So for the past 5 or 6 months I've been trying to master the thumb over neck technique. No luck and I finally feel defeated and have come to the realization that either I got too short and chubby fingers or maybe I got the wrong guitar neck shape, radius, curvature in regards to my fingers ability or even finger lengths?
Tbh. Until today I didn't even know or think about neck shapes or thickness or width of the neck until I saw a video on the topic today. I've got a fender clone electric and a nylon string with a wide neck. I manage chords and even barre chords on both guitars. But not the thumb over neck.
I've tried to adjust wrist angle, change the grip, the finger angles and all other things I can think of. Still don't master it. On the electric guitar I am able to wrap my thumb over the neck on fret 1 to 3. Any higher up the neck and it's a failure.
It's not like I haven't tried. I've even done finger gymkhana and stretches for months. And had a five minute go at this at every warm up practice. Yet no result to show for the effort.
But why pursue the thumb over neck if it is so hard you might ask? Well to be more expressiv and add fills or coloring notes with the pinky. I would need to fret the 6th string with my thumb in a clean and clear sounding matter up the neck. And prefferable also dampening the fifth string with the tip of the thumb. And using regular barre chords does not do it for me in regards to fills and coloring tones.
1: Either I am doing it all wrong. That is possible because I never had a guitar teacher and likely will never do, due to life and schedual and all that jazz. But I've watched videos and tried to mimmick what I've seen others do.
2: Is there any type of neck shape, curvature, width etc that might help me and make this easier? I am willing to shop for a new guitar to master this.
3: Any general tips or tricks I can try, or changes to fingersetting, hand, wrist of finger angles I should play around with to master this?
4: Should I just accept failure and move on, either find a new hobby or stick to songs and styles that does not require any thumb over neck?
