Geni Swing Guitars

Guitar Style

Proper posture while playing the guitar is something that's essential. When your posture is out of whack, so is your technique. As with everything in music, the way you practice something is the way you will perform it. So if you're slouching and holding your guitar in the wrong position during practice, you can't expect to up and decide to have good posture when you go to perform, can you?

I'm writing this to give you a quick overview of what you need to about your posture and some simple steps that you can take to start correcting your posture now. If you follow through with these simple techniques I show you, I promise that you'll start to see improvements in not only your posture but your playing technique and ability.

Now, I'm not going to give you a long speech about how you need to sit up straight and keep your feet flat on the floor, sitting at the edge of your seat. I was preached to like that throughout my early years as a musician, and it never really stuck with me. In fact, often times I felt really uncomfortable when positioning myself like this. It turns out, as I found out later, that these feelings of discomfort were due to the fact that the posture that I was trying to "perfect", wasn't correct. So this is rule #1 - make sure that you're comfortable.

I'll build on rule #1, but before you know what "comfortable" entails, I'm going to have to give you some rules to follow. So sit tight and read on, because these rules are ones that you'll want to stick to pretty hard and fast.

- Sitting - If you didn't already know, you need to put the guitar on your left leg, not your right. Most guitarists do it in reverse, but the best way to hold the guitar while sitting is to place it on your left leg. Think about it - when you're standing, the guitar is going to hang just about the same place that it would rest, if it's resting on your left leg, wouldn't it? Once you get used to this, you're going to find that this position is actually more comfortable than holding it on your right leg. Looks weird and feels weird at first, but the gains you get are going to be worth it.

While sitting with the guitar on the proper leg, you can adjust the guitar's distance from your body. This is kind of up to you, you just need to make sure that your right arm is free to move at the elbow. You'll probably bring your acoustic closer to you than your electric, just make sure that your right arm moves at the elbow & you feel at ease.

Some people tell you you need to raise your left leg by placing something under it. This is how classical guitarists are taught. If it makes you feel more comfortable, do it, but it's not a hard rule you have to follow.

- Standing - standing is a little simpler to explain. Remember how I told you the guitar will hang around the same position when standing as it would when sitting propped on your left leg? Well, that means all the hard work of getting it in the right place is done for you already! The only thing you're probably going to have to give any thought is the height of the guitar. Most people who play like to let it hang down low. This is okay if you have extra long arms, but if you're normal like the rest of us, you need to have it a little higher. I'm definitely not advocating you have it around your neck, as that will make you look ridiculous, but somewhere in between. The rule of comfort applies to this heavily. If it's uncomfortable, or your leaning over to play, your guitar is too low. One teacher taught me that I should always wear a strap, sitting and standing, and that is should be adjusted to a height that allows it to remain in the same position while sitting and standing. I tend to agree with this. Again, not the only way to do it, using this method is useful because you can really develop your feel of the guitar, as it will always be in the same position, no matter how you're playing. I find that this lands the guitar mid to upper mid belt. That seems to me like a fair trade off between comfort and cool.

Remember the rule about comfort? I want to add a little more to it so that you can watch out for some pitfalls and adjust your stance as needed. This applies to both sitting and standing. When playing your guitar, one of your missions is to reduce the stress of your body. You should not be raising your shoulder or doing any kind of straining or stretching to play. While this type of thing can convey emotion on stage and make for a compelling performance, if you're doing it naturally when you're practicing by yourself, somethings wrong. Take the time to work out all the kinks from your posture, and make everything as comfortable as possible.

If you practice this, you'll find that you can get gains in accuracy and speed that are a big payoff most are willing to work for. Either way it goes, if you follow most if not all of these rules, you'll find that the overall experience is much better for you. Good luck & happy playing!

John T Halbert is a writer who publishes on subjects of self help and human ability. His studies include the human body and mind and the innate abilities that lie within. He recently helped publish a series of websites about the Schwinn 552 Dumbbells and the Best Dumbells for home use.

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