I can but it always curls like in my previous photos. I can’t keep it straight like how yours is… unless it doesn’t matter?
Maybe I really am just incredibly critical and hard on myself…
Sounds like you’re being overly critical, honestly if nothing is in actual pain while you’re playing or afterwards, I think your playing technique is ok!
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Well thats what I’m saying… my wrist always hurts when I play.
Maybe I should see a hand specialist. I could have tendonitis or something…
@meepmeep I just noticed in the video that your palm is almost facing the ceiling it seems… I think you might need to flex your wrist more so it faces more towards your rear. Of course, if bending your wrist is painful, don’t do it, and perhaps visit a specialist.
justinguitar has a great video on thumb placement. So i’ve trying to work on that.
@meepmeep, don’t want to give you a complex about your thumb! And admittedly I am far from an expert, but I do notice that in some photos, much of the surface of the distal phalanx (the half of the thumb that includes the tip) is against the neck. Is that causing the thumb to jamb into the hand? If so, I wonder if that’s creating tension as well as mobility issues. You’re complaining about discomfort, so that’s why I mention it.
There are other threads on the site about thumb position. You might have a look, experiment a bit, and see where that gets you.
Yeah it absolutely jams into my hand. I cant seem to keep it straight.
Again, I’m no expert. But it’s possible that your thumb placement is throwing things off - e.g. robbing the fingers of curvature which would allow cleaner fretting and greater mobility. Or forcing the wrist into too sharp an angle.
It’s probably worth looking into further. Who knows, it might end up an easy fix that makes a big positive impact.
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Hi @meepmeep, I recorded a completely trash video about my own thumb and finger placement – it should be visible now. The vid is just terrible, but maybe it gives you some ideas. 
The Justin Guitar vid is ok too, too bad he doesn’t show more angles. Cheers, z
Hey @jzohrab I appreciate you filming that video! It is very difficult to get my thumb like yours without my wrist cramping up.
My hand has absolutely no tension or pain until i put my pinky down. Then my hand starts to cramp up and my thumb starts to push too hard.
Do you have a good local teacher that you can work with?
I’m sure I could find one. All the teachers I’ve worked with taught me more theory then anything.
Hi @meepmeep - Yeah finding good teachers is tough. Find good local players, perhaps, and ask them if they give lessons/pointers, or if they can recommend a teacher. Drag that you get hand pain!
- Judging from the photo, your thumb is wrapped mostly around the neck. Can you place it below the halfway point on the neck, and see what happens?
- Can you post a video just like I did, just a crappy handheld phone video, of you putting your fretting hand in position? Do it a few times, and see if you can include several angles of you putting your fingers on the strings, fretting with all fingers individually, etc? It’s tough to hold the phone so don’t worry about the vid quality.
- Re “my thumb starts to push too hard.” - try removing your thumb from the back of the neck entirely. You shouldn’t need to push much at all to get the string down.
cheers, z
I didn’t see this but I only scanned the responses. What scale are you playing? It’s kind of An understood thing here you know the fretboard. Your right hand seems damn nice but your fretting hand is lacking.
Here I am
I am a bit skeptical of the “minimal motions” approach. In my opinion relaxation comes from having the correct technique, not from trying to make your movements as small as possible.
More concretely, in Technique Critique threads we don’t tend to see good results when people try to make super small motions. Not sure if you have seen @Troy’s latest experiments but he is reaching crazy picking speeds with huuuge motions!
True, we mostly review picking hand stuff, but also in terms on fretting, I don’t see many elite players making minuscule fretting motions. The movements of the best players typically have what I would call a “reasonable size”. See for example Shawn Lane, probably the scariest fretting hand in known history:
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Wow, lots of posts in this thread by now! I don’t think I have much to add about your playing.
Regarding the wrist pain thing – your neck seems pretty beefy. Perhaps try a slimmer neck? And are there really that many situations that require fretting with all fingers on the lowest string at the same time? It really is the absolute worst case as far as the wrist is concerned…
As for the thumb placement. I’m not sure I agree with this:
I think the thumb should go wherever it needs to. Priority number 1 is keeping the wrist as straight as possible most of the time. This means the thumb sometimes must go over the neck, for instance. The classical position works in classical guitar playing because the neck is elevated, making the wrist straight and allowing the hand to “hang” from the fretboard. But, there’s lots of conflicting advice about this, in this thread and elsewhere.
Case in point:
Sorry @Pepepicks66, I just don’t think that’s very good advice for someone complaining about wrist pain! Look at how bent your wrist is. It is an injury waiting to happen…
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hey @tommo good to hear from ya! I appreciate the advice. Would really love for ya to check out the videos I posted to see if you can point out anything unorthodox that you may notice that maybe others havent? Or maybe a different point of view?
Also, I must say, as I’ve been trying to keep my motions more minimal… it’s been less comfortable and more tense on my wrist for sure. Also, my thumb is generally at the top of the fretboard when i’m just casually playing and not working on an exercise. Kinda like this.
@Johannes My strat is one of those player strats so the neck is a “Modern C"-shaped neck profile. It’s a comfortable neck for sure, but the only electric I have.
Sure! I think the “Quack quack” ( 
) video was very promising! You should aim to play something where your right hand motions look exactly like that. I believe others have pointed out that this looks like DSX motion, so I would focus on licks that only change strings after a downstroke for the time being.
I checked out also the fretting in your first video and didn’t see anything outrageous about your posture. I venture the hypothesis that most of the tension may come from the fact that your hands are unsure of what movements to make, so you may get random muscles being activated at the wrong time and so on.
I would hope that discomfort will gradually decrease as you find more patterns that “click”. Again, I think your initial successes will come from DSX stuff.
Give it a shot and let’s see how it goes
If you experience lingering pain or soreness after playing guitar, stop playing for a few days until it goes away. And if it doesn’t go away, yes, I agree that seeing a doctor is a good idea.
As @Johannes is pointing out, there is primarily one thing that matters when it comes to wrist pain, and it is keeping it straight. If you’re looking at the thumb, you’re looking in the wrong place. You want a wrist position with as close to no flexion-extension as possible. Whatever thumb position gives that to you is “correct”, and that means there are multiple “correct” ways. The “blues” approach, as @Drew calls it, with the thumb over the top will produce this. As will several other approaches. Straight wrist.
If you are trying to play wide stretches on the low strings, you are going to see some wrist flex. That is precisely a worst-case scenario. Don’t play those lines, or don’t play them all the time or for long amounts of time at once.
“Sometimes the only winning move is not to play.”
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