Beginner's Guitar Advice 1

About body and guitar positions

Though suggestions based on experience may always be helpful, I don't think that universalizations are always the best solutions.

When it comes down to find the best body and instrument position to best play guitar, there are, at least, two possible approaches:

• The first one: You stick with an advised body and instrument position, until the moment that, through painful and patient practicing, your body gets familiar with it.
• The second one: You search from start, until you find the most comfortable body and instrument position for your body characteristics, so you can play with least effort and muscle pain.

I'm not inclined to exclusively request, from my students, a unique classic standard position.

I prefer to help them find the one that suits them best, as it will depend on their body form and body parts sizes (fatness or thinness, short or long arms, short or long legs have an important role over the final best position).

The classic standard position, with the guitar supported by the left leg which rests on a five-six inches little stool will, most commonly, be the best position, and the beginner will soon find out that it's the most comfortable.

But, a thin student, with thin and long legs, will, in most cases, find that resting the guitar on his/her right leg crossed over the left one, may be equally as comfortable as the classic standard position.

The key is finding a body and instrument position that lets the student:

• Have plain and easy control on his right and left arms and hands and fingers.
• Make the correct use of left hand fingers to fret strings with ease to get clean and quality sound.
• Make free and natural right hand and fingers movements to pluck and strum to get, again, clean and quality sound (the most important goal).
• Have a good sight scope over the fretboard and strings.
• Play with least effort and back, arms and legs pain.

The bottom line here is that:

• It's something that you should be concerned about, as it will help you get the most out of your guitar playing and enjoying.
• You should devote, at the beginning, some time to test different positions, until you find the one that best suits you, making guitar playing a real pleasure.

Best luck!