Thumb Position

We've talked a little bit about this in some of the lessons, but a lot of issues that can be fixed by simply experimenting with moving your thumb up and down the back of the neck.

First grab any chord you know and now see where you have your thumb. Mine is somewhere near the middle. Now let's explore the extremes, so move your thumb all the way up towards the ceiling. Do you see how your fretting fingers are laying down across the strings? Sometimes that's what you want, for example if you're playing a riff or power chords where you want to mute the higher strings.

But if you're trying to play pretty open chords, you definitely don't want that, so try the other extreme and move your thumb as close to the floor as you can. Do you see how that opens up in the left hand allowing the strings to ring open?

Now you can play with that spectrum, based on what you're trying to play, and it's completely normal that the thumb is dancing up and down the back of the neck while people are playing.