My girlfriend about 1978 was taking lessons for classical guitar player. She had a nylon and a Yamaha steel string acoustic guitar. She influenced me to play and I loved Zeppelin, Pink Floyd... I started holding the guitar classical style with rear bout between the legs to this day or a strap
That's awesome to hear. Thank you so much!!! Sharing always helps out the channel so if you know anyone who would benefit from these lessons, please share with them. Also, I send out a free lesson newsletter every two weeks with all kinds of technique, improvisation and theory lessons to my followers, so if you're interested please check it out here: maxrichmusic.com/newsletter Thanks for watching!
Max 👑just keep on giving us gems of knowledge. 💎✨👌
15 วันที่ผ่านมา
I had to watch a dozen videos of this type to find one in which it is explained why the thumb should be positioned this way. The other videos only said that this is right and that is wrong, making them unconvincing for me to make the change. Thanks!
I really got a lot out of this simple approach and explanation. My left hand technique was very poor but I am already seeing some improvement since viewing this video. Thanks!
Interesting. Just yesterday a guitar teacher told me the reason I was having problems playing some arpeggios without buzzing is that my thumb needed to be lower. With my thumb lower I was able to play those arpeggios cleanly but my wrist was bent 90 degrees. Your technique works for those arpeggios but I am wondering about barre chords especially low on the neck. It seems difficult to get the right position for, let’s say, a B barre in the E shape. As my arm is closer to my body it’s natural to turn the wrist so the thumb is behind the index finger.
I see what your saying about the barre chord but “pinching” between the index/thumb for those chords is actually bad technique. You want to use leverage instead of muscle strength. This video explains that exact problem: th-cam.com/video/P6L1cGk9urk/w-d-xo.html
What about wrapping the thumb over to mute strings when playing some chords. It's really difficult to miss strumming the E when playing A and D chords.
Wrapping the thumb is really useful for certain things, but will make playing over a larger section of the fretboard harder...it's a case-by-case type of thing
Thanks, I really like your basic technique on finger positions and this. I know now why I have found some techniques painful over a period. Great Videos
Thank you for watching. If you're interested please check out the free weekly newsletter where I send out lessons like this as well as tips, tabs and techniques for my followers. I appreciate you watching and hope that you continue to advance your technique. maxrichmusic.com/newsletter
I have both limited band experience and limited formal musical education. I started playing with a bassist that insisted on picking on my left hand position and posture, trying to correct it. It was a bit annoying sometimes but after seeing this video I have seen enough to invest in correcting bad playing habits. Thank you very much.
So is it OK if my palm slightly touches the bottom of the neck? I've always seen videos saying not to do that but I can't without moving my thumb down vertically and bending my wrist forward ..I find it much more efficient to play like you show with the flat wrist.
Yeah, you really should avoid putting your palm on the bottom of the neck, it creates a whole bunch of physical issues that will get in the way of your progress. If you'd like to email me I can take a look at your technique and get a better idea of the problem.
This is by far the clearest material I've seen on this topic, thank you. I do have a question though. I've been playing for over a year with my palm resting against the neck and the thumb resting near the top. Sometimes I even use my thumb to mute the 5th and 6th string and it's been tough trying to change this habit. When I was searching for how I should hold my thumb, I kept seeing people say over and over that it's best if the thumb doesn't even peek over the top, but if I move it down then my wrist is way bent. So is this even an issue? I mean in the video your thumb is way over too, so what's the deal with that advice? Is this just about the angle of the guitar? I mostly have the neck level with the ground, so should I angle it more upwards?
Yeah so you always want to prevent your wrist from bending whenever possible. It's not always possible, but you should aim for that. Bending your wrist severely limits the ability of your fingers to curve and you want maximum range as often as possible. However when you say "palm against the neck" my concern is that the pinky side of your palm shouldn't be touching the neck. It's fine to play with your thumb over the top and palm on the back of the neck, but allowing the pinky side of your palm to make contact forces the wrist to supinate (twist outward) which also limits the mobility in your pinky and ring fingers. As far as people giving that advice, it's mainly because of classical technique...which is awesome if you're a classical player. I have several degrees in classical guitar and worked as a concert guitarist for a decade before becoming a touring hired gun guitarist. I can tell you that the classical form has many limitations when playing modern electric guitar music. That being said, elevating your neck is almost always a good idea. There are several ergonomic issues with spine and shoulder angle that come from keeping the neck parallel. These will wreak havoc on your technique and should be avoided early in your development., Being in the early stages of your playing my honest advice is to work extremely hard at getting the erognomic postures and positions correct. Otherwise you'll advance to a certain point and then have to go all the way back to the beginning in order to fix the bad technical habits you've ingrained. Ideall you should work with a teacher who understands anatomy and the physiology of playing guitar...don't take lessons from somebody who just gives you songs to play. Feel free to send me an email through my site and I can discuss it further with you. Thanks for watching!
what drives me crazy as a new player is that almost every professional rock player I watch never has their thumb centered. It's always much closer to the index finger. It can be confusing.
