i was watching one of pavel lessons when i saw how he places his thumb on his guitar neck. he almost wraps it around and lets the side of it rest on his guitar neck. i looked through different lessons form other instructors, and they all do something kinda similar to this...

I, on the other hand, let the front of my thumb rest on the middle of the guitar neck, and it kinda points towards the head of the guitar at a 45 degree angle....can this hurt my performance and ability to learn to play faster?

ill try to find a digital camera to show you all how i hold my thumb on the guitar....

if you're aiming to play fast, thumb in the middle of the neck is suggested, but if you want to get a better grip of vibrato, people sometimes wrap the thumb around the neck, it also helps you bend better too. Although i dont use that vibrato but thats just me

thanks, i just wanted to make sure it wasnt a bad habit!

Nope kinda just the opposite really

But you should learn to wrap your thumb too, it does help with bending and vibrato. And you can do cool stuff like fretting with your thumb.

I do both and at different parts in certain songs I end up switching. I usually have my thumb on back for standard playing and curled over for chords/acoustic like parts.

Yeah, get as comfortable with both will make everything only that much easier! But do whats most comfortable for that particular song.

tj

yup w/e is more comfortable.. when chording i wrap the thumb.. when picking i usually let it be on the back pointing towards the head.. its what feels right to you

I also don't have my thumb pointing at a 45 degree angle, mine points strait for the headstock. But thats just my comfort style.

The position of the thumb should be shifting as you go up/down the strings. If you play something on the bass strings, generally you need to put your thumb on the lower half of the neck in order to grasp the notes with comfort. You should never put you thumb in a way that is slowing you down.