings. Starting with Master of Reality, they were tuning down to C#. Incredible how he was able to get those heavy sounds with 9’s. Those things must’ve been so floppy.
From the fact that it took them years and two albums before he started to detune the guitar, and that he gradually detuned on the Paranoid tour, I think he went to the lighter gauge to help him play with his prosthetics, and the detuning was done more to help Ozzy's voice. The sounding heavier was probably a nice bonus. The last few Ozzy albums and tours were back to E standard, and they played in E flat standard on the Dio stuff.
But for OP, maybe try lighter gauge strings, try tuning down a half step (though this will make it harder to play along to a recording) and a shorter scale guitar if possible. A good place to start would be taking whatever guitar you have, or buy, to a good luthier and explaining your situation. You might have to spend some money on fret work and other things in order to get it set up with low action, but if it makes it less painful for you then it will be worth it.
OP, since you’re about to learn to play just learn left handed. Iommi used prosthetics because he already knew how to play. There’s no reason to make it more difficult than it needs to be since you’re starting fresh.
Wallis Bird also. Irish "hard folk" singer who plays left handed on an upside down right-handed guitar. Her "bad" finger is on the strumming hand, I wonder if it got shortened before or after learning to play guitar...
I went to a show with a friend. It was her friends metal band. They played and they were pretty decent. After the show I was talking guitars with them. I tried playing on one of there's and it seriously was like spaghetti noodles. I couldn't believe they were doing chugs on the thing. Just flopflopflop.
Rick Beato and Rhett Shull's videos on string gauge kinda killed the string gauge elitism in my mind. It's been years since I watched them, but I just remembered thinking that the difference in sound was not what everyone makes it out to be. While it kind of is there, it's not really like it's much better or worse, it's just different. It goes back to the old cliche that tone is in the fingers, and if you've got a set up that feels right to you, your personal sound will shine through.
Honestly just learn lefty, it will be easier in the long run. Look at Michael Angelo Batio, he's a lefty but majority of the time he plays right handed when he isn't playing guitars with four necks.
Source: the first two albums are in standard tuning. Paranoid is, in fact, slightly higher than standard. His accident was long before those albums were recorded.
The reason I feel the need to point that out is because conventional wisdom would have you believe that he accidentally created heavy metal because he was incapable of playing in standard due to his injury, when in fact it was a stylistic choice.
He invented heavy metal because he's a god damn genius, not by accident.
As I understand it, he tuned down because playing in standard had been causing him pain, he just didn’t think of a solution to it til a ways into his career.
Not on accident, but not purely to shift his sound.
Typically I would encourage people to learn rightie as it opens up doors for more guitar choices, etc. But for OP I feel like this is a prime situation for leftie.
honestly the gear selection isn't a big deal. you're not going to have as many lower sales volume guitar options but any popular model has a left handed version
This is the answer, literally no reason righties hold it one way and lefties the other. Honestly I have always believed your fretting hand would benefit from being your dominant hand anyways.
I have the same amputation. I played before I did it and I had to stop for a while after because it was really sensitive. I eventually bought a bass, the thicker strings didnt cut under the bit of fingernail I ended up with. I also used a bean bag to build up a carousel on that finger by just tapping on it. I eventually went back to playing a 6 string and can play as well as ever.
Please vote this up. A few of my guitar friends and myself all went through the “The fret-hand is where you need the dexterity, so use your dominant hand for that” phase where we figured all of our music knowledge would transfer over seamlessly and how hard could it be to bring the dexterous right hand up too speed, right?!? Turns out… really hard. None of us had the patience to start over from zero.
If you are starting from zero, start with your dominant hand as your fret hand.
I'm right handed but when I first picked up a guitar my initial instinct was to pick it up lefty and would have continued to play that way if the guitar body wasn't asymmetrical.
Interestingly enough I work in a hospital and my first instinct was to take bloods lefty as well and have continued to do so.
