Originally Posted by: Merwood
But yeah if you can show me a photo of how you do a barre chord in E shape style with either your thumb wrap technique or the technique from your 3 photo and explain how as well . That would go a long way :)

For the bar chords, or really any chord where you really have to reach & stretch your fingers across the fretboard, you're going to have to slide your thumb back behind the fretboard and curl your wrist a bit to allow your fingers to stretch out. The trick is to not put too much pressure like Joe says, which is why I included the third photo where I'm not using any part of my hand to brace against the fretboard. The point there is just to show that just getting the strings down in many cases will give you enough pressure to properly fret the notes.

Joe, just so you know as far as people "not being able to play anything" with the thumb curled around like I have it, first of all, believe me, the picture is showing how I'll fret the chord and the chord will sound cleanly. Second of all, like I said in my two previous posts, please check out lots of rockers/guitarists like Neal Schon, Slash, Keith Richards, BB King etc. All these guys play with their thumb wrapped around most of the time. I know a lot of instructors insist on the traditional classical technique of keeping the thumb behind the fretboard, but for rock/pop music that includes a lot of lead notes & bending, there are TONS of guys that play with their thumb wrapped around. I know you'll respond, but please, before you do and we get into a big debate, go look on YouTube and watch some live vids of well-known rock guitarists, and you'll see what I mean. Even Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen play wrapping their thumb around, and then sliding it back behind the fretboard when they need to stretch for some chords or big reaches during solos. You'll notice Eddie when he plays simpler rock chords keeps his thumb wrapped around. Please take a look around so you know that what I'm saying is true. Thanks!