Thumb behind or over neck, does it matter?

sxt

..when beginning to learn guitar ?

Etc

Definitely behind the neck, it can be hard on the thumb but in terms of good technique it's invaluable. It gives so much fluidity. Like everything when starting to play guitar, it feels hard initially and soon becomes second nature. Don't do to much to soon, you might do yourself an injury.

Enjoy !

Demeyes

Thumb over neck I would consider bad technique if you do it all the time. It's something I see a lot of people who struggle with guitar doing. It really limits the amount of movement you can do with your finger placement compared to having your thumb behind the neck. Another area it is bad for is vibrato and bending. It can be hard to really rock your hand for a nice vibrato when you have a lot of contact with your hand on the neck, which happens when you have your thumb really high up.

EoghanIRL

I'd only use my thumb over the neck for Hendrix style bar chords to be honest . Bad technique otherwise I would think

slavetothegrind

also try and fret some chords without your thumb anywhere near the neck.
a friend of mine was trying to squeeze the life out of the strings whilst fretting when he started, we got him to do this to show him he didn't need to bleed to play:P

sorry should have said thats just a test not a technique!!!

wild turkey

Hand & neck size plays a big part in it but its really whatever your comfortable with !

JonathanAnon

wild turkey wrote: »

Hand & neck size plays a big part in it but its really whatever your comfortable with !

yeah was just gonna say this.. My hands arent big enough to do it comfortably.. But it can be very handy for making fuller chords sometimes... particularly when you want to add an F# bass note to particular chords.. Nuno does this in More Than Words to add an F# bass to a D chord.. But then reverts to the normal way of playing for the rest of the song..

But by no means should it be the way you learn... It is something that you should add at a much later stage if you find that it comes easy to your hand

Ostrom

Haven't thought about this much, but I tend to keep my thumb over the neck a little except for bar chords and such. I find it offers better leverage for bending and easier e-string muting where necessary, although my thumb seems to drift around a bit depending on specific positions up and down the fretboad, or technical requirements. I don't believe it is good practice to work with extremes either, i.e. keeping to a strictly classical 'thumb behind' position when fretting open position chords for example. Looking at some of justins early videos (justinguitar.com), his thumb seems to creep over a little in most.

Rigsby

The thumb is merely there to support the fingers when fretting. There is not (or should not) be any "rules" as to where it should go. Granted, wrapping the thumb around the top of the neck can be restriticting. If however, you are playing in the one area of the neck, I dont see any reason not to do so if it works, feels comfortable, and you are not gripping the neck tightly. People should do what works and is safe for them.