thanks ursin. got to work on my fretting hand more.

I'm no expert but yes having your thumb pointing towards the headstock pulls the palm up closer to the neck.
making fretting more of a struggle.

Saying that it is the pentatonic scale you are playing there.
How about with 3 nps is your thumb still the same

i'll post another video with one of the 7 position system scales tomorrow.

doubles at 160bpm

left hand thumb

hi delta i just uploaded 2 videos. i hope the left hand video angle is okay. appreciate the help a lot man. thanks.

thank you ursin. i'll work on it.

First video looks good doubles sound good remember if you are glitching
To slow it down and pound out loads of reps

Second video, thumb does look over crooked do you feel you are pushing hard into the back of the neck.

as Ursins says lightness of touch, are you comfortable with no thumb support. not ideal to play with ( All tough seen Pebber shredding like this) but good to see if your relying on the thumb too much.

Agree with Ursin also that lightness goes too for the right picking hand, when you feel like the pick will drop you probably have the right tension on it .

looking good though man.

working on the fretting thumb since yesterday. i have been driving it into the neck alright. it feels completely weird when i try to bring the knuckle out slightly and touch lightly now, in a few months maybe :) thanks man.

Ashan, I feel like there's a middle ground here so I'll offer my 2 cents. I think the main goal is that the fretting hand thumb is loose and that it helps your control rather than hurt it. Using force with it will lead to fatigue and will inhibit your ability to shift positions, so force is out. But there's just no way that I could play well with a fretting hand thumb bent to the same extent that I bend my picking hand thumb.

For me when my thumb is in contact with the middle of the back of the neck it's the halfway point between the side and pad of the thumb that's in contact with the back of the neck. That is the pad side of the thumb seems to rotate a bit to facing the bridge. Not a full 90 degress, but maybe halfway.

When my thumb is in contact with the high E-string side of the back of the neck, like when stretching for chords or classical position playing on low strings, it's the tip of the pad of the thumb that's in contact with the back of the neck.

My thumb is almost never in contact with the low E-string side of the back of the neck because I find it more comfortable to just play with an extended thumb in these situations; much like Ursin does in his recent jamming video. Of course there's a time and place for such a thumb position.

But yeah, at no point am I ever exerting a lot of force with my thumb. I could play nearly as well, though with a bit less control, without even touching the back of the neck with my thumb.

Keep at it Ashan
We all know you can play anyway you want and if you put in the hours you can work through any problem.

BUT allways better to get everything nice and comfy and loose from the off.

thanks guys! damon, side of the pad touching the back of the neck, pad facing the bridge. this is the new position of my thumb after ursin explained what i was doing wrong before. its totally new to me and my fretting hand feels a bit awkward. but now my fretting hand feels a lot lighter as if im not applying any pressure at all, making things lot easier to play than before. its gonna take some time to get used to. but i definitely will keep at it till i do it without thinking.

Just ry and keep everything loose. That's the key. No unnecessary force or pressure. Just enough to play. Don't curve your frethand thumb but keep it loose...not stiff and rigid as in these videos. I guess my words are not explaining it well enough. Just keep things loose and relaxed. Not so rigid.

does this look okay?

Yeah, that looks more relaxed to me

Yes looks more relaxed thumb behind second finger most of the time.

With the trills looks like you are only using the fingers. maybe its just the camera angle
But with trills, vibrato, bending. you want to be using the rotating of the arm for more power and strength..

rotating of the arm? i thought the trill exercises are done with the fingers. is there a video explaining the arm movement in detail?

Here A video explaining the technique around the 2:10 point.

left hand thumb you mean? i must work on my left hand a lot more ursin. i am still trying to get the thumb completely loose. and that feels weird after 10 plus years playing the wrong way. thanks for spotting that i'll slow down on re-position my left hand thumb

thumb still comes too high towards the end of the video 108bpm

7s at 80bpm


8s


i haven't practiced anything beyond 8note per beat yet. i'll upload 9, 10, 11 soon.