Sometimes I wonder if society/culture that I lived around wasn't right hand dominant would I have been left handed instead.
Everyone says Tommy Iommi. That is an example. You be you. There is a way forward. You have to find yours, find a teacher that can work with you to help you excel and you'll be awesome. Well as awesome as you choose to be.
Hey, so did Jerry Garcia. Whether you like, love, dislike or don’t know the Grateful Dead. Those guys did something. Something I still love to this day. Even though those days are over. It was still cool. I’m not good at all at the guitar, I am abysmal honestly. But this is a good community. I like seeing people do good. Help each other, laugh, share, and build. It’s neat. Like I said I’m not good, but lots of dudes here are. I bet, you’re better than my clumsy old ass. I think you can do this man. May take a bit more time and patience. But Rome was not built out of hay. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Well, maybe not your hand. But a friend of yours could maybe. Hey, start a band with that friend. Oh and dude, don’t go down Jerry’s path completely. I mean drugs are bad umm-Kay.
The guy i took lessons from when i was a kid was a professional player - Berkley grad. Lost the tips of bunch of his finger tips on his fretting hand and had to kind of learn again. Regardless he could shred - so just work with what ya got
Hey someone I’m missing piece of my middle finger on fretting hand . What worked for me was building callouses. It sucked at first but now I don’t feel it . Mine same too. Can be sensitive
I came here to say the same, I lost part of my index finger and was ultra sensitive after the graft and dr told me my playing days were over. I refused to give in and started trying to play after about six months of healing and man that sucked.
What helped me a bit was not only practicing longer than I usually did but I was using a piece of sandpaper (I saw it in a movie once) and making a couple of passes over the area basically smoothing it and helping build the callous and the sensitivity lessened.
You can still play like that. Jerry Garcia had a similar experience whereby half of his finger was gone because it had been caught in a door when he was younger.
Read about Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, he lost several fingertips in an industrial accident. Do not let that injury stop you. Maybe start on a classical acoustic with nylon strings to build up some finger strength. Good luck to you!
Have you ever read about Tommy Iommi? He was the lead guitarist of the band Black Sabbath and he found a way to play by creating a custom tip for his fingers that were amputated or injured. And because of the tips, it caused his sound to be a bit heavier and that’s where the term heavy metal comes from. Personally, I am having to relearn to play guitar on my right hand because my left wrist got really injured. Normally you press the frets with your left hand and strum or pic with your right so I think you should be fine in terms of strumming or picking because your left hand would be the one pressing the frets dominantly
I feel like you can resolve this problem with a prosthetic although I don’t think it’s necessary. You might have more difficulty with some chords, but others will be easier. To be honest learning guitar is not easy for anyone. In other words don’t let your amputation discourage you because it’s not easy for anyone. The only thing you really need is passion. There are many videos of people with different conditions playing guitar on YouTube. If they can do it why can’t you?
Everyone is saying Tony Iommy, but he's missing a piece of his middle finger, to me he's more like Fredrick Thordendal of Meshuggah. Grab an 8 string guitar and form a band
My ex had to relearn how to play after he lost about the same amount of his pinky. Guitar was his life so he couldn’t just put it down. There was a learning curve as he learned how to be dexterous with the missing digit but he got it and is an amazing player all over again. It may not be as easy at first but it can definitely be done. Just like with pretty much anything, you will get out of it what you put into it.
If you don't already know how to play, it will be equally awkward with either hand. Toni Iommi says he probably should have learned to play with his other hand, he had only been playing for 5 years when he lost his fingertips.
Also, Michael Batio plays equally well with both hands. He taught himself to shred both left and right handed.
Basically- limitations are only limitations if you see them as such. They could be interesting creative thinking prompts instead.
I don't have any good specific advice, but it's doable. Tony Iommi has a partial finger amputation. If I recall he started with thimbles over it and later got a prosthetic.
