So I was reading this little article about ergonomics for sitting in front of a computer. It got me thinking to what was the correct posture for playing the guitar. I don't know if mine is correct. Anyways I wanted if there is a site on how the correct posture is? I couldn't find any on google :(
It is an individual thing really. I like to wear my guitar fairly low slung. I know a great local guitarist who wears his guitar very high. He's got far better technique than me!
I think you just have to be comfortable and play effectively at the same time.
Recently I met a young teenager who is just starting out on bass. It is obvious that he was influenced by looking at some popular Punk bands. He had the guitar hanging almost to his knees, and I am not kidding. It looked ridiculous really. I told him, you will never be able to play well like that, you have no reach. Of course he didn't listen to me, because he can hammer out the new Green Day song. He just rolled his eyes at me. I told him that someday he will mature in his playing and what he wants to do on bass. He will want to become a real musician who can play all sorts of styles. And that he was just developing some bad habits that he will regret someday. He rolled his eyes again. :D
So, we want to look cool, nothing wrong with that. But you should be more concerned with playing well.
I think some pretty good GENERAL rules would be:
1) Keep the headstock up around ear level.
2) Keep the elbow of your fretting arm away from your body.
3) Learn to keep your thumb behind the neck as much as possible, and your palm off the neck. There are many exceptions to this. You have to wrap your thumb over the neck to do bends.
4) Learn to play relaxed. Be aware of tension in your body, hands, and fingers. When you sense stress, RELAX. Learning to play relaxed is very important.
5) Be comfortable, if your guitar feels good on you, that is probably correct.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
also pay attention to your fretting wrist. Don't bend it at an extreme angle. A straight wrist is good.
Persoanlly, I've found that I wear different guitars at different levels. I wear my acoustic relatively high, whereas I wear my Squier MUCH lower than my Ibanez electric. They're the same shape, but for some reason i feel more comfortable playing the squier a few inches lower on my body. I guess I'm odd.
also pay attention to your fretting wrist. Don't bend it at an extreme angle. A straight wrist is good.
This is the #1 most important thing to keep in mind when you consider ergonomics on the guitar (or anything, really). On the guitar, if your wrists are straight then you can be almost certain that your position is reasonably ergonomic. I keep my wrists straight and let everything else follow from that.
yes. I've seen Everclear play on TV and i can't help but cringe when I see their singer, Art something, (Aleksis?). He plays guitar too and it's sooooo low that his wrist is practically bending back in on itself. it looks like he can touch his fingers to the inside of his wrist. BAD technique, very bad. That'll give you carpel tunnel real quick.
