Playing guitar with webbed fingers

Question

I've just got myself an acoustic guitar and I'm struggling with holding down chord shapes. I have webbed 2nd and 3rd fingers on my fretting (left) hand. This causes those fingers to follow each other, making it very difficult to play chord shapes. I wonder if anyone else has this problem and, if so, how they overcame the difficulty?
I would include a photo but I've just joined this site and can't see how you do that.

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Firstly, I would like to thank all contributors for their advice. Secondly, I should point out that my chosen sub-sub topic label should have read ‘physicality’ not ‘physiology’! By the way, I expected a reference to Django Reinhardt, but I’m just a normal human being I’m afraid, and anyway, as I understand it, Django still used all his fingers for chord playing. I have considered the left handed suggestion, but have concluded that, having been a confirmed right hander for 68 years, that’s just going to be too difficult to try as a first option. Although I am a beginner, I have picked up a guitar now and again over the years, having been involved with rock bands since the early 60s, playing drums plus a couple of years playing bass guitar (badly). The open tuning and slide suggestion, however, is very appealing. I have now tuned my guitar to open G and got myself a slide. I can now make music! What a revelation! Thanks particularly for that advice.

Answer 1

First, accept that you have a handicap and will never be able to play guitar 'normally'. Embrace it, don't try to play like everyone else, and you'll be a far better guitarist for it.

I would recommend learning to play with alternative tunings, especially open tunings or all 5ths. It will make many chord fingerings far more simple for getting started, and will make it easier to find your own 'voice' as opposed to falling into the same traps and patterns most guitarists do. You'll also have an easier time when you go basic chords to playing articulations, melody/lead lines etc with how notes are arranged with an open tuning.

Of course this is all pointless if all you want to do is sound like [x] in which case the previous suggestion about playing left-handed is the way to go. You don't even necessarily need to get a new guitar. Any half decent luthier can fix the nut and bridge on an acoustic so you can string it in reverse and play it left-handed (unless it's a cutaway or something crazy like fanned fret / multi-scale).

Answer 2

I think a simple solution would be to switch hands. Take a left handed guitar* and play like that. The two webbed fingers won't be an issue if you use them to hold a pick.

If you've never learned guitar before, it would be easier to learn to play a left handed guitar. If you had gotten used to playing the guitar, changing to a left handed guitar would be a lot harder.

If you stick to using the hand with the webbed fingers as your fretting hand, you are going to have limitations to your playing.

Like people mentioned in the comments, reversing the strings isn't really easy to do; if you go with this solution, you should go to someone who knows the trade to reverse to strings for you.

*Or you can reverse the strings in a right handed one

Answer 3

A chord typically consists of 3 notes: so theoretically you only need 3 fingers (and three strings) to play a chord. But most guitars have 6 strings, so other chord notes are played twice on multiple strings. It will probably not be possible for you to learn to play guitar the most common way. I would suggest to learn how you can decompose chords into individual notes (mostly root, third and fifth, for chords with a seventh, replace the fifth by the seventh) and where you can find them on the neck of a guitar. Just try to fret those three notes on any position that feels comfortable for you and then pluck those three strings with the thumb, index and middle finger of you right hand. Alternatively, you can even remove three strings from your guitar and learn to play with only the lowest (E A D) or highest (G B E) strings, or any other combination you like. Another option is to tune your guitar in an open tuning and learn to play with a slide.

Answer 4

For rock songs, you can use drop D tuning (DADGBE starting from the heaviest string). Chords will now be a matter of locating where the root is, then fretting over the top 3 strings - you now have a “power chord” which is used in a ton of rock songs. Up to you if you want to use 3 fingers or just 1 by bar-ing over the 3 strings

e.g.

D - 000xxx

E - 222xxx

F - 333xxx

G - 555xxx

A - 777xxx

B - 999xxx

C - 10-10-10-xxx

D - 12-12-12-xxx