Bad habits?

what are you're bad habits? do you have any? has anyone ever told you that you shouldn't do it like that?
some people dont think of it as a bad thing, but when i started learning classical guitar i got told that i was naughty to bring your thumb around to fret the bass notes.
i find also that im always resting my pinky and or ring finger on the pickguard when i play, someone told me its bad, and though i kinda dont see how it would be "bad" i still try and stop myself from doing it when im notice it.
any thoughts?

Yeah, I bring my left thumb to the bass strings, too. They always tell me not to do that, and when I notice I'm doing it again, I take my thumb off, but I rarely notice.

bringing your thumb round the back of the neck isnt a bad thing necessarily. its frowned upon in classical teaching for some reason unknown to me, but it won't affect your playing negatively at all.

resting your fingers on the pickguard doesnt seem like a bad thing, but i've never done it and it probably reduces the motion in your pick hand. What i do when i play single notes (ie not strumming) is rest my forearm/elbow on the body of the guitar so that your arm is somewhat fixed, so it doesnt wander around as you play and so its just your hand and wrist that moves. its kinda like using a pen resting your hand on the paper. if you didnt do it then your writing would be really untidy.

my thumb used to stick right the way round the neck when i was playing, which made fretting chords without muting open strings really hard until i positioned my thumb in the middle of the neck. I still use my thumb occasionally to fret notes on the low E string - if Hendrix could do it, then why should classical teachers say its such a bad thing?

oh and this bit is kinda physics/maths related but hey you guys might find it useful.

actually it is extremely physics/maths related and all its doing is proving why its best to play with your thumb in the middle of the back of the neck!

if an object is in equilibrium (ie its not moving, like a guitar neck while you play) the forces on it are balanced. that means that to push down hard on the neck with your fingers, your thumb must also exert a force on the back of the neck as well. if the force on the back of the neck was really weak or wasnt even there, then the maximum force your fingers could apply would be much less.

THUMB ---> |neck|  T

its hard to draw on here but that is a diagram of the forces your thumb would exert on the back of the neck if it was to one side (at point T). The overall force would be the diagonal line going from X up the neck (N) but the important force, the one that will oppose the force of the fingers will be smaller as the angle at N increases, which we can call x.

I'm not entirely sure off the top of my head what the force your thumb would exert on the neck, but if it was say, 10 Newtons, and the angle x was 20deg then the force parallel to the neck (the useless one) would be:

Fsinx = 10 sin20 = 3.4 Newtons

and the force perpendicular to the neck (the useful one) would be:

Fcosx = 10 cos20 = 9.4 Newtons, which is less than 10 Newtons, which means the force exerted by your thumb is gonna be less than if your thumb was in the middle. Therefore, your fingers would only be able to exert 9.4 N as well, which makes accidental muting more likely :(

By increasing the angle further, to 30deg, then the useless force would be 5N and the useful force would be 8.7N, which is even less, and the force from your fingers would also be only 8.7N as well. :(

Here endeth the lesson :P

please dont think im some kinda maths freak cos im not lol. I just thought this topic needed a bit of proof as to why its a bad thing. Don't worry if you dont understand any of it, just remember to keep your thumb in the middle of the neck as much as possible if your fingers have got loads of notes to fret at one time.

grr it erased/messed up my diagrams. ignore the one up there. ill draw them again.

THUMB ---> |neck| 

and its done it again.

ill do them seperately

THUMB ---> |neck| 

i dont think the stupid thing is ever going to work. the first one should say thumb and an arrow going towards the neck, with an arrow saying fingers pointing in the opposite direction, also towards the neck.

the 2nd diagram is a triagle with the top corner labelled N (for neck), and the angle in the top corner labelled x. the vertical side of the triangle is a force acting upwards, and the horizontal side is a force acting towards the bottom corner of the vertical side. where the horizontal and diagonal sides meet in the other bottom corner is labelled T, as this is where the thumb is exerting the force, which is represented by the diagonal line, but can be split into two forces (the other two sides of the triangle), each one acting at right angles to each other.

oh, and where it said "the diagonal line going from X up the neck (N)", that X should be T. I orignally had X for that point but i wanted to use x for the angle so i changed it but i didnt edit everything else.

grr ive wasted nearly an hour writing this stuff. i think ill go rock out now. :P

Sight reading a piece with accidentals, then continuing to play the accidentals for a measure or two when i should just be following the key signature.

IMHO anyone who says that you shudnt fret bass notes with your thumb shud shut up. Hendrix got away with it perfectly well, as well as Kurt Cobain (hmmm...maybe it's something common to left handed players) I frequently use my thumb to fret notes, especially if it makes the transition from chord to another easier. My 'bad habit' is almost definitely my short attention span. I will sit down to learn a song, get to one bit that is a bit more difficult than what I would usually play, then give up and start playing something stupidly easy like Clapton or some straightforward blues runs (without intending to sound arrogant)

The Afro

@afro_raven , I seem to have your bad habit too:p

Using your thumb for bass strings can free your other fingers to manipulate the harmony of a chord. This is one of the reasons why I really like Tal Farlow's arrangements of standards for solo guitar.

Well i probably got it worst.. i dont have a practice regimen.. LOL! most of the time i'll pick up my guitar, learn to play songs till i eithter get it down or i get bored with it..

reply to Zmazz:
I do the same all the time. But it's fun anyway. I leave my guitar in every place around the house, and when I walk near it, I do the same as Zmazz.

Indeed it's fun that way.. music is suppose to be fun but.. i dont know, practice just... arghh!! sucks..lol..

@zmazz , lol it seems like many ppl have this problem , i keep telling to myself that i should start practicing properly instead just noodling around or doing other stuff but i'm distracted so easily... well maybe we should make a practice regimen together and follow it this time:D

LOL! yea we should dave! the thing is, most of the time its just so hard to overcome yourself and keep focused and if you have a pratice regimen, lets say you alot a certain time for pratice.. if you keep on doing hat like everyday.. most likely you'll ran out of patience and start doubting yourself if your going somewhere.. lol.. this is the shit that i've been through before.. good thing i didnt lose my passion!

yeah i have lots of time to practice atm , but still i fill most time with doing stupid and useless stuff , and at the end of day i feel guilty i wasted my time :D , now again i'm doing nothing useful , i'll get started now:)

uhhh i have so many bad habits... like i try to practice my scales fast first instead of slow and i hardly use a metronome. i cant tap on the neck because my calluses are so thick, and my chords are buzzy and when i fingerpick i miss notes... i guess this will get better with experience