The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary

View Poll Results: Thumb over neck?

Voters
167. You may not vote on this poll
  • Yeah, why not?

    106 63.47%
  • No, it stays behind the neck

    61 36.53%
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Posts 26 to 50 of 107
  1. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by Skip Ellis
    I'm a hillbilly! I do and have always done it. Lot of 'Chet' and 'Merle' stuff, you can't do any other way. I used to tell my students that I didn't care how they did it if they got the required result. Not convinced there is such a thing as 'proper' technique unless you're playing classical. You do what you gotta do to get through the tune - that's really the only requirement in my opinion. I haven't seen any 'technique police' around lately so I'm not too worried about keeping my thumbs.
    Amen, Skip ! If the "technique police" had been around when Merle and Chet stated , not only would we have been deprived of their talents, but the legions who were inspired by them. Many jazz guitarists use the thumb over, along with the bar method when they feel it expedient and convenient. So do I !

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  3. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by neatomic
    richie havens (rip) style




    cheers
    Richie Havens' thumb is the proportional equivalent of Gene Simmons' tongue.

    Good God Almighty!

  4. #28
    To be fair, Richie Havens played in an Open tuning and used his thumb to barre the strings and then use his fingers to change the chord type etc.

    He's a special case.

  5. #29

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    Almost never...except for 8 X 8 9 10 9 !

  6. #30

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    Thumb over is big and clever

  7. #31

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    My first teacher was of the "thumb stays planted on the back of the neck" school, and I guess I got indoctrinated that way. The only time I hang my thumb over the top is for a big bend.

  8. #32

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    I use the thumb to fret notes on the 6th string when it seems called for. The rest of the time I try to keep it behind the neck after decades of lazily using the thumb as a hanger for the whole arm. Eschewing this has been a long struggle; suffice it to say "proper" thumb-behind-the-neck technique is a whole different ball of wax, ergonomically speaking. I'm still working on it, and as Cassals said, "I think I'm making progress."

  9. #33

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    I'm going with Bela Bartok & Lee Konitz

    Thumb Under, a song by Lee Konitz Quintet on Spotify

    Saw Tal Farlow play once, he apologised to the obvious guitarists sitting in the front row for his unorthodox technique...I could never get my thumb to do that anyway.

  10. #34

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    if you thought richie havens was idiosyncratic (he was!)

    what about the legendary thumbs carllile!



    haha

    cheers

  11. #35
    Rory Hoffman plays with the guitar flat on his lap like that, too, and that dude can burn.

  12. #36

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    My thumb is mostly centered on the back of the neck for both chording and soloing -- except when I'm bending, it'll ride up onto the shoulder of the neck for better leverage. I don't use it for thumbing a bass note, it just ain't that big to allow for it fretting a note and extended voicings.

  13. #37

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    I have a few tunes where I do it, however I avoid it when working out new arrangements. I have come to the conclusion at least for me, this is not a good thing to be doing it comes to thumb ergonomics.

  14. #38
    Reminded me of this. Creepy.

    (at 12:06)

  15. #39

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    Actually I was working through another John Mayer acoustic song with a student - can't remember the name - and that had some very difficult thumb fretting in it.

  16. #40

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    This is it.



    I dig this channel. I like the way he demonstrates his process. It's very important for students to see that.

  17. #41

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    That's not THE bit though it's later on, just after that first section... Also I don't think Music is Win guy 100% nails it?



    I'm not a Mayer fan, but this song is nice.

  18. #42
    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    I dig this channel. I like the way he demonstrates his process. It's very important for students to see that.
    Agreed. I like to look at those every now and then, because I always go back to thinking all decent guitarists can just do anything at a whim.

  19. #43

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    I play both.

    At the beginning I was strctly against thumb over the neck as I came from classical and though it was not efficient and unhealthy.

    But when I began to play a lot electric and steel string I began to use it too.

    To me the most important thing is efficiency.

    I do not see any problem in combining techniques.
    I do not have to choose one.

    Some say if you play thumb over your pinky goes out of use... weel first many thumb over player do not use pinky at all...
    And second - actually if you know good left hand position... really good I mean (not every classical player has it too).
    So if you have it - you ca do whatever you want.. use your thuimb, stretch, rotate your wrist - you will always be able to come back to solid ground.

  20. #44

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    Quote Originally Posted by gtrplrfla
    Amen, Skip ! If the "technique police" had been around when Merle and Chet stated , not only would we have been deprived of their talents, but the legions who were inspired by them. Many jazz guitarists use the thumb over, along with the bar method when they feel it expedient and convenient. So do I !

    I didn't do it for a long time, but then I picked it up from a book on Merle Travis' style. It adapted well to certain jazz chords.

  21. #45
    Quote Originally Posted by Jonah

    Some say if you play thumb over your pinky goes out of use... weel first many thumb over player do not use pinky at all...
    What?? The thumb over doesn't stop me from using my pinky at all. I feel like it frees up the extra finger.

    Couple examples off the top of my head:

    3x4435.. Don't even know how I could play this without my thumb. Or another I like, 5x5435.

  22. #46

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    Of course. Thumb over the neck, fretting the 6 the string, the right way to play Hendrix songs.
    Last edited by Johnny_L; 06-24-2018 at 12:03 AM.

  23. #47

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    Quote Originally Posted by p1p
    What?? The thumb over doesn't stop me from using my pinky at all. I feel like it frees up the extra finger.

    Couple examples off the top of my head:

    3x4435.. Don't even know how I could play this without my thumb. Or another I like, 5x5435.
    Me too... but whne one uses thumb over it makes one rotate his hand and pinky goes down.
    Usually my pinky is high above the fretboard - somehweher over 4th string

  24. #48
    The John Mayer video is amusing to me, because although I don't personally use a thumb over neck technique very often (I do a lot of my playing on a nylon strings, and my hands aren't big enough to do it effectively), when I do, I find fretting with the thumb on the same fret as the ring finger easier than fretting with the thumb on the same fret as the index finger.

  25. #49

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    7-string guitar. thumb behind neck, always. besides, the harmonics generated by the bass strings allow one to use fewer notes per chord.

  26. #50

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    I seriously believe that virtually all issues, problems, deficiencies, inabilities, and general "can't playness" stem from ignoring the last few hundred years of development and cultivation of proper form.