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To Anchor to not to Anchor; But I guess not the anchor your thinking of


BabelFish

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So while continuing my pursuit of learning the guitar I have found two different methods. When I googled this question, the pages that came up discussed the "Strumming" hand (anchor vs not anchor) which is not what I am referring to. My question is about the "Chord" Hand.

 

The first person who taught me showed me that I should keep the pointer finger part of the palm (area 3 from image provided) "connected" to the neck and use that as my memory reference point on where to place the fingers.

 

Following Justin's lesson from JustinGuitar (https://www.justinguitar.com/en/BC-1...horFingers.php), he states that no contact should exist and your hand should be free. Instead, use the contact of the finger as the reference point when changing chords. So in this lesson he shows changing from A/E/D and uses the contact of the pointer finger as the "anchor" reference.

 

What do you typically find yourself doing? Do you just know at this point where the finger placements are by full memory? Do you use a point of reference? If you use a reference, do you use finger or palm? Thanks

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The conventional wisdom seems to be that no part of your left hand should contact the neck of the guitar except your thumb on the back, and the fretting fingers. Seems that the only guitarists I see that can consistently do that are the classically trained ones.

 

It's often easier said than done.

 

Watch big name professional musicians when they play. You'll find that many are guilty of letting 1, 2, or 3 rest on the guitar's neck at times. I think the term, "at times," is the key. There are times when you can get by with it, and times when you should not do it.

 

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Agree with Fret Fiend. Your thumb should rest on the lower half of the curve of the neck when you play and you should not touch the fingerboard with anything but the fingers you are using to finger the frets. MAJOR EXCEPTION: Many pros use their thumb to finger the low e string when they are playing. I can't say whether it's ok or not ok because in non-classical music the form for playing is not rigid. If it works for the individual and sounds ok it works for me. It is very acceptable when playing folk, blues, jazz, country, etc to break the rules. I hope I confused you even more. LOL I certainly won't argue with Eric Clapton about his form.:lol:

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Thumb touches the back of the neck. That's a recent transition when I switched from steel string to nylon. I used to attempt to play that way with steel strings but all too often tension and action were factors that made the classical method difficult to faithfully follow. So, I learned to mix it up dependent upon the piece being played. Overall, it's an awareness the guitarist should maintain because the less the hand contacts the neck the better it serves freedom of movement.

 

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The old Mel Bay books used to emphasize that "The thumb should never be used to stop the strings!" But to he honest, I use my thumb all the time, either to mute the low E when playing a D major or an F/A, or to wrap around and fret the low E when playing, for example, a B7. That means the palm of my hand is touching the neck but I've never claimed to be anything other than a "hack," as my sig suggests. ;) OTOH, I've seen truly terrible guitarists play a G using only the thumb and index finger and it drives me nuts.

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Since I've never paid any attention to how I do it (and since I have had no formal training, what I do is probably wrong) but anyway, inspired by this thread I watched my right hand when I played last night. I find I do two things - when I'm playing (most) chords the little spot on my thumb above the 1 in Babel's pictures is lightly resting on the bass side of the neck. My thumb is sort of pointing off in the air but it can easily wrap around to pick up the low E string for things like a D/D or F in a "folk" F chord. There isn't much pressure and it does seem to work best on the vee shaped necks that I seem to prefer.

 

When I do any single string run or slides or full or partial barre chords my thumb moves to the center of the back of the neck. I'm trying to learn jazz chords and some of them seem to need the thumb to work against - I think this is much more the classical position.

 

Lastly, when I play with a slide my thumb is always gently in the middle of the back.

 

ps - I lightly touch the top with the pinkie of my right hand too - not really anchored but definitely touching

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It's funny because when you play classical they tell you not to touch the guitar top with your right hand at all. I'm learning to play the banjo and the first thing they tell you is to rest the index finger and pinky of your right hand on the top of the banjo head. Go figure.

 

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I'm self-taught and, like FK, have never really paid much attention to left-hand technique. Offhand (no pun intended), I don't think I'd be able to move up and down the neck too freely with my fretting hand anchored in that way. But ultimately, I'm a firm believer in the "Whatever works best for you" method of doing most things. I'm definitely not arguing with any established guitar playing techniques (I don't know enough and I'm not a good enough player to preach), but if playing a certain way feels good to you, I'd say stick with it.

 

Slightly off-topic, Justin is a great player and I've found some of his lessons very helpful and easy to follow. A former HCAG forumite and good friend built a beautiful acoustic for Justin a few years back. He posted a vid about the guitar on YT.

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Never think about it. My guess is that sometimes my hand is touching the bottom of the neck and sometimes it isn't. Sometimes my thumb is low on the back of the neck, sometimes it's high, sometimes it's in the middle. I play the low E with my thumb when it can't be avoided, but generally I like bar chords better.

 

What I do pay attention to are the height of the bridge (about level with my belly button) and the height of the headstock (next to my head).

 

Then access to the fretboard takes care of itself.

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