Thumb placement.

[MSH1601]

Hello everyone, could I please have some pics or descriptions from other people of their thumb placement on the back of the neck for legato/alternate picking etc. my thumb is wrapped right round at the mo and I need to retrain my muscles with scales etc. I just need to know the proper basic principal of thumb placement for shreding!!!!!Help me please!!!

[forgottenking2]

The way I do it and teach it is based on the classical position where the thumb rides behind the middle of the guitar neck, somewhat lined up with the middle finger. The exception of this is while bending. I then wrap my thumb around the neck for leverage. Another way I've been trying to develop is simply dispose of the thumb entirely while bending and use my forearm to bend and my wrist to vibrate. I find that a lot harder but I've seen Eric Johnson do it.

I hope this helps,

[Madaxeman]

I was tought to place my thumb in the middle of the neck centered on my middle finger as forgottenking2 said. That way your fingers are anchored at the end of the thumb and are more mobile, because your whole hand is free to move from the thumb. If you anchor with the lower part of the thumb (especially if you use the heel of your hand) you are really restricting the free movement available to you.

[delicious]

My thumb position tend to vary depending on the string im playing on, usually thumb over the top for high strings and moves to the middle of the back of neck when i play the low strings, i have a very small hand;(. But even then it really depends on other things, like if im ascdending a scale my thmb would stay behind on the high strings. At one stage of my playing i really tried to consciously think where i would put my thumb, but it just never worked out right so just left it and now it just seems to fall in place by itself. Its just one of those things thatll subsconisoculsy fix itself over time i guess:cool: