I'm fairly new to mandolin, and want to know if there is a good reference for how to properly position the left hand. When I play guitar (my main instrument) I frequently position my thumb behind the neck, near the top of the neck (not in a strict classical guitar style). This holds the neck in place and gives me good leverage when fretting. With mandolin, I find the neck falls into the crook between my thumb and forefinger, which makes positioning fingers difficult. If I try to position my thumb behind the neck, long stretch chords are difficult, but that may be due to my lack of playing time. With the neck deep into the crook of my hand, it seems that my fingers have to bend too far to reach the strings. I'd prefer to have the fingerboard closer to my fingertips, but I haven't found a way to hold the neck to do this.
Many mandolin player photos I've seen show the tip of the thumb poking above the top of the fingerboard. My thumb tends to protrude much further, so I'm wondering how these players are keeping their thumb in place.
Does anyone know of any on-line photos, or printed instruction books, #showing "proper" left hand position. Over the years, I've found that hand position makes a huge difference on guitar, and I don't want to develope any bad habits with mandolin. Extra stress and cramped hand positions can really limit playing and comfort, so any suggesstions would be most appreciated.
thanks for your time,
Dave
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