Correct Thumb Position While Playing Guitar
The rule book says the thumb of our fretting hand should always drop to the back of the guitar neck, but you see the thumb of accomplished players like Scott Henderson always wrapped around the neck.
Agoro M.
While there are many advantages to using the correct and somewhat formal thumb position behind the neck while playing, especially making good technique a habit when just learning, as you have noticed a large percentage of players simply do not do it and obviously still play very well their whole lives. Sometimes there are even cool tricks you can do with your thumb when it overlaps onto the fretboard. But… There are definitely some worthy advantages when it comes to incorporating as many best practices into your thumb and hand positioning as you can for your personal style.
With that said, I know several older players who now have very serious issues and complications as the result of a lifetime of very poor thumb and hand position. This is mostly do to the extreme angle of the wrist and the tendons moving within. For some players, as a result of wrapping their thumb over the neck, their wrist is now positioned in close to a 90 degree angle. Much in the way it would be if you did a push up. While it doesn’t happen to all players, as you age, this wrist angle can cause long term issues much like carpal tunnel; including but not limited to pain, numbness, tingling, weakness, unable to play for long periods, etc. It can become very frustrating for them trying to relearn playing with a straight wrist in their later years since the habit is so entrenched in their style.
While you will hear a lot of “whatever works for you” which is absolutely correct, be aware that there is nothing more frustrating to an older guitarist who loves to play his instrument than having to put it down after only a few minutes do to pain. Putting some thought into your grip and technique now can help you further down the road.
While it is probably not necessary to keep your thumb locked behind the neck in proper classical positioning like the great Andrés Segovia, with your fingers straight and your guitar positioned accordingly, there are still some considerations you may wish to incorporate into your own style.
So.. My humble advice, regardless of where your thumb finds its home behind or over the neck is:
- Keep your wrist as straight as possible. Your thumb positioning can help with this, as can the height of your guitar when playing. When holding your guitar, take a look at your wrist and adjust your grip and guitar strap as needed to prevent it from being bent in a “push up” position. A straighter wrist allows for more freedom of the tendons to move and a more efficient and speedy playing style.. plus it can help prevent carpal tunnel symptoms further down the road.
- Try and learn to play with the least amount of finger pressure possible to achieve solid tone. Sometimes we don’t even notice how hard we are squeezing the neck as we try to play tricky chords or scales. If you are squeezing so hard your finger and thumb tips are changing color, you are squeezing too hard. The trick is to try and release pressure as much as possible while still allowing the string to make solid contact with the fret and not loose tone. Less is more.
- Keep the source of pressure contact on the back of the neck, thumb or palm, centered behind your playing. It is easy, especially when we move positions up and down the neck, to not keep our pressure point centered behind the playing area. I have caught myself doing this many times. The hand might move, but the thumb stays over to the side, much like you would hold a fishing rod. This causes you to use much more force than needed if your thumb was correctly positioned to support your playing.
- Keep your fingers as straight as possible. Moving your thumb down to be centered on the back of the neck with your elbow low will allow you to flatten your fingers. There are many advantages to this, especially for easy bar chords, extended fingerings, and arpeggios and sweep picking. Blues players, and rock players tend to curl their fingers with the thumb flopping over the top of the neck, then by twisting their wrist do bends and vibrato. This works great, as seen by many famous guitarists over the years. But the same result can be achieved with flatter fingers as well. It is all about what works best for your style of playing. Try it.
The bottom line is that it is not necessary to follow the classical approach of having your thumb directly centered behind the neck in order to play the guitar well, however there are many long term benefits that can be achieved by applying some smart techniques into your style. Bad habits can not only make it more difficult to play, they can definitely lead to long term problems that can be devastating to devoted players in their later years. Be conscious of your hand and thumb positioning, apply what you can for your particular style of playing, and remember that you alone are the only one who can choose to do.. or not… what is in the best interest of your long term playing goals.