Well, at a certain point of experience it becomes a feel thing, and is subject to the angle of the guitar neck as well as many other factors. For those starting out and having technique issues with their pinky my answer is to keep the thumb in the middle. But if you're an advanced player and fully capable of playing whatever you want then it's clearly ok to "break the rules" because at that point it's personal preference. With experience comes the ability to play many techniques in a variety of positions, but attempting to do that as a beginner will only lead to bad habits and a faulty technique...you'll eventually have to rework those bad habits anyway. If you still need help, feel free to shoot me an email and I can help you out.
Yeah, lukather is a technique beast though...if you watch early videos of him he had the technique nailed. He also plays narrow necks and small scale guitars which allow him to "cheat" the technique slightly.
@Max Rich Music yeah I mean towards the headstock. Not the neck haha. Because the fretboard is in the neck sorry. But you know what I mean when you do vibrato.
Yeah that's actually not ideal because you end up using forearm rotation instead of finger/joints. That forces your entire hand out of position which means you have to do a lot of extra work to make it return, so in the case of a fast passage with a bends involved you end up having hiccups and stuttering because your hand flies out of position and then has to find the position again. It's much better to learn to bend using your fingers/big knuckle with the thumb directly above the bending finger.
My girlfriend about 1978 was taking lessons for classical guitar player. She had a nylon and a Yamaha steel string acoustic guitar. She influenced me to play and I loved Zeppelin, Pink Floyd... I started holding the guitar classical style with rear bout between the legs to this day or a strap
Man, Max, some of the best teaching on You Tube. I'm also training with Guitar Tricks and they DO NOT give you this information.
That's awesome to hear. Thank you so much!!! Sharing always helps out the channel so if you know anyone who would benefit from these lessons, please share with them.
Also, I send out a free lesson newsletter every two weeks with all kinds of technique, improvisation and theory lessons to my followers, so if you're interested please check it out here: maxrichmusic.com/newsletter
Thanks for watching!
Keeping the thumb in the center clicked for me, thank you so much! The grip and control feels so much better.
Great to hear... It makes such a big difference!
Thank you Max, very useful!
Max 👑just keep on giving us gems of knowledge. 💎✨👌
I had to watch a dozen videos of this type to find one in which it is explained why the thumb should be positioned this way. The other videos only said that this is right and that is wrong, making them unconvincing for me to make the change. Thanks!
I really got a lot out of this simple approach and explanation. My left hand technique was very poor but I am already seeing some improvement since viewing this video. Thanks!
That's awesome!
Cheers,was wondering why my wrist was killing me🙄👍🇮🇪
Also good to note that playing with a severely bent wrist can cause tendonitis or carpal tunnel. A neutral wrist is key.
Absolutely correct! I know many people who've gotten injured from playing with a bent wrist
as usual great advice
Interesting. Just yesterday a guitar teacher told me the reason I was having problems playing some arpeggios without buzzing is that my thumb needed to be lower. With my thumb lower I was able to play those arpeggios cleanly but my wrist was bent 90 degrees. Your technique works for those arpeggios but I am wondering about barre chords especially low on the neck. It seems difficult to get the right position for, let’s say, a B barre in the E shape. As my arm is closer to my body it’s natural to turn the wrist so the thumb is behind the index finger.
I see what your saying about the barre chord but “pinching” between the index/thumb for those chords is actually bad technique. You want to use leverage instead of muscle strength.
This video explains that exact problem:
th-cam.com/video/P6L1cGk9urk/w-d-xo.html
What about wrapping the thumb over to mute strings when playing some chords. It's really difficult to miss strumming the E when playing A and D chords.
Wrapping the thumb is really useful for certain things, but will make playing over a larger section of the fretboard harder...it's a case-by-case type of thing
I need to duct tape my thumb down, it always goes straight out to the side if I take my eye off of it. Lol. Frustrating.
Same problem here it always tilts towards the headstock.
Thanks, I really like your basic technique on finger positions and this. I know now why I have found some techniques painful over a period. Great Videos
Thank you for watching. If you're interested please check out the free weekly newsletter where I send out lessons like this as well as tips, tabs and techniques for my followers. I appreciate you watching and hope that you continue to advance your technique.
maxrichmusic.com/newsletter
Thank you Max for your great explanation, your videos have helped me immensely.
I'm really glad to hear that. Thank you for watching and for the awesome comment!
I have both limited band experience and limited formal musical education. I started playing with a bassist that insisted on picking on my left hand position and posture, trying to correct it. It was a bit annoying sometimes but after seeing this video I have seen enough to invest in correcting bad playing habits. Thank you very much.
Thanks for all the profound information. Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much! Will do!
Great content, as always. Thx for all you do!
Thank you so much for the comment, I’m really happy to know you enjoy the videos! Thanks for watching!
