In a recent thread, sblock mentioned a measurement of his finger span, and it sparked my curiosity. I found a ruler and measured mine out of curiosity.
I had a bad habit of sort of grasping the mandolin neck like a baseball bat when I started (not actually that tightly, but a similar thumb position) and recently began consciously working on a whole different thumb position approach per Brad Laird instructions, which has been helping me a great deal. Since left hand technique is so important to being able to fret clean notes, I have a high degree of interest in this subject.
I'm wondering what others do, and now also I'm curious as to others' finger span measurement in combination with what they do for left hand technique and particularly thumb position. Anybody willing to play along? I'd like to know your answer to these questions:
1. "If I turn my left hand palm-side up and stretch out the thumb to the left and the pinkie to the right, the distance between my two fully extended fingertips is ..."
2. In first position, I most often use this finger to note the 6th fret: (a) 3rd finger, or (b) pinky
3. I usually have my thumb: (a) toward the headstock, (b) above the neck, over my fingers, (c) other
For myself,
1. I measure about 9-3/8"
2. I use the third finger after much practice to re-train myself
3. I am currently training my thumb to point toward the headstock as often as possible
Here is a snippet from an otherwise unlisted video I made recently for the newbies group that illustrates my practice o thumb position:
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