How to place left hand in the following scenario?

Question

So when I strum certain chords , for example C major chord, certain strings vibrate onto my fingers when I strum hard, when I strum gently , it's fine. I tried dropping the thumb a bit and pushing out the wrist, I managed to escape the vibrations but this position feels uncomfortable, should I drop the thumb so that I can push forward my wrist so that my fingers can sort of press down the fret from a higher angle,or should I just stop strumming hard to test if fingers are being touched by the vibrating string?Giving pictures below comparing both.First Picture is the uncomfortable position, second is the comfortable one.

Answer 1

Unfortunately you have a few questions to answer for yourself to proceed here. Which side of which finger is getting hit by the neighboring string? Have you tried to move your fingers a bit laterally to avoid that neighboring string? For example, in a C chord, you have an index at the first fret which needs to miss both neighboring strings, but the string has the lowest amplitude near the nut. Your middle finger on the second fret can bias laterally towards the A string because your ring finger is stopping at the third fret. The ring finger can bias towards the E string because, you're mostly not pkucking that one anyway. And if you're doing C/G, you'll have pinky and ring occupying both the E and A strings at the third fret, so there shouldn't be any interactions there.

As far as more general guidance on wrist and hand position, there's a certain minimum amount of tension that you can't really avoid due to the orientation of the guitar neck, but your goal is to find that minimum tension. As a frequent viola player (and occasional guitarist) I can't recommend strongly enough that you find a professional to help you with these technical questions. If you practice enough to become a professional, you're risking tendonitis if you don't get that help, and a great teacher (since biomechanics is not a standard music school course, that sadly may not mean your current teacher) will be able to assess the geometries of you and your (certainly more standardized, but not generic) guitar and help you find a healthy position.

I know how hard it is to get a good picture of yourself while playing - it's almost like you need an extra hand. Given the picture, I could hazard a few recommendations about position, but I have a lot of questions that would take a long time and lots more pictures, and you really shouldn't take advice like this from people on the internet anyway. If your goal is to just have fun, stop after the first paragraph and have a good time. If you're hoping for a career, find help, and if they can't help with your technique, remember that they may be able to help with your musicality, rhythm, tempo, voice etc... It doesn't mean they can't help you musically, but it does mean you have to find somebody else who can help you bio-mechanically.

Once you find that teacher, you also need to buy a big mirror and mount it near where you practice so that you can see yourself from an arbitrary perspective (a little to the left, a little to the right, etc...). Your ability to make changes in your playing will increase a lot when you can see how you're holding/picking/etc...

Answer 2

From a purist perspective, both positions are incorrect for playing classical guitar, and both of them lead to some of the issues you are having.

We have a number of questions here on correct hand position, so I'd recommend reading them, but in the short term, starting from that position in the first pic, try some of the following:

• Move your hand into a convex position rather than a concave position. This will help stop it touching strings.
• At the moment you are flexing your wrist a lot - bring your elbow down instead.
• Your whole arm is angled quite acutely with respect to the neck - you want it to be much nearer 90 degrees.

These will help you find it easier to have a comfortable grip on the guitar neck while using less pressure to fret your notes and keep your fingers away from the strings they aren't supposed to touch.