Hi Chris.
Cool that you can play that F that fast after picking up the guitar.
Another thing you can do to make it a little bit easier on you is to put on a capo on first or second fret.
The barre chords tends to be a little bit easier to play. Youre action becomes a bit lower.
It is a good trick to excersise barre chords, you can do more of them without getting tired that quickly.
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@Stuartw Hey Stewart… that person is me 
small world. However they had incorrectly mentioned a couple weeks lol. I was 9 weeks in at the time. Think they corrected it later on :).
As I mentioned on the other thread, Dec 29 was the first time I picked up a guitar and started with the beginner course. Progress is a lot more slower now with me spending at least a couple weeks on the modules or more.
Cheers!
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…… why didn’t I take the blue pill……
Ok, so this is the reason I’m revisiting the early modules, my technique for barre chords is ‘off’, my thumb is way up the back of the neck:
When I try to ‘correct’ and bring in behind second finger, it puts a massive angle in my wrist:
And if I straighten my wrist, I can’t reach the low e with my index finger!
Is this a case of everyone has different anatomy, find what works for you or dude you are way off and you’re going to struggle xyz….
Hi Dave,
I have my first guitar for less than two weeks. So I’m not sure how qualified I am to give you any advice 
But just after the first 4 or 5 days, my thumb position looked quite like your on your first photo. First I didn’t even notice. But then I posted some photos here (and also sent them to a colleague at work who is a good guitar player). And people suggested to move the wrist forward and have the thumb “straight up” like on your second photo. I tried that and initially it didn’t work at all. I couldn’t even play a clean D chord anymore. Never. One evening I sat there for 2 1/2 hours and tried it. Didn’t work. Next day I tried it again – and suddenly it worked much better. So now I focus more on a “good” hand/finger position. And after another 4 or 5 days, it already works much better.
I also thought about that massive angle in the wrist. And first, my wrist really hurt after 30 minutes of practicing. But it gets better. And I also assume that when you look at your wrist from above, it looks more angled than it actually is.
Yeah, I know what you mean
Perhaps you can try to bring the thumb down a bit. This automatically moves your wrist forward and your fingers further above the fretboard.
So my general advice would be (more from a piano experience, where there are also “good” and “bad” hand/finger positions): Try to focus on a “good” technique and your playing will improve. It just needs practice.
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Holy moly @liaty That looks so wrong Dave. It is impossible to tell but could it be that your guitar body and neck are in poor positions and at the wrong angles / in the wrong planes? Which in turn is causing your elbow to be pushing in to your mid-riff and your forearm to be reaching to the neck from a tight not a wide angle. Your elbow needs to be out a little from your body, not digging in. though not too far out like it is floating in space.
Edit …
You also want to lower the thumb for barre chords. The tip of the thumb really wants to be no more than about 2/3 of the way up the neck. Not at the top or over the top. Drop your thumb and wrist a little.
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Thanks Richard!
I guess I’ll also try to focus more on the elbow. So much to focus on 
Cheers Richard, I’ll put some work in.
Currently going over these:
(Warning, this video contains images of Justin without a hat, viewer discretion advised)
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Yikes! This looks like a recipe for pain and injury.
I suspect something is deeply wrong with the way you are holding the guitar, or your arm position, or…something that is not shown in these pictures.
Can you post a picture taken from the front, that shows the whole guitar, and how you are sitting?
More gruesome content for your viewing pleasure, maybe others can learn from my woes….
Looking back over it myself, at the very point I say it’s all out of shape, that’s when it looks to be the closest?
I’ll be putting some time into this one.
Actually, looks (and sounds) ok from the front.
I think the low viewing angle of your rear camera may make the bend in your wrist look worse than it actually is. Can you raise the tripod to more closely approximate your own POV?
As for your thumb, I noticed that when you moved it, your wrist moved too, and then it looked really awkward.
Can you move your thumb into a better position without moving your wrist? I can move mine from parallel to the neck (like you) to about 45 degrees towards the guitar body without moving my wrist, but maybe that’s just me.
Cheers Tom, I can but not without changing the entire position of the barre finger. Then none of my knuckles/joints line up with the strings.
I’ll have a close follow of a few lessons, put some time in and report back 
(I saw in one video how Justin would lever ‘back’ against the thumb up towards the nut, I am levering down towards the bridge with the thumb up the back, maybe just need to beef up a new muscle)
Might be nitpicking, but I remember Justin saying that your index finger should not peek too much above the 6th fret. Otherwise, the front looks fine.