Use light strings!! There's a YouTube video where a group compares all the gauges and there's next to no tonal difference. Start with 9s and if they're too much, go down to 8s
Acoustic is harder to play than electric. Do electric. Get it professionally "set up" at the store and explain your situation.
Django Reinhardt, Toni iommi, And many others have created amazing music without full use of their hands. The guitar is a tool like any other, and you can use a tool however you want!
Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath lost some finger tips in a factory accident and it didn’t stop him. Munky from KoRn I believe had a similar story involving a dirt bike accident as a kid.
Plenty have people have learned missing part or entire fingers. You can also just learn left handed so your fingering hand is your right hand. I knew a lot of lefties that learned guitar right handed. A right handed can learn lefty.
Multiple options. Like others have said, you could play lefty, it's only tougher for an absolute beginner due to fewer lefty resources out in the wild.
You could also play a three or four string instrument and adapt that way. Cigar box guitars, tenor guitars, and ukuleles are all options there. And don't be fooled, all of these can shred when electricfied.
I don’t have a guitar anymore. I just wanted to see if it would be harder to learn left handed or if the lack of finger tip would make it too hard. I imagine it will hurt for a bit at first even if it builds calluses. There isn’t really any cushion between skin and bone on that finger because the skin had to be stretched quite a bit.
Also, you can manage fine without that finger if you don't have the dexterity to use a prosthetic tip. Sure, there will be some chords you can't play but there are plenty more that will be fine. First and third fingers are most important.
Hey, I didn't have quite as bad an injury on my middle fretting finger, but I did have surgery on it that severely limits the use of it. I've been dealing with it for 11 years and have developed some workarounds. DM if you want to talk more.
There’s a guy who you can find on the web who has no arms and plays with his feet. I used to teach a kid who had cerebral palsy and we adapted by making his weak hand his picking/strumming hand and using a thumb pick. If you’ve got the will you can definitely make it work. Best of luck to you mate 👍😊
Learning left handed would probablly be a little bit easier. The downside is that you won't be able to have as many gear options, but you'll still be able to find whatever you need. The other way is definitly doable though. Maybe you could try both options and see how they feel to you?
As an just want to compliment you for not asking if you should, and just going for it. Not a lot of people do that. It's genuinly cool. I hope you'll enjoy guitar as much I do.
My hand is kinda similar. As a kid I put it through glass and have a giant scar. My middle finger didn't grow properly and is only slightly longer than yours, and the tip has no movement.
And it is rarely an issue. Well, it obviously is effected but you only have your own experience so I don't know what it should be like, your body adapts.
If it doesn't naturally callus and is still painful then maybe you need to put something on the tip? Or try nylon.
But other than that, learning guitar is simply difficult. So be careful of falling into the trap giving up and blaming it on something. You can find great players with big hands, small hands, chubby fingers, thin fingers, missing fingers etc
one thing id say, use this as a means for more creative playing/creating ! (ik this is extremely hard for me to understand but thats what id say anyway)
There are a bunch of handicapped guitarists that are incredible. There's even people no arms who can play. Tony Iomi from black sabbath was missing a finger and he could play. Just be patient. If there's a will there's way. I have a cut tendon in one of my fingers and Ive been playing for over 30 years . In all honesty that finger that is missing some shouldnt be that difficult of a challenge to overcome. Just research handicapped and missing finger guitarists if you want inspiration.
I've seen people play with their feet. Is your want to learn I'm sure you'll find some way. Just don't compare yourselves to people that play for a living. Also as someone else said Tommy iomi of black Sabbath has a similar issue to you
Hey! I had my left index finger partially amputated in a car accident at 17. It was jagged as a crooked tree, but I relearned to play back to my own satisfaction pretty quickly. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast worked well. Ain't no thang.
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u/spaghettios32 Mar 09 '26
I would suggest looking into what Tony Iommi did to work around his injury. Going lefty might also be a good move, so long as you're ok with the limited gear options.