Video Question: Thumb Position

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Date: August 28th, 2009 | Length: 3.12 | Instructor: Mark Lincoln

Felipe asked "Which is the correct position for thumb finger on left hand when we are playing barre chords? Thank you very much for your support." Another benefit of being a member of JamPlay is the video response section. Our expert staff fields questions from our members and provides video responses each week.

Other Video Responses:

Chord Families - March 21st, 2008 (2 minutes, 14 seconds)

Jzcode asks, "Brad, I would like to know what chords and chord family's should I know to be considered a good Rock Rhythm guitarist? What other chords farther up the fret board should I learn that are usually not covered in beginning lessons? An example, Dmaj7 on the 9th fret. Thanks..." View Response

Bridge - August 5th, 2008 (3 minutes, 23 seconds)

Mclend1 asks, "My question is about the bridge, which on my guitar has the tune-o-matic part for adjusting the intonation and then there's further back, the metal bar piece that the ball ends secure into. What I'm curious about is the metal bar where the strings ends lie. It has two large screws for adjusting its height, and I wondered why or when would you ever adjust that or if you even need to? Does raising or lowering that bridge part effect the tone characteristics in any way? Is it generally tightened down to the body of the guitar or not, does it even matter that much? On classical/ acoustic type guitars the bridge is glued flat to the body for better resonance, so I wondered why electric guitars have a slightly different set up. As that's where the sound connects to the guitar, I guess it must do the same thing. I'm interested to know what the adjustments might do. Hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance, Matt." View Response

Playing on Odd Time Signatures - December 16th, 2008 (2 minutes, 43 seconds)

Opus asked "Hey Guys Im new here awesome site. I'm interested in playing inn odd time signatures. Exercises that would develop my ability to count and play at the same time. Any suggestion? Thanks." View Response

The Pinky Anchor - January 6th, 2009 (3 minutes, 22 seconds)

Bgremel asked "A comment and a question. I played a lot in college (late 60's), and picked my guitar up again a year ago. Never had a lesson and hacked along quite nicely - strumming and fingerstyle. Found Jamplay by accident and decided to learn how to play, as opposed to hack. The first lessons were old news to me, but I still learned some good things. Looking forward to improving my playing. So far I've already gotten my money's worth and I'm only to lesson 4! I find the advertising before each lesson an irritating waste of my time - I've already signed up. How can I skip these things? Secondly, how can I skip through lesson segments to view the part(s) of a lesson I want to review? For example if I want to review something in the 3rd video segment of a lesson, how do I skip the first 2? Finally, in the videos your right hand fingers never touch the face of the guitar. For strumming this is fine, but I always anchored my 4th finger on the face of the guitar. This provided a positive reference for the location of the strings for my other fingers. Bad technique, or OK? Thanks Bob" View Response

Learning How to Solo - December 16th, 2008 (4 minutes, 44 seconds)

Ianb63 said "Hi all and thanks to Jamplay for a truly wonderful site. You guys are all amazing. After quite a few years of frustration alot of the theory has started to make sense at last. I know, and understand all twelve key signatures and there relative minor scales. I can play all the scales in five different patterns on the neck. I also know every note on the guitar neck by name. Chord theory makes sense to me and i understand how they are constructed. Modes took a while to get my head round, but i got there in the end. Given all this knowledge you would think i would have no trouble improvising, but in fact i am really struggling. My problem is this. If i concentrate on where i am on the guitar and what i want to play, i lose track of where i am in the chord progression i am following. If however i concentrate on counting the beat, i can keep track of the chords but then i cannot keep my focus on where exactly i am on the neck and it all goes to pieces. Any chance of a lesson to simplify the process and build n on how to up to it in stages....Thanks Ian" View Response