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)
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.
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.
@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
@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.
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!
I have all the notes ringing out consistently with the F chord with the exception of the B string. It is always muted. any advice here would be greatly welcomed. Thanks
I struggled with the B string as well, still do to be honest. The thing that I feel is effective is to stabilize the guitar body with the right arm and gently pull back with the left. As you pull back, you can squeeze less, but it also increases the leverage primarily at the lower part of the index finger and the B and E strings.
With the joint in first finger on the corner of the fretboard on high E, I can get the B and high E ringing, but my finger is at an angle such that the tip goes accross the fret for the low E, hence muting that.
So only one of the E strings rings…
Thank you so much for the tip. It seems to be the right one for me. I’m now getting the B to ring out with the other strings quite nicely! Well most of the time now anyway.
Cheers