Hold The Guitar Using Good Posture And Stay Relaxed

I have put together a few important tips on body posture for guitar to help you to keep from putting any undue strain on your body. Keeping your guitar playing pain free will keep it fun! The following tips are good to keep in mind while playing.

How to hold the guitar

Stay relaxed and comfortable. Keep your neck and shoulders as loose and tension free as possible.

Keep your fingernails trimmed on your fretting hand. If you use a guitar pick, keep your nails short on your picking hand too.

Use the pads of your fingers placed directly behind the frets to play the clearest notes.

Fretting hand is not used for support - Make sure that your fretting hand (the hand that plays the notes) is not used to support the guitar neck.

Support your fretting hand using your thumb - keeping your thumb at the back of the neck. Use your thumb as a brace and lightly pinch the neck when playing to support your fingers doing the playing.

Support the guitar at the body - Whether you are standing up using a strap or sitting down, keep the guitar supported at the body side of the guitar. This will help keep the guitar neck stable making it easier to play. Some people find resting the guitar on a raised thigh or knee of the leg helpful for stability.

How to hold a guitar pick

How to hold a guitar pick has a lot to do with personal preference. However, the most basic way to hold the pick is between the index finger and thumb. Let just enough of the pick end protrude as necessary to strike the strings. Keep excess pick material protruding to a minimum. You don't want your pick to be unstable so hold back more of the pick material than you need to play.

Practice fluid and even up and down strokes with the guitar pick hand. Make sure only the strings you want to sound are picked.

You might also be interested in learning finger picking.