@Jozsef
Yeah, cheers József.
It’s never nice to start again, but may be best in the long run in this case….
Hi Dave, its way beyond my play grade to give any advice. I’m sure someone more experience will give you some great advice. One thing that that I noticed, not sure if its just the camera angle, it looks like your elbow is pushing into you side, not allowing you to pull your arm back. So in the last example on your video when you lower your barre and start to get a couple of dead notes if you are able to pull away from your fretboard with your arm slightly it may help add more pressure and get rid of those dead notes. I couldn’t see on the video if you were curving your first finger slightly from the camera angle it looked flat and straight on? As I said its way beyond my play grade to really comment on this as I’m just starting off learning to play barre chords.
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Hmmm, I wonder iif you just have less mobility in the base of your thumb. There’s a lot of variability between one human hand and the next. Though it’s good to have your thumb roughly behind your fingers - that gives them some thing to work against.
I’m starting to think you shouldn’t worry too much. It’s better to play comfortably with less-than-perfect technique than to play with excess tension, and potentially injure yourself. I gave myself tennis elbow by over practicing barre chords with too much pressure. Suffered for more than a year, until I discovered Trigger Point Therapy.
A little strength is required, but it’s mainly about good technique. If you feel you really have to grip hard, you’ll never be able to change chords quickly and easily.
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@liaty That is a fantastic analysis video. Kudos for taking the effort.
I see several micro-factors that may help your chord formation and comfort.
You are in a stool and wearing a strap. All good. What I notice about your overall position and posture however, facilitated, perhaps caused, by the strap, is that the guitar is hanging way over to the right of your body. The bridge pickup and beyond is outside the general line of your torso. Your right arm can cope with this as the lever system of its elbow allows such an adjustment. Your left arm is chasing after the neck in the opposite direction to its lever movement.
Compare your guitar body position with these others.
It is true that they are photographed on stage and will be mobile and adopting different positions but the general point stands. Try raising the guitar a little by shortening the strap and wearing it further to your left.
Lowering the index finger is a good move, here it is too proud of the neck.
Look how your thumb and index finger are almost touching when you straighten your thumb.
Then when you lower the thumb, I think you lower it a little too much and your seem to bend it so the tip rather than the pad is squeezing into the neck. Flatten it out and push it back up a little more, not a lot.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | Community Moderator, Official Guide, JustinGuitar Approved Teacher
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@Richard_close2u Wow, thanks for the detailed breakdown Richard.
Can I now say I’ve been compared to guitarists such as Brian May, Eric Clapton and David Gilmore? 
I’m having some (initial) success with dropping the index finger down, just less margin for error with the fleshy bits.
The thumb position may end up in a halfway /compromise position, I still find the dropped thumb cramps the whole hand up. Maybe due to prior broken wrist. I’m having a go though.
The guitar position is probably legacy of early learning and leaning over frets to see them. I’m working on playing while not looking, which is coming more naturally with the singing.
Thanks for the pointers, I’ll work on them. It’s helpful to get a third party view.
I’ll post again, hopefully with improvements. Just might take a while…
I read though the last part of this thread with @liaty and hand position. Great advice given, so just one thing popped out to me. Ok maybe two…
In one post it seems you are putting your fingers into position, especially the index, then struggling to adapt your arm to it. You might try putting the arm and writ in a good position then slowly learning to adapt the finger later to it. If that makes sense. So instead of tolerating wrist, elbow and shoulder problems, tolerate learning to get the fingering right with good arm posture.
Another thing that has helped me is the guitar position. Richard noticed it and it does make an enormous difference.
I start by putting my arm where I want it with a relaxed shoulder l, elbow and wrist. Then I put the neck in my hand and adjust the guitar until I can hold the F barre with everything still relaxed and ergonomic.
Then I figure out how to get the guitar to stay in the closest reasonable position to that. For me, it is sort of a half classical, and dice straps kill my neck, I bought a Performax support to hold the electric. Sticky gel pads for acoustic work.
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Just wanted to follow up on this. I tried it and it absolutely helps! Pulling back on the guitar body with my right elbow causes the neck to pivot out a fraction which in turn provides resistance against the fretting hand. If I keep my strumming arm loose the opposite happens and then it’s only my thumb providing that resistance, which is harder and painful for my hand. This combined with the other tips makes the chord playable for me.
This is such a good tip I really think Justin should include it in the lesson!
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