So where do you put your thumb when you're learning guitar? I'm gonna tell
you and if you hang out till the end I'm gonna give you a little exercise that
you'll find them valuable. Hey there, I'm Tomas Michaud from Real Guitar
Success. So one of the questions I get asked over and over is where do you put
your thumb and I'm gonna start off by telling you it's not a simple
one-size-fits-all answer. But I'm gonna show you what it could or should look
like and at least get you going in the right direction.
But before I start showing you little nuances of where to place your thumb,
we're gonna start with something that's critical and often neglected. It's your
basic body posture and you see the way you sit and the way you place your arms
affects how your thumb hits the guitar so let's start there. First of all, you
want to try to sit straight up when you're playing. I know it's so tempting
to go like this matter of fact more than tempting some people teach students and tell
me they have to go like this or even more so kind of something guitar down
like this. But in the long run if you do that often or at least most of the time
it's gonna cause problems with your back and it's gonna make it difficult to get
good thumb in hand position. The best thing to do is just look down once in a
while as you have to then sit straight up. Think about the amount of pressure it
takes to hold your body like this for extended periods of time and it's gonna
wear on you. It hit me and I feel bad for that. The second thing is let's talk
about the arm, the left arm and see this is connected to your body posture. If
you're sitting straight up, what you want to do is tuck your arm in to your side..
let's see ''Can you see that?'' Yeah, tuck in to your side not far back and not
sticking out which is roughly and when I say tucking it in not holding it with a
lot of tension just kind of gentle so it stays there and then fit the guitar neck
where your hand reaches. Don't pull your arm out like this. It's not necessary so
you can do that if you're standing up and playing around. But in general a good
solid sitting up position and your arm gently hanging down by your side
more than tuck which implies some kind of physical exertion just let it hang by
your side. This will give you the best angle to get a good thumb position on
your guitar. Now as you do that, place your left hand
on your guitar neck and don't worry too much about the thumb right now but what
I want you to see is that my wrist is not sticking out like this. What you want
to do is bring the wrist back a little bit so that the there's not much of an
angle on your wrist. It's pretty well straight. It does not be perfectly straight
and it can change but in general you don't want it kinked up like this. Okay
now that we've got a good foundation let's start talking about where to put
the thumb itself. There is a good basic position that I want my beginning
students that start off with that gives you the most bang for your buck and
here's what it is. I'm making a chord right now and I've got my thumb behind
the neck of the guitar. Basically I'm using the pad of my thumb on the neck.
It's not dead center in the neck. It's slightly higher than dead center. When I
make a bar chord I bring my thumb a little bit lower like this and then back
up for an open chord. Now this position gives you the most leverage if you're
gonna move your hand around like this it's much easier to do that than if you
have your thumb way up here. Also when you're pressing between the thumb and
the tips of your fingers you get the most pressure for the least amount of
effort this way. Now a couple variations on this is your thumb is really long it's
probably gonna be up a little bit higher maybe even up the top of the guitar and
if it's smaller it might be even closer down a little bit lower. The other thing
is I see some people put their thumb this way nothing wrong with that if that
works for you that's fine as well. I tend to have my thumb straight up and down
but this seems to work first others just fine. I want to show you two things to
avoid. One is to close up your palm and put your thumb like that. This is a
problem and if you're doing that I would change that right away. The second one is
to crack your thumb like this. It's just gonna hurt over time and there's no need
for it. In general, I wouldn't worry too much
about the exact position whether it's this way or this way or higher or lower
but generally in this area. Also I'll mention that I'm using as little amount
of pressure as I need to depress the thumb and the fingers together just
enough to get a good sound. If I release slightly, my thumb would just fall off.
I'm not holding it up tight and this helps you to play for longer period of
time without getting sore. Now you'll notice I can move around easily with
my thumb back there. I can go from open chords to a bar chord and my thumb is
pretty much in the same place just move slightly down. Also if I wanted to play
some single notes exercise, no problem. I want to talk about one more place to put
your thumb that you've probably seen that's a thumb wrapped around the neck
like this. This is a technique that many famous guitar players use in fact Jimi
Hendrix plays like this a lot. Now let's get real for just a minute. I know this
is easier in the beginning but for a beginner this is not the best position
because it really limits your range of motion. It can be reserved for more
techniques later which I'll mention in a second but in the beginning you want to
get the habit of being able to play with your thumb behind the neck. This can be a
good technique for use later on but in the beginning stages I want you to have
a good solid foundation of being able to play with your thumb behind the neck.
Let's do an experiment. Do this with me. Wrap your thumb around the neck and put
your first finger on that second fret there. Now the second finger on the third
fret and stretch over with your third finger onto the next fret. Can't do
it? I can't do it. If I just move my thumb back a bit I can get the third finger
down and a little more and I can get the pinky down pretty good. You notice with
my thumb behind the neck I have a lot more range of motion. I can move like
this and when it comes to bar chords, I need my thumb back there anyway. So one
final bit of advice, if you've been playing for a while and what you're
doing is working without causing any pain or anything significantly holding
you back I wouldn't worry about it but if you do feel pain I'd make some
changes and if you're used to getting your thumb in a strange way give it a
little time to try that new changes because you're gonna have to get used to
it. Hey, thanks for joining me today. I'm Tomas Michaud from Real Guitar Success.
I just love teaching guitar to grown-ups of any age. Bye for now.