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Old 03-07-2018, 04:58 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cmd612 View Post
Are you holding the guitar in a classical position? I find it easy to thumb wrap with the guitar closer to horizontal (as in that video) but almost impossible with the headstock higher.
That's because you're not supposed to in classical position. Classical guitar - however complicated it gets - never requires the thumb to come over the top. Of course the classical neck is wide and flat, making thumb wrap even less practical, and even more inhibiting on finger movement on the fretboard. There are good practical reasons why thumb wrap is banned in classical guitar!

Naturally, none of this applies to steel-string guitar held on the right leg, or to certain non-classical fret hand techniques which actively require the thumb over, at least to mute the 6th string.
But it's always worth investigating whether something you play with thumb wrap (fretting the 6th) might be better without (more efficient in the long run). It's not a technique to be adopted simply to avoid barres, for example. Often it's a result of holding the guitar in the wrong position to begin with: neck too low, or too far forward (easy to do with guitar on right leg).
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