Thumb Position

[Longhair]

I try to have my thumb on the back of the neck and parallel to my middle finger when playing scales.

 

Now when I go down the neck (closer to the bridge) I end up getting a "hitchhiker's" thumb.

 

Is there any way to avoid that because at a point, it gets really uncomfotable and it renders my pinky useless when I get to the D to Low E strings

[Flanger]

Yeah. Wear your guitar higher.

[Longhair]

It isn't like I have my guitar down to my knees or anything...

 

I have tried many different heights to see which was the most comfortable position for me. Even dropping it down or raising it

[Poparad]

Adjust your guitar so it's in the same location standing up as it is when you're sitting down.

[Flanger]

 

Originally posted by Poparad Adjust your guitar so it's in the same location standing up as it is when you're sitting down.

 

 

I recently had to do this. Although it's not quite that high, it feels pretty dorky and if I went any higher it would feel real dorky. When I've been practicing while sitting, it's been on a high stool and it hang's where it does when I stand.

 

I was already playing with my thum behind the neck, but the reason I raised it was because of my picking hand. I had a hard time keeping the pick parallel to the strings if I wasn't paying lots of attention to it. Also, the position I had to hold my hand in to get the pick there was causing tension and fatigue. My picking feels and sounds a lot better since I raise the guitar.

[IanHey]

Assuming you have good hand position and you're not really straining to do anything then why don't you develop some kind of excercise routing to deal with it ... it might be something you'll have to reinforce every day. I'm thinking some kind of chromatic runs starting low then going high, then back to low etc... like ... 6th string: fret 1,2,3,4,3,2,1 .. 10,11,12,13,12,11,10 ... then repeat on the 5th string, then 4th, 3rd, 2nd etc.. You could put the run in the middle of the neck as well, jump strings, invert the runs, use two fret spacing instead of single ... all kinds of things. It would probably be a pretty effective part of a warm up routine and should only take 30 secs to a minute.