Could my short fingers prevent me from playing guitar?

Hi, I just bought a new acoustic guitar and when someone posted the tabs to "Come As You Are" by Nirvana I could play the first part since it only required my fingers to be placed on a specific area but I was unable to play the 2nd part due to the fact that I needed to place my fingers on frets that are VERY far apart and my fingers just could not reach it.

Does this mean it's impossible to play guitar? or is there some kind of a technique that I can use?

I can only stretch about 5 frets.
It will never get any better.
There is more than one way to play chords and scales.

Nope...I have tiny little fingers and I'm getting better every day.

Does a baby think he can walk on his legs when he starts walking? Nope..and look at us now..running, jumping, walking...it comes with time and practice

No idea at all! other than how to post something!

I think most of my running and jumping days are over.
Well maybe an occasional jump!!

Yes, alternate fingerings and to add to that, don't assume that the tab is even the best way to play the song. Most tabs on the net have mistakes (vs original artists rendering) and some of them are just plain wrong. Sometimes so wrong its tough to understand how they came up with the tab or why they thought it was worth posting.

Way to go, keep plucking . . .

no, you'll be fine. You can adjust your reach angles (hand, arm, elbow, wrist -- try getting your hand and fingertips more on top, elbow forward/out, palm arched) or/and get a shorter scale guitar if you really need it. I don't know if you're going from tab or chord charts, playing a lead line, or what. There are always alternate ways of fingering things on guitar so you can adjust that too.

I'll second that. At first you think it's you, then after retuning about a dozen times it starts to dawn on you whoever posted this thing had no idea what they were doing.

There's an old guy in our fiddling group who is missing the tips of his index, middle and ring fingers. The index and middle fingers were amputated down to the first knuckle, and the ring to the bottom of the fingernail. He still plays quite well.

Also, as you play more your fingers, while they won't get any longer, will begin to stretch out to reach some of those chords you can't reach now. You can also stretch your fingers apart while watching TV or something. Now, don't get crazy or injure yourself doing this. Go easy, but it does help.

It's a bit like learning karate. When you start you swear you'll never be able to kick that high, but if you keep at it you eventually can. Always say to yourself "I can't do it -- YET."

When I was a kid and was playing a guitar for a few years I broke every bone in my left hand in a swimming accident.
I couldn't wait for it to heal so I could get back to playing guitar.
But once it did heal I found that I could no longer reach many of the chords and playing scales was very painful.
I could have quit right there but I was dedicated to my music.
It took a long time and much hard and painful work but I learned to overcome my handicap by playing in the styles that were most comfortable to me.
That was many years ago and I still play with the same styles.
Short fingers, long fingers, fat fingers, skinny fingers or broken fingers are just excuses why not to work hard to learn to play guitar.
It ain't easy and it takes time but it also takes dedication.

Finger length enters intot he equation but never excluides you from playing.
Perhaps in some cases you may need to develop a unique alternat fingering for you but hey that is cool beans too...

Learning John Hurts "Candy Man" the past week or so and had to learn and alternat A fingwering in order to get my pinky up to the 5th fret...I am glad to have learened and the new callouses are coming along quite nicely from just this new fingering.....

I would trade anything away (and have including wives) in order to be able to continue to play.............

You can almost always play chords with different fingerings. I have a computer program that return hundreds of fingerings given whichever criteria you input (e.g. fret span, number of muted strings etc...)

Short fingers will not stop you from playing. You just have to stick with it. Django Rheinhardt had only two working fingers on his left hand. Yet, he was a legendary guitarist, almost without peer.