Not if you keep your thumb behind the neck, Fred. In the barre, the thumb and forefinger operate like a clamp. Easy.

Some years ago, I had a girl student with the very small hands. She wanted to learn some classic first, then folk song accompaniment. When we got to chords, I normally play the first position G chord with my 3rd finger on the 6th string, 2nd on the 5th, and 4th on the 1st. I started to show her the G with her 2nd on the 6th, 1st on the 5th, and 3rd on the 1st. She got it. But next week when she came for he lesson, she was doing it the way she'd seen me do it. Quite a stretch for her, but she got it. Like me, she used either fingering for the chord, depending on what went before and what was to come after. Some weeks later she was doing barres all over the neck. 'Course she was pretty diligent and she worked at it, but she got pretty darned good.

A wide classic fingerboard is no problem even for small hands, provided you keep your thumb behind the neck. This obviates the use of the thumb on the 6th string, but in fifty years, I've never found an occasion when I needed it.

But . . . whatever works.

Don Firth

Don Firth