Extending Your Reach - Eliminating PAIN! . . .
The BIGGEST REASON most players have problems is REALLY SMALL!!
AND . . . I will reveal it RIGHT NOW . . .
The SOLUTION to MOST of your playing problems is to change the
location of a very small SMUDGE!!!
It's smaller than a quarter!
The problem is almost always where this little smudge
is located on your guitar!
And THIS is the little culpret!
My THUMB PRINT! WHAT!?! WHY!?!
. . . BECAUSE . . .
Yup, this guy right here!
And not just WHERE it is on the neck! But where it's spaced between
which fingers, and when! AND . . . what direction it's POINTED!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before I go any further re thumbs . . . let me provide you with a bit of
proof ~ Let me show you something that will be an eye opener! Once you do
this with me, you'll be a believer! This tutorial isn't in jest!
It's not funny!
Pain isn't funny! Neither is not being able to play the
way you want to! And this short tutorial is going to
provide THE SOLUTION!
Relax your fretting arm. Give your fretting hand a light shake. Relax it!
Let your wrist go LIMP!. Your fingers loose and pointing randomly toward
the floor. RELAXED!
OK, your wrist should be bent. But don't force it. Leave it 100% LIMP!
Now, without moving your wrist . . . slowly spread your fingers apart. BUT
DO NOT LET YOUR FINGERS MOVE UP TOWARD THE CEILING! Only
move them apart as far as they can go without them moving up!
(It won't be much!)
OK, now, KEEP THEM POINTING WHERE THEY ARE . . . but slowly
force them to spread apart! As much as you can stand it!
Do you feel this . . .
OK, shake your wrist loose again. RELAXED! Point your fingers straight up.
Now, slowly spread your fingers apart as wide as you can! STRETCH THEM!
Now, KEEPING THEM SPREAD TO THE MAX . . . bend your wrist as far as you can!
Again, it won't be much!.
Now, bend your wrist as far as you can! Keep your fingers SPREAD! Do you feel
those pains again!!?! Maybe in different places?
Your hand, wrist and finger position totally dictates how far you can
spread your fingers! How many frets you can reach easily!
It also controls how FAST you can play!
OK, one more quick one . . .
Go back to the 1st example. Wrist bent, relaxed. Fingers randomly pointing
to the floor. Keep relaxed! Wiggle your fingers as fast as you can. Kinda
like you were typing. Do it FASTER! Now, WHILE you're "typing", slowly
bend your wrist as far as you can. Did your fingers SLOW DOWN?!?
NOW, SHAKE IT OFF! Point your fingers straight up. RELAXED! Wiggle your
fingers as fast as you can! FASTER!
Now, while you wiggle them, BEND YOUR WRIST SLOWLY!
Again . . . a major slow-down, right!
One last time. This time I'll show you the importance of proper thumb placement!
Point your fingers straight up. Spread your fingers, just lightly.
RELAXED 100%! No force. Now slowly move your thumb across your palm,
moving toward your 4th finger. Do you see your fingers moving toward your
thumb! See them moving closer together, reducing the spread!
Do you see your little finger moving toward your thumb!?!
Your THUMB is CONTROLLING the movement of your FINGERS!
And your wrist DYNAMICALLY controlls your finger spread, and SPEED!
Bend your wrist like the picture below.
Now I challenge you to spread
your fingers apart!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let's talk about Thumb Dos & Thumb Don'ts!
Your thumb needs to point differently for different playing techniques.
Strumming, playing Blues and Rock leads. Playing scale type solos, like
3NPS - 3 Notes Per String solos!
The purpose of the thumb is to produce pressure, at the correct SPOT!
Where it's needed. Having the thumb in the wrong location forces you
to add additional, unneeded pressure where it's needed. This creates
tension, STRESS! Makes you press your fingers too hard!
Tension kills speed and accuracy! So along with preventing you from
stretching your fingers to cover the needed frets, because the thumb
is pointing the wrong way, it's all intensified by the thumb being in
the wrong loction, too!
Absolutely WRONG! I can't think of one advantage to doing this. And I
already listed half a dozen reasons why it's a disadvantage! You CANNOT
play this way if you want to improve! Don't play like this! EVER!
NOT so good!
Much better!
Let's see where the thumb should be for playing different techniques.
Many times, you position your thumb either directly behind your 1st finger,
or better, in between fingers 1 and 2. Like when you're playing open chords,
and even barre chords. With barre chords, the "barre" needs to be firmly
against the string, but really only the top and bottom 2 strings need any
amount of pressure. The main chord part uses finger tips. And they
don't need much help!
And the thumb should be pointing straight UP!
How about letting the thumb wrap over the neck. Is that OK? Sometimes,
absolutely! You can use your thumb when making chords. SOME chords! Use
your thumb to either actually play a note on the low E string, OR . . . it's
COMMON to use your thumb to MUTE the low E string! By doing this,
you can "strum without aiming"! Like an open C major. If you mute the low
E, you can fully strum the C! And not worry about the low E muddying up
your sound!
If you're not using the thumb for that purpose, it should be behind the neck!
Here's another good example. Like I said before, the thumb must be dynamic.
(As opposed to being static.) It has to MOVE! Let's say you're working on
3NPS scales or solos. Your thumb should be between your 2nd and 3rd fingers!
This not only applies the pressure where it's needed, but will allow you
to spread your fingers out farther! If you have trouble spreading to play
5 frets, simply moving your thumb between 2 and 3 will almost instantly
let you play 5 frets!
How about the Blues Grip! There's a HUGE difference in technique playing
open chords and playing scale type leads, and playing Blues and Rock.
In the Blues style of playing, we commonly bend strings, and just over all
play differently! But MOST of the time, while playing Blues or Rock, we
still keep our thumb behind the neck! There are times when we just gotta
wrap that thumb around!
You might also notice that when gripping the neck like this, your thumb
will slightly "pivot" as your palm shifts to make the grip. Probably
about 45 degrees.
Just remember, you're sacrificing a bit, in order to gain a bit!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK, if you started working on all of this, and have seen even a small
improvement - Let me say this . . .
GOOD JOB! AND THUMBS UP TO YOU!
I hope I become a small part of how you become a successful
guitar player, AND a better you!
Wayne
The start of becoming better starts by doing the things
you skipped, or started and didn't finish! So start here!
But THIS TIME . . . FINISH IT!!!
~ You need to read this! ~
Theory 101 Overview
~ So do it RIGHT NOW! ~
Then keep going!
Check out the other tutorials and . . .
Do the workshops!
My Tutorials and Workshops Directory Index Page
Hope you found this interesting. If you did, please feel welcome
to drop me a line. Email me, or drop me a PM on Facebook!
Email me any time! ~/~
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Wayne's Corner Learning Support Group
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