Fretting Hand thumb position

willrejones

So, I've been trying to work on my technique over the last few months - doing legato and alternate picking/scale exercises.

The problem is, I can play far better/cleaner with my thumb in the 'classical' position - with the thumb resting on the back of the neck. However, I naturally play with my thumb resting on the sixth string... Baseball bat style?

As a result, for some reason I find playing these exercises with my left hand in the second position is far more awkward and feels uncomfortable. It's almost like my fingers get in the way of each other.

Would you wise people suggest I try and adapt to playing in the classical style, or just practice these exercises with my hand in its natural position until they no longer feel awkward?

Phil_aka_Pip

There's reasons to use the "classical" style, and blues-rock reasons to use what you call the "natural" style. Both have their uses. If there are things you want to play that require the "classical" positioning then IMO that's what you need to practice. Alan Limbrick at the Guitar Institute had this to say when a fellow student asked him about applying "proper" technique to his playing:

Q: When I practice what you tell me it works OK but when I'm out with my band and soloing I catch myself using my "old incorrect" technique, and try to put things right, and mess up the solo because of it.

A: When you play with your band, forget what I tell you. Just play. But keep practicing what I tell you, and in 6 months you'll find it is working its way into your what-comes-naturally playing.

So I'd suggest continuing to practice that "classical" positioning, especially as there are things you will probably need it for, and one day you'll be able to pull it out of the bag when you need it. In the meantime, if you have blues-rock reasons for using your "natural" style, continue by all means to use it as that's what it is meant for

Roland

Spot on Phil.  Practice both hand positions, they both have their uses in the same way that pick and fingers do.

ElectroDan

This is something I've struggled with myself in the past Will.

I learned to play classically at first with the thumb in the middle, of the back of the neck. The trouble with that approach comes when bending the unwound strings; your fingers are already parallel with the frets so you have no wrist rotation left for the bend.

I tried re-training my fingers to play the Baseball bat way, which was like swimming in mud at first but gradually started to feel very cool. The only issues were that I couldn't reach down to the lower strings like that and some legato stuff was not as easy.

The solution arrived at was to transition between the two. In a classic 3 note per string scale exercise, I'll gradually turn my hand toward classical as I approach the lower notes. Then as I ascend, I return back to the bluesy relaxed hand position. Similarly when I play ascending or descending 6 note patterns I find I have to straighten up a little the lower I get, but need to get my fingers and hand back to 45 degrees by the time I'm near half way back up.  It really works for me.

Take some time and experiment to see what suits you.

 

willrejones

Great responses so far. It's an interesting point I think.

I think I'm going to either try to find a midpoint that works and adapt my vibrato (always wanted to be able to adopt the Clapton style), or just use both.

I'm one of those people with extremely long fingers, so sometimes I even find my thumb muting all bottom three strings when playing live, which, while useful, is not at all a comfortable way to play legato!

EricTheWeary

I'm not exactly a technical player but I did have a bit of a eureka moment with this, although possibly the wrong one. I felt thumb behind for some styles, thumb over for others ( all at my numptees level). Anyway, I was watching a tuition video and was struggling to do what the bloke on screen was doing because it effectively meant going back and forth between my two approaches and I was trying to keep to one or another. So I watched his hand just to see what his thumb was doing - it moved from one to the other and back again and so on! I don't think that had ever occurred to me to do that within a peice of music *-:)

Phil_aka_Pip

willrejones said:

I think I'm going to either try to find a midpoint that works and adapt my vibrato (always wanted to be able to adopt the Clapton style), or just use both.

May I advise against that? I think you'd be better off doing what @EricTheWeary taught himself to do, and that is to adopt the hand position relevant to the technique you need to use for the next lick/passage you are about to play. Otherwse you'll be teaching yourself something which is inefficient (ie not optimised) for either requirement.