Originally Posted by: BLS33Alot of people get in the habit of holding the neck like a baseball bat, wrapping their thumb around it and fretting the low E string with it. Dont do that though, get comfortable with your hand in the proper position.

That kind of depends on what "proper" is being defined as... it's different for different kinds of music. There's no "normal" when it comes to anything... But the most important thing is understanding what will help you down the road... I personally never used my pinky until about a year ago.... and I do use my thumb to fret the E string in a lot of situations.... it's easier on my wrist and prevents my hand and forearm from cramping when I'm doing long sets or songs with a lot of powerchords... It's also fun to play blues riffs like that. It's more from my background of learning a lot of Stevie Ray Vaughan and recently John Mayer....... Learn the "proper' techniques first... then you can adapt your own techniques to fit your personal style...