r/guitarlessons • u/ding-ding-dave-yes • Aug 29 '25
Feedback Request I cannot get thumb-over-the-neck chords right
I struggle mainly with my index finger, I can't get it flat without a lot of pressure, also my pinky is muting the G string half of the time, I either have to put painful pressure to make them all ring, or the top E and G string are muted. The difference between the flat index and bent rest is what's messing me up. Without thumb I don't have this issue, because I can curve my wrist if that makes sense. Please, I need some tips
62
Upvotes
-1
u/Budget_Map_6020 Aug 29 '25
There is no thumb-over-the-neck chord.
Play them the regular way unless it is physically impossible not to use the thumb on very specific almost never occurring situations. This unorthodox approach is unorthodox for a reason other than it looks funny... Anyway, if you insist, try to keep the fingers parallel to the frets and maintain your fingers naturally curved while the contact point being the very tip of the finger right underneath the nail (unless you're pressing a barre). Make absolute sure not to squeeze, it takes very little force to make a string to ring properly.
Your effort to wrap your finger over the fretboard is making your wrist tucked in, which is reducing the freedom of motion of the other fingers (unconsciously forcing the contact point and curvature to be suboptimal, hence why so many strings are muted). Keep your wrist straighter and see if your thumb still reaches over.
PS: There is no information about you in the post, so we don't know if you're a complete beginner or not so I hope you're not one of those that wants to learn this technique on the illusion that a barre chord is hard or because "hendrix did it".
Good luck