Can I play well on cello if I have shorter fingers? Does it have any connection?

Thank you for all the answers

Yes you can. No worries

I've been playing and teaching (a number of instruments) for over 50 years, and have large hands and short, twisted fingers. When I was 14, I had an accident and cut off my left thumb, with was reattached, and at 20 a Knife through my left hand. (Its all a long story). Short fingers were far from my worst issue. Approaching 70 now, I have arthritis in many of my hand and finger joints, among other places, but I still play and teach most all brass, woodwinds, viola, cello, piano, accordion, banjo, guitar, dulcimers and and more, and and have been on stage playing as a professional musician and entertainer most of my life. Sometimes in pain, but I love what I have done for a living!

I know this is more info than you asked for, but the point is, you can overcome any physical issues if you are determined enough. I adjust to different instruments as needed, and with cello, make sure you adjust the cello to fit you. Do not try to fit yourself to it. My students with long lovely fingers can do extensions with ease, and get a lovely vibrato, but you can as well. I have to move my hand to get extensions and use a lot of arm to get a good vibrato, and I sometimes use fingerings that are a bit different then I might teach my students, because I make the instrument fit and work for me.

So if you love cello, as I do, go for it! You will find a way and you will find that short fingers will not be a problem.

It helps, maybe, to have at least reasonably sized hands to play the cello, but the length of the fingers (assuming they aren't extremely abnormal in one direction or the other) is fairly immaterial. What matters is more is being able to stretch between the fingers. Certainly an average-sized adult male hand will suffice (I'm a man and my hand-size is precisely average). Very many woman also play cello, so presumably an average adult female hand will also suffice, maybe not quite as comfortably--I'm not sure. I had a woman cello teacher once, fully grown with a master's degree in cello and a member of the local symphony orchestra (in a city of about 350,000 or so), who played a 7/8-size cello. She wasn't tiny, fairly average height and weight for an adult woman, I'd guess, but she preferred easier stretches. So a smaller cello remains a possibility. For the bowing hand, of course, it makes no difference whatsoever.