My sister told me I was holding my guitar wrong for 15 years

She watched me play for two minutes at a family gathering last weekend and just said "your wrist is gonna snap one day." I always thought my way was fine, but she showed me a YouTube video of some guy explaining proper thumb placement. Tried it for an hour and suddenly barre chords felt way easier. Has anyone else had a family member just casually fix something you've been doing for years?

2 comments

2 Comments

wadeg921d ago

Tbh your sister probably just watched one YouTube video and now thinks she's a guitar teacher. You've been playing that way for 15 years and it worked fine, barre chords or not. My uncle tried to "fix" my grip on a steering wheel after driving for 20 years and I nearly hit a curb trying to do it his way. Sometimes what works for some random dude in a tutorial doesn't translate to real playing, especially if your hands and fingers are built different.

wendy_garcia1622h ago

I actually read somewhere that Jimi Hendrix played his guitar upside down and strung it backwards... nobody told him he was doing it wrong, right? There's this whole thing about how some guitarists with shorter fingers or different hand shapes develop their own way to hit chords, and it works perfectly for them. I saw this video from a hand therapist once talking about how everyone's joints and tendons are slightly different, so there's no real "perfect" way to grip anything. Your point about the steering wheel is spot on though, muscle memory is real and trying to rewire it can mess you up worse than sticking with your own weirdo technique.