This is a serious thread 
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Stop whining and deal with it. Make it your secret weapon.
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Ok so I am also a Twitch streamer so please don’t worry about the little things still smattered about the screen. Here is a quick video. Simple Major Scale
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Try to put a space between the link and the text. It should display the player in your post. Also video is set to private so can’t view.
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I can’t seem to make it embed. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, which is sad because I’m a software engineer lol.
Well I can open it now. Fretting hand looks fine to me. I wouldn’t really focus too much on running scales though. It’s good to spend some time on them just to learn them. But I would may try incorporating more fragmented licks on one or two strings. What type of shred stuff do you like. If you like more neoclassical malmsteen type of stuff that may be a perfect place to start as he does a lot of single and two string sequences. What is your rhythm picking hand like (motions, placement etc.). Ideally you will want to build off of that and what you have already developed for your lead playing too if you can.
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Django Reinhardt played absolutely smoking lines with only two mobile fingers. Danny Gatton had rather small hands and he could play like an absolute legend.
I don’t think that a short pinky is a problem unless you let it be one.
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Don’t worry about small hands, Ruth is an absolute beast and she is tiny as an adult, and this is on a piano! In the absolute worst-case you can get a guitar with a shorter scale (under the typical 25.5 inches), or custom necks from Warmoth to retrofit Fender guitars. So, have fun, your hands will not be a barrier.
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What type of shred stuff do you like. If you like more neoclassical malmsteen type of stuff that may be a perfect place to start as he does a lot of single and two string sequences.
Honestly, I want to learn to play fast solos from more mainstream rock music from the 80s, like Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Metallica, etc before I get into hardcore shredding but I did listen to alot of Yngwie for a while as a teen. The song I love right now that is major shred is Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson.
What is your rhythm picking hand like (motions, placement etc.). Ideally you will want to build off of that and what you have already developed for your lead playing too if you can.
I really just started working on this but watching Cracking the Code on YouTube and watching a few of the videos in the program I’ve learned alot. I didn’t even used to be able to do an upstroke without fumbling. I’m also working on getting good at single string tremolo.
I think this is an excellent place to start! It’s where I did way back in the early 90’s when nobody wanted to play that stuff, and there is a lot of melodic value you can take away from some of those solos. A couple of good solos to begin with from DL are the the Steve Clark ones like the solo(s) for bringing on the heartbreak and too late, the are very attainable and sound good.
As for ej, I would work up to that, it’s more advanced. Since you are in a relatively newish phase of this, I would just take small sections you like before diving all in, but make EJ a longer term goal. Speaking of that, it may be best to set short term, medium term, and long term goals. A short term goal may be something you do every day - developing your playing capacity and style further, the small things like getting more acquainted with the instrument and short snippets of things. a medium term one may be playing the solo in too late, and for the long term, picking away at pieces of cliffs.
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Okay, I have this problem of short fingers. I just want to mention, It won’t stop me from playing fast, or enjoying, or creating music. As others have mentioned, there are lots of players who have limitations and figure it out on their terms. My fingers are short, yep, way short (pinky measures in 2.25’’ says, the boxing announcer, haha) I started playing in the 80’s but have always found it difficult to minimize string noise, especially lift off noise when going up to the next higher string, or ascending. I also ‘PLAYED’ a RG super thin neck, by accident. After 15 unpleasant RG years, I play a PRS CE-24 (doesn’t matter which brand, just slightly thicker neck is the key, FOR ME. The neck fits my hand way better. I have gotten better at reducing tension but still not relaxed enough when stretching reaches my physical limits. I would imagine if anyone stretches past (his/her) reasonable distance, bad things will eventually happen. I’m in this until I can’t do it but it will only be due to physical issues. This is a bad recipe for me, to stretch as far as ‘so and so’ even though we are physically not even close in size, or even skill level. JP had his first instructional tape in the 90’s and I could only physically get through, may two iterations of his 1234 chord exercise. I simply don’t have the reach so as a result, you find different ways to play chords, maybe chord fragments, or 3 note chords, ala Ernie Berle via Guitar Player.
Again, this is my experience, but getting away from a thinner neck helped reduce some of tension and fatigue I had in my hands. However, I was clamping down way too hard with my left hand and to this day, I am still working on this. I can stretch decently but what I lose is the ability to get my index finger under the lower string to mute it out so I lose control in the ascending direction unless I use more staccato which I don’t prefer the sound of as much. So, while I can stretch decently to play fast, I have limits because wide stretching creates too much left hand fatigue and eventually tendonitis.
