(I'm sure I've been doing it wrong all these years and I'm about to find out )

awesome!! thanks mang.

maybe you could donate some food in thanks

I'm very sensitive about my under-weight condition. It's only taken 10+ months, but hopefully the next trip to the hospital this month will bring some answers!

Sorry dude.

I knew that was horribly cruel of me when I posted.

I was 64kgs (141 pounds) at 6'2" (188cm) so I am not exempt myself.

I am now about 83kgs, which is pretty steady.

Please forgive my insensitivity.

I would infract you, but, y'know...

With hindsight it's probably worth at least that.

I'll ban myself for 24 hours for being a stupid prick ok?

Maybe Mayo will be kind enough to make a thread in here about you being a mod. The Lirva one worked like a charm...

that is a bit easier. i want to get it down the 'right' way as well, but will def use this too. in this position though, i can't barre the bottom two strings with my first finger, but the bottle e string is muted for me in that position, so it seems ok. thanks again man.

Obviously I don't have great technique or whatever as some of the strings get muted a little bit, but I don't think theres anything wrong with using a grip that's more comfortable for a few positions. Having both in your repertoire is a good idea. You'll get plenty of barre chord practice without those low 2-3 positions imo

i am sure i will. that one will def come in handy. thanks again mang

^For me the typical bar chord position has been invaluable because of getting used to it as a base position for power chords and quick switches. You can mute all 4 lower strings with that finger when playing the top 2, and you can also get used to muting the E string with the tip when playing on A-D-E. I do not use the thumb because of this Serbian surgeon who said it was a bad habit, but I can see it being useful - especially for muting. My F has never gotten great fwiw and neither has the Bb or what it's called

by not barring the fret with the bass note on it you're taking away 10000% of the versatility of the bar chord...i'd definitely recommend against that for anyone who doesn't have the regular bar shape mastered.

Guitar lessons from a Serbian surgeon? Lol wut?

The key to barre chords is to get the boney part of the outside of your index finger across the strings.

If you just lay the bottom of your finger across the strings like you're playin a g5 or whatever it's gonna mute no matter how hard u push down

Yeah in the middle of Africa (I worked in a hospital there). He played crazy train and stuff like that, it was just strange because he didn't come off as a guitar player at all. Taught me something I found out was the intro to Hey Joe. He would pass by in his blood spattered surgery clothes and ask "What comes after A sharp?" etc

Randomness in life is random

This is what I found as well. I thought it had to do with finger strength, think I pushed as hard as I could on the 1st fret for 2 weeks and it would still just mute

That's pretty awesomely random, although I completely disagree with his statement that you shouldn't 'claw' the guitar with your thumb over the top. Playing bass notes on the 6th string with your thumb is critical for fluid transition from rythm to lead. Without it you're either in 'rythm' position (thumb low on the back of the neck for bar chords) or 'lead' position (thumb higher behind the neck for stronger fingering/bending) and transitioning between the two positions takes valuable milliseconds and is overall pretty clumsy.

The two exceptions I can think of are if you only ever intend to play rhythm - although I can't think why anyone would limit themselves to that - or if you want to play exclusively lead guitar from what could be described as a 'classical' position like this kid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7h18...feature=relmfu.

Personally I don't think anybody should play exclusively rhythm or exclusively lead, a well rounded guitarist should play both, and clawing with the thumb allows them to be integrated better.

Playing barres with your thumb isn't critical for rhythm to lead transitions.

Any situation you can come up with where a traditional barre would make a lead transition more difficult, I can find an equally difficult situation for when your thumb is wrapped around the 6th string.

Also, just merely playing with your thumb behind the neck doesn't constitute a classical position. That kid you linked is far from a traditional classical left hand position.

so awesome

I can now say I've heard Low Key talk


eeeeexcellent!

I'm aware its not a traditional classical position (I studied classical guitar for 5 years), I was just looking for something to approximate it to. That kid's style is more of a 'classical' style than a contemporary electric guitar style, all nittery aside. There may well be a better word to describe his left hand position but I can't think of it right now.

There will of course be situations where a low thumb position makes contemporary playing easier - a basic blues comp is an easy example - but I really believe anyone looking to integrate rhythm and lead should get comfortable using their thumb on 6th string.

I know you really believe it, but that doesn't make it so. It's probably a case of you not feeling comfortable playing lead with your thumb behind the neck, so you feel thumb chords are more consistent with your lead position.

Of course it doesn't make it so, in the same way that you believing the opposite doesn't make that so either. It comes down to opinion and personal preference. My opinion is that guitarists looking to play a fairly typical contemporary style will find it hugely beneficial to get comfortable using their thumb to fret the 6th string, as it will help them integrate rhythm/lead better in many situations.

It doesn't make it fact. It doesn't mean they have to do it all the time. It doesn't mean they should no longer use a low thumb position when playing lead (it also doesn't mean I can't do that either), I just think they're better off being able to do it than not. I also think that telling a beginning electric guitarist that using his thumb is a bad habit (as happened to fanapathy), when in fact it is a widespread technique common in many guitar pieces, is poor advice and deserves riposte.

I see I used the word 'critical' in my first post, you're correct to pull me up on that. It's not critical in the true sense of the word, allow me to correct it to 'highly advantageous'.

No, I never said any such thing.

What I said is that it does not make any difference. There is no advantage either way. You keep reiterating that thumb position makes switching between rhythm and lead in "contemporary styles" easier, advantageous, better etc., but it doesn't.

To be clear: there are situations where using your thumb would make a transition to lead easier, and for every one of those, there's a situation where using a traditional barre would make a transition easier. It's a wash. If it's not, then your playing is biased in a similar direction - same goes for anyone that claims traditional barres are easier for transitions. There is no difference. Are you going to say you prefer red AA preflop over black AA?

The only advantage to thumb position is it allows you to play chords that can be next to impossible to play in a traditional way. Like Fadd9: 1x3213. A traditional barre would make it very impractical (impossible for most) to mute out the A string while grabbing the B & low E strings cleanly.

Just cause you can't do do the thumb over Mitch doesn't mean you gotta try and shoot the idea down. It's something to try, and if you have success with it, as I have, then you're going to agree that it's a great technique and has really made me produce better guitar sound. Having the thumb constantly up there to mute the low strings really cuts down on unwanted total guitar noise.