hey how you doing justin here today
we're going to talk about using your
thumb to mute the thicker strings on the
guitar where they should be muted now up
to this point in my beginner's journey
i've recommended that you keep your
thumb at the back of the neck and the
reason for that is because i really want
you to build up this muscle here between
your thumb and your first finger because
it's what you need for playing barre
chords
however the longer i play the more i
tend to play with my thumb hanging
around over the top and it's got quite a
few uses probably the most valuable of
which is muting the thickest string so
what i want to do is take you through
some of the common chord shapes and
explain a little bit about how the hand
position works and stuff like that
it's not the kind of thing that you feel
like you have to do
but at least being aware of it if you
start to do it then you understand
what's happening
and it can be there's some advantages to
learning to play with the thumb over the
top particularly if you get into blues
and rock and you're doing things like
string bending where the thumb has to
come over if you've got some experience
maybe having it over the top for
muting strings which is what we're
predominantly going to be covering today
then could be pretty useful of course
we've already covered using it as a bass
note for like d with an f sharp bass so
maybe you've had a little bit of a go at
reaching it around the top but in this
lesson we're going to go through it all
in a little bit more detail as well as
this camera that i'm talking to now and
my little close-up camera here i'm also
going to be using my iphone to give you
a good view of what it looks like from
the back of the neck too which i think
makes a big difference so we're going to
start off with an a chord and looking at
that so
here's a beginner's version of an a
chord you can see their thumb nicely
positioned not right over the top but
not right at the back either sort of in
that you know three-quarter zone their
fingers are all in a nice place and the
thumb is unable to mute the thickest
string where it is now now the thickest
string there doesn't want to ring out on
an a chord and if you reach your thumb
around like that and just touch it it
only has to just touch it it doesn't
have to like reach around and grab a
hold of it like that it just has to
touch it now maybe you remember how
difficult it was to get all of the notes
ringing out clearly when you were first
learning your chords that the slightest
touch on a string means that that string
doesn't ring out and that's an advantage
here because the thumb literally just
has to touch it a tiny bit and it's
going to mute that thickest string on
your ankle which is really good but what
i want to point out here particularly is
the shape of the hand and how it sits
now
when you play with your thumb position
around the back you see that there's a
little gap there between the hand and
the fretboard it's not directly touching
but what you'll find when you start
using your thumb to come over is that
you wrap the thumb around a bit more and
now there's no gap there
particularly when you're holding the
cord like that it is quite a firm grip
now uh one of the ways that i often kind
of make a joke about this is that you're
holding it a bit like a bat and you can
actually hold the whole guitar like that
and you see it i'm still holding my a
chord in fact i can still even probably
play
if i turn the volume up
i can play the a chord and i'm holding
on like that because the grip of the
hand around the neck and it is still
if i just uh get that pick down
it's not holding it with the thank you
ziggy um i'm not holding it like that
where the thought where the whole flat
of the hand is resting on the neck it is
literally just the the kind of the cup
the arch part between my thumb and my
first finger that wraps all the way
around and that's where the grip is you
don't need to hold it like this kind of
like like you're gripping it like you're
holding it to carry it okay it doesn't
want to be like that it wants to just be
that part near your thumb and your first
finger that holds onto the strings
and forms the cord in and the thumb is
literally just reaching around the top
it doesn't want to reach around it
doesn't need to do that it just needs to
touch that little bit again with you
know as you get better you'll realize
exactly how much touch needs to go down
there to not play the note but to mute
the string there might be occasions
where the flat of your palm touches the
neck but for the most part particularly
with chords you don't want it to do that
so you just want that little bit between
the thumb and the first finger now this
shape of the hand is the same for most a
chord so whether it's an a or an a minor
or an a7 or an a7 like that whatever the
chord is it's likely that the thumb is
going to be roughly around the second
fret it is worth pointing out that we
are all anatomically different so you
might find that your thumb is a little
bit closer toward the first fret or a
little bit further but it's most likely
going to be hanging around the second
fret somewhere so now let's talk about
muting the thickest string on a d chord
and we've mentioned a few times that if
you've got a d chord it should be the
thinnest four strings
but if you hit the fifth string
kind of sounds okay but
[Music]
the thicker string opened
it's just really not a great sound there
to go along with our d chord
the reason is that it's a d chord the
thicker string is the note e and it's
two d to e it's too close together for
it to have any kind of use really um so
getting the thumb over to mute that
string is a really great idea because it
means that you can then strum pretty
freely
and if you're hitting accidentally the
fifth string that's fine it's not going
to sound bad at all
you've got rid of that
you know the bad the one real bad note
there um if you've got any experience
with the playing the d with the f sharp
maybe you've just come off my lesson on
slash chords
the next step is to figure out
how much pressure you need to make the
note
and how much pressure you need to just
mute the string because the position is
