Do You NEED To Use THIS Guitar Grip To Play Blues Like SRV Or Hendrix?

You know this grip, almost every famous blues and blues rock guitarist uses it. It is the grip of legends. But do you NEED to use it? That's the question I'll tackle in this lesson.

[bydemonsbedriven]

Man, I love your videos. Even though I am blind and cannot technically see them. I listen, when you mentioned muting the A string with your thumb and still be able to play that told me that I was actually doing it the right way. I kind of sort of can do it naturally but I think I still need to practice a little bit. Stretch my fingers out and such. Watching your videos has literally taught me so many techniques. Just from the free videos, I definitely am going to sign up now. Lol

[chrisdolan]

If your hand is simply too small (as mine is), you’re screwed, no two ways about it. If the hand can’t accommodate the circumference, there are no secrets or tricks that’ll make it possible, period. The 3:30 exercise? My thumb and first finger barely touch, much less overlap (and this is with a thin neck, not one chunky).

[Mitch]

The benefits of this grip are limitless once you get it. You spend the first part of guitar learning to make the strings ring out.. the next part to keep them muted..“Go to bed with your eyes closed, and your fingers open” _Buddy Guy

[timcole]

15:50 - absolute truth. I learned Lindsey Buckingham's Landslide (via shutupandplay) and it took me 1-2 years to build the hand strength and string clearances to allow the notes to ring clearly and allow clearance. There is no substituting the time it takes to build these skills. Between that and using Dust in the wind as an exercise which got me comfortable dropping the thumb for the low F# over technique is pretty much an extension of all of that. I have smaller-ish hands but it is the muscle development and technique building that gets this going proper. Thanks so much for the great video and instruction.

[thejoshbtv]

I am self taught with the help of Youtube videos and I started playing guitar "later" in life, in my early 30s. I tried playing the traditional way and couldn't get along with it. I kind of came across this grip on accident as trying to just get a comfortable hold on the neck. Then found out it what all my guitar heroes used to play. The biggest benefit of this grip, which could just be because I started later in life and didn't build up the endurance younger, but it is SOOOO much more comfortable on my wrist. It is far more natural than the "normal" way of playing. I have larger than average hands so size isn't an issue for me. For those with smaller hands, I would say try to rotate your wrist so that if you were to give a thumbs up, your thumb would be inline with your forearm as opposed to 90 degrees in relation to the forearm. That will give more room for your fingers to reach from the bottom of the neck and gives you the use of the inner area of the thumb as opposed to the pad of the thumb to play the low strings.

[M_WOODLAND]

Using the grip is what made me discover I prefer the neck on my daughter's Bullet Strat to my custom has a HUMONGOUS neck.

I like a chunky neck on a Les Paul, but not on my Strats anymore.

[leonbrown]

Started with thumb over grip when beginning, natural now. Think if you've got large enough hands, it comes naturally when playing/learning the style (?)

[Nick-bdjj]

Learning to do this in spite of the size of my hands was difficult but luckily I'm flexible... I had a tendency to push the G string slightly sharp at first, but I was able to correct it by being diligent over how I fretted. Took a while, I can't tell you when I finally felt comfortable amd natural playing like this, but I know that everything became easier because of it. Hell, I can even play thumb over on my new Les Paul, though that might be due to it being a standard 60s with the different neck.

Don't let small hands deter you from adopting this, its possible if you want it to be!

[Mattwillo]

My dad taught me to play like this due to his arthritis in his hands, making it hard to bar, so he used his thumb, and that’s the way I learned! :)

[jcdable]

The hardest thing is going to be sliding that grip along the length of the neck and I can almost do it but it's not easy. Using a barre chord style you can clamp down on the low E with your index finger but it needs to be perpendicular to the fretboard. I can then use my pinkey to embelish notes. I prefer thumb over neck and it's a different tone using it vs. playing barre chords.

[jcdable]

I have short fingers ie. 7" from wrist to tip of my middle finger. I also use strats and what I had to do that helps a lot is take the neck off and sand the edges of the neck down so that the neck is narrower. At the heel, I only sanded the fretboard not the heel as not to create too much ugly spaces in the neck joint. I also plan to sand off the sides of the graphtech saddles to get the string spacing down to 48mm from 52mm. But even without narrower string spacing, I'm having much better time playing with thumb over the neck. Also forgot to mention that the edges of the neck need to be rounded off so you don't hurt your fretting hand. Fender does this on more expensive guitars. I wish fender would create a narrow neck strat for those of us with short fingers. One possibility is to use squier hard tail strat and install stewmac golden age hard tail bridge which has a string spacing of 50mm if you don't want to invest into making narrower saddles.

[lettuceb]

I can confirm as someone with small hands, boxy fingers and marginal dexterity it is possible... I also am lucky to have very strong hands. That e-chord at the 5th is a challenge and something I avoid but do-able. The biggest hurdle there is the pinky. I don't have the smallest hands, but as a man I'm definitely on the small end of the spectrum (insert joke here). I'm also at the beginning of this journey.

Here are some numbers for reference:
Thumb to pinky fingers extended free air: 8.5"
Wrist at crease to tip of longest finger = 7.25".

Just sharing because it might be interesting to know where the fall-off is and provide some insight to those trying to learn "the grip".

[lansley]

If you have smallish hands and wish to play Hendrix I recommend a 60's slim oval shape neck. My road worn 60's has it and im able to all the hendrix embellishments and that.. I remember playing an eric johnson strat and couldn't do anything Hendrix as it was way too big for me lol. But yes work on strength and dexterity

[alexstixx]

I learned this grip on my own like 15 years ago as a newbie, it's more comfortable to me than normal barre shapes, and requires less energy to maintain. I have large hands, though. On an 8 string guitar, I don't use the thumb over.

[cechichan]

Sadly i have small hands and not flexible nor strong lol, and my pinky, the most important thing is the sound and to have options for technique, we cant always copy paste someone elsesentire technique, love ur channel mate !

[humansnotai]

Great video mate. Some really interesting conceps here..
I'm 5'10", have nornal size hands and play a Srat. The thumb over the top is hit and miss for me. I think it depends mostly in the articulation and range of movement in your thumb joint.
Namaste x

[TommySG]

Totally dig your videos, thanks for sharing everything you do 🤙

[jmvmike]

I love the way you produce these instructional videos.
Do you have a hand stretching exercise routine to keep limber and prevent injuries?

[sciexp]

Thanks for sharing this. I'm not sure if this grip is the only way to play this style. I have small hands, and have strat style and les Paul style guitars, and it's funny that for the higher frets sometimes I feel that the Les Paul ones are too close... In the end, I think it's a matter of putting the time and the fun to make it. Not exactly effort, but putting time, attention, patience, practice, and fun... Which maybe is possible too... Years of practice, making callouses, having a bit of pain, resting, coming back again, and overcoming a reasonable amount of pain, without really hurting... All the best for our journey... I'm in my way too... Let's see...

[shadtrisdale]

BB's vibrato was called the trill
Long live the king 👑