I’ve watched many videos and tutorials of the “correct thumb placement” and i cannot seem to get it right without having my wrist being bent in some sort of way. I did see people saying that thumb placement is intuitive but others saying the way i hold the guitar when playing (in the attached photo) could hinder my reach. Also no matter how hard i try with whatever position, i’m unable to have my fingers be “straight” up on the frets, and instead they are sort of pointed diagonally, which i also read as being an incorrect technique, so i’m really not sure what to do here.
Ok, I may be telling you what you already know. For open chords and most generally your thumb should be roughly on the centre or slightly above the centre of the neck, a good position is opposite your 2nd finger I believe. Having said that it does vary from person to person, and your thumb will move for different chords. By having your thumb over the top of the neck it is lky to restrict movement if not it will in the future, although there are instance where you may use your thumb to great the 6th string on chords later on. Also having a bent wrist will impede finger and hand movement.
It might be helpful to get some to take a phot of you holding the guitar sitting and standing as you do normally as your position and guitar may not be good and make it hard.
If you straighten your wrist, it will pull your thumb down. Did you watch this?
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My wrist is already straight there, if i pull my thumb down from that position or try to put it in the correct position (facing upwards on the back of the neck) my wrist bends
I have a longer thumb (my thumb often creates problems when I am shopping for new gloves), and what generally tends to work for me is more or less what Justin mentions in this video for longer thumbs.
Kinda looks like @bjorklover has a longer thumb, too.
It’s hard to say from the angle of your picture, but it looks like:
- you’re holding the neck in your hand, with your palm supporting the neck. There should be a gap between the underside of the neck and your palm. Resting the neck in your palm will put your thumb higher up on the neck.
- Your guitar is tilted towards you. Try to keep it perpendicular to the ground (which means you can’t see the fretboard). Tilting your guitar towards you will make your thumb slide up.
Also make sure your guitar is angled away from you, with the neck pointing away from you, and the neck is angled a bit upwards. This will give you more room to move your arm and finding the correct position.
As for the slanting of your fingers: a bit of slanting is normal and will actually help with reach.
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Hey Ed.
Frank already re-posted a very useful video of Justin’s on thumb position, so I’d make sure you watch that.
Also Els mentioned guitar position, and I’d agree about that, my thoughts there are probably more easily demonstrated in video rather than text …
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I think you are over-interpreting the need to keep your wrist completely straight. If you watch the video that @Freewheelin posted where Justin discusses thumb position. You will see that when he has his thumb on the upper part of the back of the neck and he plays open chords, his wrist is bent. It isn’t straight. I’m guess the important part is not to bend it too much so you can keep your hand and wrist relaxed - but the experts will be able to say this better than me.
I also think @LadyOfTheCastle s point about letting the neck not rest on your palm is very important, otherwise you will mute the bottom string(s).
Paul’s point about position of the guitar is really important.
Paul, @mathsjunky do you have the neck angled that far away from your body when you are standing too?
Pretty much. When I’m standing it’s easier to move it around depending on what I’m playing, and I’ll shift it to play certain chords or if I’m moving up the neck.
In this random snapshot of a performance I think it’s probably about 40-45 degrees.
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Agree 100%. Several posters in the past have worried about not keeping their wrist perfectly straight, which is not only not a big deal, but often unavoidable in any case. Look at this screen grab from the Justin video mentioned above:
Here Justin is demonstrating his hand position when playing an A-shape barre chord. Obviously the wrist is very far from straight.
Justin does say that you want to avoid an extreme wrist angle like this:
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In his (very nice) video @mathsjunky mentions he holds the guitar at an angle of 40-45 degrees away from his body. I think this is very important and not explained very often. Justin doesn’t mention it in his “How to Hold Your Guitar” lesson (Grade 1, Module 0). Nobody mentioned it to me when I was starting out (many years ago).
I think most beginners assume that the guitar naturally sits parallel to the body (I certainly did) and it looks that way in most pictures and videos, but in fact it’s generally angled away from the body quite substantially. Over the years, I gravitated to this position as the most comfortable, but until recently I always wondered if that was incorrect.
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I agree, I remember scouring the internet and finally finding a picture of a person playing from the top down. The head of the guitar is out almost (not quite) to the left knee.
I still did not find that comfortable for my shoulder or wrist, so I gravitated to something closer to the classical posture. This brings the guitar head closer and higher.
Also very important, as mentioned, try not to tilt the guitar. We all want to do this at the beginning, but it really screws with the hand and wrist.
Thank you so much for dedicating your time to film this, it’s very helpful!
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Would this be an acceptable wrist position? I was just worried about it bending at all in fear of something like carpal tunnel, and also hearing that bending the wrist limits your reach relative to the anatomy of the hand/wrist/fingers
I think it’s a bit difficult to say for sure with the angle of the photo and how close the camera is. Also everyone’s anatomy is different. It might feel a bit awkward, but If it’s at all painful, then stop. If you can get someone to take the picture for you then it might give a better indication … or film a video … or take snapshots from a video like this …
In these stills you can see there is some bend in my wrist. I’d like to re-iterate that I don’t have perfect technique, but it works for me, and I play a lot, and have done for a long time - currently no issues!
It’s all a compromise. If you want a perfectly straight wrist all the time, then move to classical style and forget about bending, blues, Hendrix or Frusciante 
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I would argue that you can bend, blue, Hendrix or Hot Chili Pepper just fine in a classical pose.
When I say ‘classical style’ I mean with the thumb behind the neck as well as the position of the guitar.
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