Hypermobile thumb and you

[BullHorn]

I know that many people have hypermobile thumbs (bending backwards beyond normal thumbs!)

This affects my fretting hand posture greatly.


Of those of you with such a thumb, what do you do? Let it bend backwards naturally and affect the entire left hand technique or fight this phenomenon and play like they show you in the 'proper fretting hand technique' videos?

[mambo4]

Well I don't know if I have a "hypermobile thumb" but I do have a "hitchhiker's thumb," with the thumb tip curved back almost to 50 degrees from the previous joint. It does make it a little hard to follow exactly any "proper left hand technique" illustrations I come across.

there's usually 2 reasons that are used to justify "proper" technique: avoiding long-term injury and economy of motion.
unless high speed dexterity is crucial to your art, you can probably live with ignoring a lot of economy of motion focused stuff.

But the underlying principals of a safe , injury preventing left hand technique can be applied for anyone, reguardless of thumb arrangement,I believe. Which is mostly
1.)keeping your wrists as straight as you can (by adjusting strap length and angling the neck)
and 2.) keeping the fingers curved and relaxed, fretting a lightly as you can get away with.

And by fretting lightly, the amount of pressure your thumb needs to exert is minimized, so the strain of keeping it "straight" should not be excessive. i often fret without using my LH thumb at all, just to remind myself to ease up.

[BullHorn]

My thumb goes backwards ~90 degrees, so it's more extreme for me. I find it really hard to keep a decent form while playing.

[Fergie Fulton]

Hi guys check the link and see if i will help you.

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...ogId=475980040

[Moonbot]

Originally Posted by Fergie Fulton

Hi guys check the link and see if i will help you.

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...ogId=475980040

That is one seriously informative link, well done.

My thumb bends back about 50 degrees or so as well, I've honestly never found it to be an issue, though my technique is far from perfect.
I have actually found it really beneficial especially on the right hand for double thumb parts. I can sit my thumb's first joint on a lower string and get up/down strokes on the next string with very little motion or effort needed, moving my thumb only from that first joint.

I say don't worry about it, unless your constantly in pain or fatigued from the way you play, different things work for different people.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Fergie Fulton]

Originally Posted by Moonbot

That is one seriously informative link, well done.

My thumb bends back about 50 degrees or so as well, I've honestly never found it to be an issue, though my technique is far from perfect.
I have actually found it really beneficial especially on the right hand for double thumb parts. I can sit my thumb's first joint on a lower string and get up/down strokes on the next string with very little motion or effort needed, moving my thumb only from that first joint.

I say don't worry about it, unless your constantly in pain or fatigued from the way you play, different things work for different people.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Glad you liked it, there are of course many styles to adopt and play, and yes certain adaptations need to be considered as injury or age come in to a factor. As you say if it ain't broke.....

[Nashrakh]

I can bend my thumb back 90° too, so I'm also one of the more severe cases.

Luckily, this has only affected my playing in the beginning; the "proper technique" came naturally. I learned that the less I use my thumb to do the work (=exerting pressure from the thumb), the more I can keep a relaxed position and thus, the bending backwards is not an issue anymore.

[BullHorn]

Fergie Fulton, that's an awesome read!

Nashrakh, I've been playing for a while and I can't get myself to rest my thumbs. ;x