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40 Part I: You Got a Right to Play the Blues Grabbing your guitar’s neck
When you grip your guitar, your left hand surrounds the neck, with the neck
between your thumb and index finger. Your fingers are above the strings;
your thumb is on the back of the neck. Note: left hand here means fretting
hand for the right-handed guitarist. If you play left-handed (where you’re fretting
with your right hand), just make the mental conversion each time I use
right and left when referring to hands.
To create notes and chords, clench your fingers toward your palm, pushing
the strings to the fretboard. The chords and notes dictate which way your
hand moves to get the optimum leverage, but the ball of your hand (the
knuckles at the base of your fingers) should be against the treble side of the
guitar most of the time. This position is shown in Figure 3-1.
TEAM LinG
Figure 3-1:
The correct
position for
creating
notes and
chords.
Press your thumb against the back of the neck to maximize your squeezing
effort when playing chords.