Hitchhikers Thumb and Playing.

[rottweilerv88]

I've never given it much thought but while jamming, I noticed that most of my friends had their thumbs considerably over their neck, while mine generally never is, unless I'm doing thumbed-chords. The only other exception I use thumb-over-neck is while bending the higher strings. When it comes to playing 3nps string patterns or whathaveyou, my thumb is generally slanted and bent is a 90 degree angle.

Now. Is having a hitchhikers thumb a virtue or a curse? Granted, I've NEVER had any problems in terms of my thumb being a liability, but I generally find that some stretches I do, I could never be able to do without my thumb. I noticed that Shawn Lane had a hitchhikers thumb as well, where as players like Paul Gilbert clearly have their thumbs over-the-neck while playing fast stuff.

Discuss.

http://www.ncrtec.org/tl/camp/gene/thumbs.htm

[furiousnewf]

Probably has a lot to do with hand size. Shawn Lane had average sized hands, whereas Paul Gilbert has HUGE hands. I think most people would position there thumbs behind the neck when doing fast 3NPS stuff

[Crossroads]

There's already a very recent thread on Hitchhikers thumb.

Paul Gilbert doesn't typically play with his thumb over the neck. What he does, is alter the thumb position depending on the piece he's playing. Eg, look at this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqWTz2qDhm8 , there you see what is clearly a very awkward lick, but you never see the thumb at all...the thumb is permanently hidden behind the neck.

As Furious says - Paul has very long fingers, so on many licks he can afford to have the thumb over the neck & yet still make wide stretches easily. For most people that would be impossible.

Ian.

[Malcolm]

I think most of us started out doing what our instructors told us ----- learn with the thumb to the back --- after we have the fundamentals down -- that thumb comes over the top on some of the chords -- and I think that has more to do with hand size than sloppiness.
:rolleyes:

[Crossroads]

I think most of us started out doing what our instructors told us ----- learn with the thumb to the back --- after we have the fundamentals down -- that thumb comes over the top on some of the chords -- and I think that has more to do with hand size than sloppiness.
:rolleyes:

Agreed. And some techniques actually require you to use the thumb in that way. Eg some chords are deliberately played by the thumb fretting the low-E string, because that gives you 5 digits with which to fret the notes (otherwise some of those chords would be impossible to play with just 4 fingers).

Also, when you bend notes, it helps to have the thumb over the edge of the neck so as to give maximum leverage & power for really big tough bends.

In practice, what I find is that the thumb moves around a lot at the back of the neck, ie adopting various positions to make fretting easier, especially on wide stretches.

If you have hands like Paul Gilbert then it obviously makes life easier, and you can afford to bend the rules quite a lot. His technique is impeccable by the way (imho).

Ian.