Tips on how to hold the guitar

by Crazy Dave

Short Description: After you’re through with this article you’ll be an expert in holding the guitar.

The long wait has ended. Now you have a guitar of your own and can’t wait to play on it, can you?

Let’s go ahead and take the first step towards mastering the instrument. Yes, you’re absolutely right. We will begin with the intricacies of holding the instrument properly. It’s an extremely important step since any awkward pose makes it really difficult to play even the simplest of melodies on it and you may soon drop the idea of becoming an accomplished guitarist.

The guitar should gently rest on your right thigh with strings and sound hole facing outwards. Its neck should point slightly upwards to your left; say 30 or so. This is the normal position of the guitar but if you are a leftie place it on your left thigh and let the neck point towards your right. Jimi Hendrix used to hold his legendary guitar in this way! In case you’re wondering where and how you’d sit, all that I can say is sit in an upright posture. The front edge of a straight-backed chair would be ideal. You may also use a footstool to place your right foot on.

But these details are merely guidelines. It isn’t necessary to follow them to the last semicolon - slight deviations here and there which make you more comfortable are on and they won’t bring the heavens crashing down.

Let’s go to the next step and see how your arms should be draped around the guitar. The hand positions described here are for a right hander - it’d be just the opposite for a left hander.

Just let your right arm lie gently over the guitar in such a way that the fingers hang loosely over the sound hole. You’d use these fingers to pick the strings. See to it that you don’t require a lot of wrist movement while doing so. People have ended up with carpal tunnel syndrome while strumming hard on their guitars; so take care not to overstrain your wrist.

Let’s go over to the other hand - the “fretting” hand, so to say. You must have observed that the back of the guitar’s neck is curved. It’s so to allow your palm to fit snugly over it. Curl your fingers so that you can freely press the strings with your fingertips.

With four fingers poised over the strings let your thumb curve over the neck while you’re constructing chords and let it remain at the back of the neck when you’re playing scales. This, once again, is a guideline and comfort and ease should be the watchword while you hold the guitar.

About the Author:

Before you spend a fortune on 1-on-1 guitar lessons, make sure you check out Crazy Dave’s review of the top instructional video guitar course online - learn and master guitar. Dave site offers 35 free guitar licks!