I suppose my workaround is that I use the middle and higher registers to compensate. I don’t play 3nps lower than the say, the A Ma (5th pos) unless I am only playing scale fragments. I also tend to play scale patterns that fit my hand better. For example, I like playing in the Locrian position and then shifting up into the natural minor position which helps keeps the stretching to a minimum. I create my own arpeggio patterns which are more horizontal than the straight up and down arps.
In the end, you definitely can learn to play fast because you need your right hand as well unless you are only thinking legato style. I suggest, playing in areas of the neck which allow you more left hand ‘freedom’ for stretching out. I now spend most of my time playing ONLY what physically is comfortable because I want to continue to play for 2 hours a day so I can continue to develop my own way of playing. The limitations will ultimately guide you to YOU, your own personal way of expression on guitar.
Again, I will keep working at getting my index finger under that next lower string but it has shortened my already short reach but it is what it is and I will also be mindful of reducing tension in my left hand by playing more realistic scale patterns when traversing the depths of the lower register.
Good Luck and thanks for the post!
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All I can say is thank you sincerely for your insight on this. Our pinkies are the exact same length lol. I just bought an RG though. I’ll maybe have to hit Guitar Center while it’s returnable so I can try out other necks.
Sorry to bump this - I just remembered this thread tonight and was smiling because I started trying to learn Scarified last night and man, these outro licks are just stupid when I have such tiny hands - Paul is a monster 
Yeah, so here’s my short pinky in case any of you are interested, lol. I don’t own a guitar right now, but yesterday I went to guitar center and played around with 25.5, 24.75, 24.6 (Gretsch), and 22.75 (Squier Mini) scale lengths. I could just barely nail a 1-3-5 (fret numbers) 3nps pattern on the 25.5 using my first, middle, and pinky fingers. Tucking the elbow in close to the body and angling the thumb towards the headstock helped with the stretch. Honestly, after trying a bunch of the guitars, I think a 24.75 or 24.6 is optimal for my hand size. The 25.5 was just too much; it requires absolutely perfect positioning with zero room for error. Barely comfortable. It didn’t matter if the neck was thin like an Ibanez. I would also consider getting a 22.75 inch scale length if I wanted to get creative in the lower registers. But in the future I think I’ll just disregard 25.5 entirely.
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After trying the Squier Jazzmaster mini, I would recommend that anyone gets a 22’75 to play around with every once in a while (or in my case, 90% of the time). Just make sure the setup and intonation are well done, and keep in mind that 9s might bee too spaghetti if you tune in E standard. 10.5s or 11s are typically recommended (nut might need filing to accommodate that).
I hear that the Ibanez PG Micro is a fantastic 22’5 guitar
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I also wondered about the length of my fingers during the early years of my playing in the 1980s. I could see my fave players (VH, Vai, Holdsworth, Malmsteen, Gilbert, DeMartini) had long fingers with (seemingly) 9 knuckles each. To me their fingers looked like the FaceHugger from Alien.
In contrast my fingers were relatively short and stubby…surely I had no real chance to have “technique” right?
I learned differently by a fateful renting of the Steve Lukather Hot Licks VHS. I was seeing a guy who had hands like mine who ALSO had a lot of speed and fluidity on the neck. I noticed he was shifting on the neck and using less wide stretches to get the sounds he wanted. At that moment I realized that each guitarist finds their path to the music…some with wide stretches and some with shifts instead. Some with furious picking and some with sleek legato…and I needed to find MY path.
As for a short scale guitar I don’t think you are really gaining anything much that couldn’t be just as easily achieved with tuning a regular guitar down a whole step and shifting your fingerings up two frets BUT an extended range guitar (7 strings or more) could afford you access to the lower notes at higher frets.
Good luck!
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I strongly agree with the rest of your post, but as a small-handed person who has owned a seven-string for 11 years, I find the reverse to be true. Having a short pinky makes it more difficult to reach the low B on higher frets.
My take on the whole thing is that over time you’ll get better at stretching and will be able to reach the 1-3-5 on the low E. Just don’t rush it or stress it. While many technique things are a matter of “knowing what it feels like,” I suspect that moderate stretches on the low frets are more a matter of slow physiological adaptation, if you’re using decent left-hand technique in the first place.
Remember, Django shredded with a severely damaged fretting hand. Troy shredded on Strat-scale guitars for ages before he got the short-scale axes he uses now. It’s not a big deal unless you’re trying to play certain Jeff Loomis or Paul Gilbert licks note-for-note, and even then… just do it your own way.