So is it OK if my palm slightly touches the bottom of the neck? I've always seen videos saying not to do that but I can't without moving my thumb down vertically and bending my wrist forward ..I find it much more efficient to play like you show with the flat wrist.
Yeah, you really should avoid putting your palm on the bottom of the neck, it creates a whole bunch of physical issues that will get in the way of your progress. If you'd like to email me I can take a look at your technique and get a better idea of the problem.
This is by far the clearest material I've seen on this topic, thank you. I do have a question though.
I've been playing for over a year with my palm resting against the neck and the thumb resting near the top. Sometimes I even use my thumb to mute the 5th and 6th string and it's been tough trying to change this habit. When I was searching for how I should hold my thumb, I kept seeing people say over and over that it's best if the thumb doesn't even peek over the top, but if I move it down then my wrist is way bent.
So is this even an issue? I mean in the video your thumb is way over too, so what's the deal with that advice? Is this just about the angle of the guitar? I mostly have the neck level with the ground, so should I angle it more upwards?
Yeah so you always want to prevent your wrist from bending whenever possible. It's not always possible, but you should aim for that. Bending your wrist severely limits the ability of your fingers to curve and you want maximum range as often as possible. However when you say "palm against the neck" my concern is that the pinky side of your palm shouldn't be touching the neck. It's fine to play with your thumb over the top and palm on the back of the neck, but allowing the pinky side of your palm to make contact forces the wrist to supinate (twist outward) which also limits the mobility in your pinky and ring fingers.
As far as people giving that advice, it's mainly because of classical technique...which is awesome if you're a classical player. I have several degrees in classical guitar and worked as a concert guitarist for a decade before becoming a touring hired gun guitarist. I can tell you that the classical form has many limitations when playing modern electric guitar music.
That being said, elevating your neck is almost always a good idea. There are several ergonomic issues with spine and shoulder angle that come from keeping the neck parallel. These will wreak havoc on your technique and should be avoided early in your development.,
Being in the early stages of your playing my honest advice is to work extremely hard at getting the erognomic postures and positions correct. Otherwise you'll advance to a certain point and then have to go all the way back to the beginning in order to fix the bad technical habits you've ingrained. Ideall you should work with a teacher who understands anatomy and the physiology of playing guitar...don't take lessons from somebody who just gives you songs to play. Feel free to send me an email through my site and I can discuss it further with you.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks. Also : now I'd be interested to hear your take on that straight vs. angled finger topic... 😁
Well there’s no perfect solution for 100% of the time …this is my take:
th-cam.com/video/kzN-3JooFhw/w-d-xo.html
Thank you, the best tutorial for frett hand thumb and wrist position technique.
You're very welcome, I’m glad it helped. Thank you for watching
I’ve reached the point where no amount of practice will lead to me being a better player, so I simply don’t practice anymore
I hear you. Even worse is the so-called easy utube guitar lessons, that are impossible for me!
As a beginner, this is a great vid for me to avoid establishing bad habits with the basics. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
The thumb thing really helped me ‼️‼️
That's awesome! I'm happy to hear that!
what drives me crazy as a new player is that almost every professional rock player I watch never has their thumb centered. It's always much closer to the index finger. It can be confusing.
Well, at a certain point of experience it becomes a feel thing, and is subject to the angle of the guitar neck as well as many other factors. For those starting out and having technique issues with their pinky my answer is to keep the thumb in the middle. But if you're an advanced player and fully capable of playing whatever you want then it's clearly ok to "break the rules" because at that point it's personal preference. With experience comes the ability to play many techniques in a variety of positions, but attempting to do that as a beginner will only lead to bad habits and a faulty technique...you'll eventually have to rework those bad habits anyway.
If you still need help, feel free to shoot me an email and I can help you out.
@@MaxRichMusic Thanks for clarifying. I just keep telling myself that steve lukather has small hands and he can still play well. :)
Yeah, lukather is a technique beast though...if you watch early videos of him he had the technique nailed. He also plays narrow necks and small scale guitars which allow him to "cheat" the technique slightly.
@@MaxRichMusic I have noticed that he does have very solid technique.
How about Vibrato and Bends? It's more efficient if the thumb is towards the neck
Towards the neck?
@Max Rich Music Yes. Like you're index finger is fretting 12th fret and your thumb is behind 11th
You mean toward the headstock?
@Max Rich Music yeah I mean towards the headstock. Not the neck haha. Because the fretboard is in the neck sorry. But you know what I mean when you do vibrato.
Yeah that's actually not ideal because you end up using forearm rotation instead of finger/joints. That forces your entire hand out of position which means you have to do a lot of extra work to make it return, so in the case of a fast passage with a bends involved you end up having hiccups and stuttering because your hand flies out of position and then has to find the position again. It's much better to learn to bend using your fingers/big knuckle with the thumb directly above the bending finger.