going to be quite similar it's just a
little bit more grabby it just requires
a little bit more pull and you're kind
of pulling backwards a little bit to
pull the string there
pull the string down onto the fret when
you want
that low knight to ring up
just relaxing at that little bit makes
it muted now this same idea goes right
across if you've got a d minor
again muting that thicker string or a d7
okay so just exploring how the thumb
feels like that with those chords
because it will feel different if you're
used to playing with your thumb around
the back for those chords as soon as you
get that thumb around and you're more
connected to the neck it will feel
different hopefully in a good way
everyone feels a little different about
trying this for the first time some
people absolutely love it like their
hands seem built for this kind of
playing and and it feels really natural
i found it a real struggle i didn't get
on with it at all just reaching around
with the thumb to get those notes was
just found it very very difficult took a
lot of practice probably wasn't helped
by learning it on a nylon string guitar
which the neck is quite a lot wider than
on an electric guitar so i kind of wish
i'd
got into it on the electric guitar
instead but
so if you're playing a nylon string you
will find this significantly harder
unless you've got enormous hands uh
acoustic guitar should be okay regular
steel string acoustic guitar that's only
a little bit wider than electric guitar
um
but you you know don't be surprised if
you find it pretty tricky if it feels
really different because the whole hand
position is will feel very foreign
holding it that way and
it takes a bit of time and effort to
naturalize it to make it start to feel
more comfortable under your fingers so
you are going to have to spend a bit of
time with it working on it feeling it
out trying to figure out where the
hand's gonna sit that feels natural for
you
let's have a little chat about g-shape
now um there's not that much use for
thumb here because we're playing the
thickest string anyway so it's not like
we want it there hanging around if it's
hanging about that's kind of okay
particularly if you're changing to other
chords and the thumbs hanging around
anyway i don't think you necessarily
need to put it around the back for the g
chord but it's not going to be as
functional in a g chord i have seen
people playing a g chord like john mayer
does it a few times where he'll play a g
chord and do fancy stuff on the top with
the fingers while the thumb plays the g
note that might be something that you
find useful at some point in your
journey but it wouldn't be the regular
way of playing the g
and that's kind of more what i'm dealing
with in this lesson so if your thumb
wants to hang around when you're playing
a g chord that's fine but it's probably
not going to be a practically useful one
in that circumstance
and next up we have c chord now c chord
you should be muting the thickest string
with the tip of your third finger so
again thumb's not really going to be
that useful here it doesn't hurt for it
to be hanging around and touching the
thickest string on a c chord so you've
got kind of got you know extra insurance
if your third finger doesn't quite make
the grade there and mute the string but
again for a c chord it feels a little
bit clumsy having the thumb wrap right
around
um again it's a lot of this is kind of
up to your anatomy how long your fingers
are how they feel how dexterous they are
and it'll probably change as you change
as a guitar player as well but
definitely have a little go go from the
c chord with the thumb around the back
and then just kind of wrap it around a
little bit see how it feels
see what works do some changes going c
to g
does it work like that actually for me
definitely it's better for having the
thumb as far as how easy the change is
but then if i'm going to a d with an f
sharp i might end up having the thumb
hanging around just because it makes all
of the other transitions kind of feel
easier and i want as little movement as
i possibly can as i'm doing my different
chord changes so
a little bit of this is going to be
circumstance as well what the chord is
before what the chord is afterwards and
there isn't one set one that you have to
use all the time so you need to kind of
remove that bit of brainwashing where
you think that it's like every time it
has to be exactly in this place it's not
it's gonna change all the time and
that's totally fine there aren't any set
exercises to practice this but what i
would suggest you do is spend some time
experimenting with the way that you play
each of your open chords especially as a
kind of a long term thing whenever
you're playing a new song have a look at
what the chords are have a look at where
the hand is sitting experiment with
muting the thickest string particularly
if you find it a problem if you're
playing a d chord and you often find
yourself hitting that thicker string and
it sounds bad then you might want to
hurry up with trying to get that thumb
around to mute it if you've been a bit
more accurate with your picking then you
might not be so worried about it it's
something that's probably going to come
the longer you play for the more useful
it becomes to be able to get the thumb
around to either mute notes or play
notes you know a lot further on down the
way you're very likely to be using the
thumb over
instead of having to play bar chords all
the time you can use them
you quite often use it for muting lines
when you play single lines as well if
you're playing a lot of muted stuff
more advanced techniques that you're not
going to encounter straight away but i
don't think it's a bad idea to start
making a little bit of an approach
toward it now and trying it out seeing
what works for you particularly with the
muted strings for open chords it's a
really valuable technique for beginners
bridging the kind of gap into
intermediate and barre chords so give it
some practice see what works for you and
i really hope that it helps tidy up your
playing if you've had any open strings
that have been ringing out when you
didn't want them to i'll see you for
plenty more very soon y'all take care of
yourselves bye-bye