Guitar chords provide an ideal opportunity to hone your finger placement skills. Most chord diagrams will include circles around each fret where each finger should be placed.
Your thumb should be placed close to, yet not directly against, the neck for maximum leverage and to avoid unintentionally muzzing any strings.
Positioning Your Fingers
As part of proper fretting technique, it is vital that your fingers be placed so they can apply minimal fretting pressure when fretting the strings. This will allow for clear chords with no finger strain or strain on other fingers. Although thumb placement varies by person and hand size, an ideal spot would be for the pad of your thumb to sit atop the center back of the neck with its flat segment near and parallel with its fret it should cover.
If you are having difficulty with chording or your fingers are hurting, it could be because either you are pressing too hard on the strings or your thumb is in an inappropriate position. While finding your ideal positioning may take some time to master, continue practicing chords and check that your thumb is always in its proper spot for optimal results – you will thank yourself later!
Thumb Position
Although many beginners are taught to position their thumb at the back of the neck opposite of index finger (like a baseball bat), this may not always be desired. Stretching out your thumb across fretboard could result in unnecessary tension in big knuckles of wrist.
When necessary, to achieve more precise positioning of a fret, it is beneficial to slightly angle your thumb towards it inward. This also makes it harder for accidental mutes by touching other strings with its fleshy part of thumb.
Your thumb won’t normally need to mute the sixth string unless you’re trying to perform a Pete Townsend windmill with power chords on the fifth string, however it is frequently used when playing barre chords which require greater pressure from your hand. As this may take some getting used to for beginners, spend some time warming up wrist and thumb before trying different placement.
Leverage
Beginner guitarists typically experience sore fingers when starting to play chords for the first time, which is normal and should gradually improve as experience and calluses form on your fingertips.
As you attempt to fret a chord, keep this tip in mind when trying: each string should be played with its finger tip so as to allow for optimal resonance and not muffle any surrounding strings. Playing it using finger pads may cause them to flatten across multiple strings and potentially muzzle any open strings around them.
Maintaining leverage by placing the ball of your thumb near where the neck connects with the guitar body can also assist. Doing this allows you to utilize more powerful wrist muscles instead of only the muscles in your fingers; especially beneficial when performing bar chords requiring solid barres from index fingers.
Finger Tips
When pressing strings with your fingernail, use only the tip rather than pad of your finger. This allows for cleaner chord shapes by minimizing muted strings, as well as giving power and stability to your chords. Also be sure that your grip on each string is firm but not too tight so that you can manipulate its strings for effects like slides and bends.
Thumb positioning depends on hand size and finger flexibility; it should ideally fall near the center of the back of the neck for optimal results. Placing it too high or low could hinder reaching certain strings as well as cause wrist strain and tension.
Practice fretting C major and G major chords to see which feels most natural to play. Once that is accomplished, move each finger up one string at a time until all your fingers have found their ideal positions on the neck.