Thumb Position for chords

bertie

it appears that when I do play an E or A barre............... my thumb is a bit more "upright" than @stickyfiddle ; -

octatonic

The thumb should move about a bit, really.

I teach students to have their thumb behind their middle finger when playing chords (think 'G clamp').
When playing solos and bending string sis it better to have thumb over so the neck is used as a lever to bend from.

The reality is there is no perfect position because you use your hands to do different things on the neck.

For barre chords I advocate the G clamp approach though.

sev112

A lot of people seem to think that a F chord (or any of the e shape barres up the neck) require one to barre all 6 strings!?
whereas it is much easier to just barre the top E and B, and use the tip of the finger to get the 1st fret on the Low E.

Mellish

If the OP is struggling, he's best off seeking the help of someone who can *see* what he's doing and point out any mistakes or "Do it like this" and he can watch...but I'm sure it's easily corrected, so if I were him, I wouldn't worry or get frustrated, I'd seek the help of a teacher  

UnclePsychosis

Mellish said:

If the OP is struggling, he's best off seeking the help of someone who can *see* what he's doing and point out any mistakes or "Do it like this" and he can watch...but I'm sure it's easily corrected, so if I were him, I wouldn't worry or get frustrated, I'd seek the help of a teacher  

Have taken steps to do exactly that. 

guitarjack66

sev112 said:

A lot of people seem to think that a F chord (or any of the e shape barres up the neck) require one to barre all 6 strings!?
whereas it is much easier to just barre the top E and B, and use the tip of the finger to get the 1st fret on the Low E.

I find it easier to do a full barre than a first two string partial barre of the B and E string. And my thumb has no chance of draping over the top of the guitar to mute the low E as my hands are too small. Like most things in life I think the answer is 'It's different for different people.'

Mellish

@guitarjack66 "It's different for different people". Exactly. It's only wrong if it doesn't work for you  

bertie

Mellish said:

@guitarjack66 "It's different for different people". Exactly. It's only wrong if it doesn't work for you  

have a norman

bertie

sev112 said:

A lot of people seem to think that a F chord (or any of the e shape barres up the neck) require one to barre all 6 strings!?
whereas it is much easier to just barre the top E and B, and use the tip of the finger to get the 1st fret on the Low E.

but an F barre and E barre (shape defining not note defining) are two separate things, one required a straight finger across (but not necessarily fretting) all the strings , and the other  one doesn't  

unless Ive misunderstood what you've written  

Tannin

sev112 said:

A lot of people seem to think that a F chord (or any of the e shape barres up the neck) require one to barre all 6 strings!?
whereas it is much easier to just barre the top E and B, and use the tip of the finger to get the 1st fret on the Low E.

Yes. But beware!

I played barre chords like that for many years and it left me with a serious technical defect. I couldn't ever get 7th chords to ring out properly. For example, on a G7: 3 5 3 4 3 3  the 7th (4th string 3rd fret) went flub instead of sounding properly. I used to just play stuff and not worry about it (after all there are other ways to play a G7) but eventually it started bugging me, especially as I could see that it was holding me back from doing other things too. 

For once in my life, instead of going at it like a bull at a gate (my usual method) I had the sense to go and a see an actual guitar teacher before I started practicing practicing practicing some dumb blind alley. 

Nope - as it turned out - I wasn't doing anything actually wrong, I just had to work on the twin issues of not fretting the barre properly (I'd always played a "lazy barre" as per your suggestion, especially during my 12-string years) and (much more difficult to fix) unintentionally muting the 4th string with my ring finger on the 5th string. (I have moderately large hands and what works for me on the 50mm nut 12-string necks I played for decades doesn't work for me on a standard 44mm 6-string nut. I find narrow necks very difficult.) 

Anyway, 12 months later, problem solved. But I had to work very hard to sort it. 

Do I still barre only the notes I need? Too right! Never work any harder than you have to is my motto.

sev112

bertie said:

sev112 said:

A lot of people seem to think that a F chord (or any of the e shape barres up the neck) require one to barre all 6 strings!?
whereas it is much easier to just barre the top E and B, and use the tip of the finger to get the 1st fret on the Low E.

but an F barre and E barre (shape defining not note defining) are two separate things, one required a straight finger across (but not necessarily fretting) all the strings , and the other  one doesn't  

unless Ive misunderstood what you've written  

Yes, I meant playing F F# G G# … etc chords up the neck using the E shape and a first finger barre

and noting @Tannin ’s comes t about G7 (or any other chords that might need more than the 2 strings barred etc) , yes I concur,  but I’d add that not many people complain about many chords, but almost everyone does about F on the first fret

bertie

sev112 said:

Yes, I meant playing F F# G G# … etc chords up the neck using the E shape and a first finger barre

gotcha

but I’d add that not many people complain about many chords, but almost everyone does about F on the first fret

except me

BigPaulie

If I'm picturing your hand position correctly it is much different than the way mine is when playing that E shaped partial barre.

However, that is not to say it's "wrong".

Why are you looking to change your technique? Is it causing a problem for you?