This is a skill I do not have, and apparently I may be one of two people in the world who can’t do it.
this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
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I gotta say, surprised everyone is attributing the "snap" sound to hitting the pad of your thumb.
All y'all veteran snappers, try this. Lift up your pinky, then snap. Makes a much higher pitched snap. Now lift up your ring finger, then snap. No snap at all. Your pinky and ring finger make a sort of tube, and your thumb is striking one end of it (the crevice between thumb pad and ring finger tip) to make a tone. I'm even able to smack that spot with a finger on the OTHER hand and make a (quieter) snap.
Hope this helps.
holy shit i learned a new thing im the guy from the xkcd comic
this is literally me rn
Cool! What part did you learn??
Update: my hand hurts now, but in fact it is possible to lay down a pinky, then snap three times successively with ring, middle, then index, which makes three different snaps (descending in pitch).
I was a child and had enough time to devote to learning this.
For me it's my middle finger hitting the cushion below the thumb that makes the noise.
one thing to know is that the snap doesn’t come from your fingers flicking together, it comes from your index finger striking your thumb muscle
Or middle finger. I can't snap with my index.
Whew… thought I was weird for a minute there
I have to use my ring finger and my thumb. 😂
TIL I can snap with my ring finger. I'm a lot better at snapping with my left hand too, even though I'm right handed.
Haha same
The thumb muscle being the intersection bayern the thumb and palm right?
For me it's my middle finger but same effect I guess
Although listening it sounds more like the sound is coming as it moves past the knuckle
Press the pad of your thumb and the end of your middle finger together with some force. It helps to offset the finger to the left side of the thumb (looking down at the thumb). Hold your thumb still, and try to pull the tip of your middle finger down to your palm, until it overcomes friction and snaps against your palm at the base of your thumb.
I can only do it with ring finger. I can't get any sound out if I use middle finger
Press your middle finger and thumb together with your pinky in the hollow of the gerl of your hand and your ring finger slightly overlapping it at the base of the thumb. Move the thumb out of the way to the side, allowing the middle finger to accelerated down to strike the spot where the ring finger meets the base of the thumb.
How I learned? In a dream. I literally woke up snapping my fingers and I've been able to do it ever since.
Press your middle finger against your thumb. Pull the middle finger down, but barely stop it with your thumb. Play with that hand movement
You just put your fingers together and blow.
Wait... 🤔
I spent hours one afternoon as a kid trying to figure it out. After a few hours my right (dominant) hand was completely wrecked, but I was so frustrated I just switched to the left hand and kept trying. Eventually I got a passable snapping sound and ran to my mom sobbing with joy to demonstrate the saddest sounding snap. She noticed my hands were shaking and made me sit down and hold them on ice packs, lol.
I'm 29 now and still can't snap with my dominant hand for shit but my left hand snap sounds decent.
There's a song called "Snap your fingers, snap your neck."
There's also
Snap ya fanguhs, do the step, you can do it all by yo self, lemme see ya do it
I feel like these are two entirely different processes.
It's impressive he can snap with a metal gauntlet, I wouldn't think it'd give enough friction with the metal on metal.
- Place your thumb firmly onto your middle finger, you'll want to apply significant pressure with your finger here
- Push your thumb ourwardly to the side while maintaining pressure
- As your middle finger slams into the palm bit of your thumb it should produce a noise
- Practice until you can do it more consistently and loudly. Try doing with the other hand - I can only snap loudly with my non-dominant hand
I've taught my cat to come over when I snap my fingers. It started by just trying to get its attention...
Edit: typo.
Pushing your middle finger tightly into your thumb to build up pressure. Vary the pressure slightly and your middle finger will slip off your thumb, and due to the pressure built up, quickly slam into the base of your thumb and produce a loud sound.
Once you're got the hang of that you can try it with other fingers. The ring finger works nicely as well.