Left Palm to Squeeze

[jarednye]

I've noticed in Greg Horne's method book with those stingy bluegrass chords

Like this G:
7
5
2
3

He says one can use the palm to squeeze and also for barred. Is this actually good technique?

[Tobin]

Personally, I don't think it's ever a good idea to use a palm squeezing technique on the mandolin. That requires collapsing the wrist, bending it backwards. That is a recipe for injury down the road, as our wrists just aren't meant to be used like that.

For long-term health and strength, keep the wrist straight. Use a squeezing pressure with the thumb, cradling it loosely in the hand. If someone were to peer down the neck of your mandolin while you're playing, from underneath the peg head, he should be able to see a gap between the web of your thumb and the back of the neck, and no palm contact.

Terrible photo, sorry, but this is how a chop chord shape (the 7523 you mentioned) should be held to keep the wrist straight.

[dadsaster]

When starting out, you may not have the strength to press all 4 strings in the 4-finger chop shape. Especially with the pinky. As Tobin said, you don't want palm squeeze to become a habit. I did it when I started but have moved away with hand strength.

[Mark Gunter]

I had (still working at it too) a pretty bad habit of using my palm in certain situations, probably from a long-time familiarity with guitar necks. I found that on certain passages in some tunes I'd go there, and then: oh boy! I was stuck trying to maneuver to the next position from there. It's an awful habit and an awful technique on mandolin in my humble opinion.

The position Tobin shows is a very natural one and in my (admittedly newbie) opinion, it is the best "home position".

For strength, and increased reach, you can sometimes even let the thumb drop a bit even more behind the neck/headstock area. Just pause and think of the physics: Using your thumb as a fulcrum from there, you can apply pressure out to the pinkie ... and its reach is extended marvelously. If, on the other hand, you palm the neck, all these bad things happen:

1. You get less downward pressure than you get from extended thumb and fingers.
2. You cock your wrist into an awkward position.
3. You in effect make a sort of fist-grip, which limits reach and extension of the fingers.
4. You may find it difficult to move to another position if you need to move from there up or down the neck.

In short, just don't do it.

OK, that last was written partly in jest, no one can tell you what to do. Just my opinion here, but try it and think about it.

[sblock]

Palm squeeze = bad idea, poor technique. Not a good idea on a mandolin. Or a fiddle. Or a guitar.

[Mark Gunter]

Not a palm "squeeze" - but parts of the palm contact the guitar neck when playing some of the Merle Travis chords, for instance. In my own playing, hand position changes more than a little all over the guitar neck. I may often use my thumb, and when using an F chord shape, for instance, with thumb on bass, the neck of the guitar is gripped similar to a baseball bat. Not "bad idea, poor technique"; quite the contrary, just one of many techniques for playing an F chord. I could give plenty other examples. I'll often catch the D at 3rd fret that way or the A at 5th, etc. With all five digits, this is the same as the barre chord in those locations, and is chosen depending on what comes before or after, or maybe even my mood or even in order to deal with fatigue from barre chords, or whatever. Voicing chords on guitar in many inversions, and fingering those inversions in more than one way is not bad, poor technique in my opinion.

On mandolin, speaking strictly for myself, palming the neck is not acceptable, because I find it to be a hindrance to gaining competency.