The Right Thumb in Classical Guitar Techinque

[@ClassicalGuitarShed]

Hey! We made a free download for Right-Hand Arpeggio practice on guitar. You may enjoy it. Here’s the link: classicalguitarshed.com/arpeggios

[@yolandacairoraftice2001]

Thanks You. This was very helpful. I have been playing with my fingers for a long time and finally have let my nails grow and realized that my right hand angle had gotten a bit sloppy making it difficult to use the thumbnail. Your direction to make sure the other fingers were positioned correctly, helped me to resolve the Thumb issue.

[@dewindoethdwl2798]

I’ve come back to this video several times as I’ve explored classical guitar. It is so loaded with top tips. I especially like the prioritising of finger effectiveness over the thumb’s needs, I don’t like to think about the finger bad habits I could have developed just fixating on sorting my thumb. My initial playing was as if someone had sewn a badly behaved frog on the end of my right arm. I’m glad those days are over. Nowadays my fingers seem quite coordinated but the thumb sometimes demands more attention as more difficult bass lines creep in to the music I’m learning. This video is a useful touchstone for revisiting thumb technique. Thank you.

[@clasguitar_jl]

Thank you very much. Sometimes I use your videos for my class and for my personal education. You are a great teacher

[@danig.245]

You are a great teacher 💙 tks

[@UlyssesAlexandreAlves]

That was awesome, Allen! It was quite oblivion to me that I should play the thumb from the wrist joint. I've always played it from the second joint which is the one which most resemble to the fingers third joint. But just by becoming aware of it I can already feel a whole difference in my playing. It's like all of a sudden my hand looked and felt much more classical. Thanks very much for the lesson.

[@Davem0nrolling]

Hugely beneficial! I was searching for right thumb techniques today because my thumb tends to "snag" on the strings.

[@shayanyadegari811]

To be honest I was confused that why some people make their thumb long like u mentioned. I was here to see what is your reccomandation about playing with thumb. Thank God I’m not playing wrong XD I was almost about to cry that I have to change a habit that I learned.

[@living_strong]

You are best...thanx...nice tip worry abt fingers and not thumb

[@dukenuclear1]

Hi! I m from Brazil ! Excelente video! I Love It ! Thank you

[@bariswheel]

Great stuff. Thanks for making this !

[@dkstott29]

I came to classical guitar from the steel string guitar world. Playing the booming thumb for the beat was the expectation. My biggest issue these days is getting a quieter right thumb.

[@FerociousSniper]

I started out with a crook in my thumb, but noticed players keeping it centered in it's range of motion like you said. I have been attempting to play like this, but bad habits are hard to break.

[@marylourivera967]

So true, but phrases it. I might help.

[@oldmanandthesea7039]

Very educational video. One thing I am not clear is what part of the right hand thumb attacks the string? The fresh to the left of the nail or the nail? I have about 1/8 inch nail on my right thumb, but I feel that it is my fresh on the left side of the nail that attack the string, and I am not sure if it’s right.

[@ClassicalGuitarShed]

Hi there, it's Zak. If you are playing with nails, ideally, the flesh would touch the string before the nail. The plucking motion would therefore have both a bit of flesh and a bit of nail in it. It's had to explain over messaging. However, you can see that Allen's thumb is making contact at an angle that incorporates both.

[@lancejurd7865]

Thank you. Another very helpful video. I've noticed I touch the adjacent string with the side of my thumb when I play, e.g. if I pluck the A string with my thumb , the side of my thumb lightly touches the E string. It's never really been a problem. Should I try and change this though and just hit strings with no contact with the adjacent string? Thanks again for your really clearly and useful videos.

[@JaxonBurn]

My thumbnail doesn’t really make contact with the strings when I play despite being quite long, unless I really arch my wrist at an extreme angle. Is that an issue? Not the arching- obviously I know that’s not a good idea- I mean is it a problem that my nail doesn’t contact the string?

[@dESTRON76]

Someone: What's your style? Me: Oh I play a basic funk-thumb classical style

[@everybodylovesnaymon]

I can't stop my thumb from bending at the knuckle unless I keep it rigid which then affects my playing because my hand is all tensed up. It seems no matter what I do, whenever I watch myself back, the tip of the thumb is inclined to move.

[@antoniomattana6706]

👍👍👍

[@tikendying]

Haha everytime he refers to flamenco its with an expression suggesting an enemy group

[@perfectbeat5920]

Haha...

[@sudoo6987]

When's the next raid on flamenco

[@muesli_snipes]

Some of those dudes are definitely scary :)

[@themysteryofmusic]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pnOZmmaLialga9Usi=B6SXlMYRQN_g507Z Having technique like this might invoke jealousy in some classical players, heck even us flamenco students 😅😅 Or this kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXm6nHp9h8eZqq8si=t7fFK4IFZ_QtTN04 Insanity