This article have been written in order to aid the speed at which you can learn to play acoustic guitar. One of the most neglected issues I have seen with my students is their posture, often it is the main reasoning behind a certain chord or lick being difficult to play.
Playing with a good posture can make or brake your playing. Over the years I have met a few players that had to stop playing from injuries coursed by bad posture. “Tennis Elbow”, “Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) Carpel Tunnel Syndrome” or in worst cases “Tendinitis” can be often prevented with a good posture.
The first thing to note is that playing guitar, or more importantly, when you learn acoustic you put your body under a great deal of stress as the movements required to play properly do not come naturally to our bodies, we were not designed to move our hands and arms like this. Sometimes you meet people who say they are natural guitar players and they find everything easy but that’s not always true, unless of course they were born with calluses on their fingers.
I for one have had to work very hard to learn to play, and the people I play with on a regular basis have the exact same thoughts, so never think yourself you aren’t able to play guitar, if you are having difficulties the chances are you need to work on your posture.
Remember when you pick up your guitar is that you should be as relaxed as you can when you play. A good idea is to warm up or stretching before you begin to practice, in fact, John Petrucci begins his tuition video with a series of warm up massages.
Many modern guitar players practice sitting down and resting the guitar on their right leg. A more “classical” posture would be to rest the guitar on the left leg and keeping the guitar at an angle. Both techniques are very comfortable and I recommend that you try them both and choose which one works best for you. Keep the wrist of the fretting hand as straight as possible to prevent the risk of a trapped nerve
Often you will see videos of rock bands with guitars hanging so low that in order for the fingers to make contact with the frets the wrist is at a right angle, needless to say this is very bad for the nerves in the forearm as well as the general circulation of blood.
When playing standing up I always suggest to have the strap long enough to ensure the guitar is in the same position as when you are sitting down. Many of us practice most of the time sitting down and perform standing up, therefore having the guitar always in the same position will ensure you’ll have always the same fell with the instrument.
The strumming hand should also be relaxed, as you play the muscles should not tense up at all, remain loose and strum from the forearm.
Learn Acoustic Guitar has never been so easy. The Author has a series of easy guitar songs for beginners on Youtube.
Related Posts:
