Page 3 - Fretband Vol.1
P. 3

Guitar


                        Posture






          While practicing poorly can harm your growth as a player, improper positioning of the body and
          hands during play can leave you with permanent physical damage. This is not the outcome that
          you want for yourself. So lets learn the proper mechanics of body and hand positioning.


          Body Positioning

                 If you are sitting, make sure that both feet can comfortably touch the floor. Your gui-
          tar should be placed in your lap sitting directly over the leg of your strumming hand. Your back
          should be kept straight with only a natural curve. Avoid the temptation to lean too far over the
          guitar as this will fatigue your back muscles. Your fretting hand will grasp the guitar on the neck.
          You should not try to support the guitar with this hand, instead hold the guitar aloft by keeping it
          against your body with your strumming arm. The neck of the guitar should be either parallel with
          the ground or at a slight upward angle. It should never be pointing towards the ground.
                 If you are standing, the strap will be doing the work of holding your guitar. You should
          adjust your strap so that the guitar can be reached comfortably with both arms without having to
          raise or lower the neck excessively. The guitar should not be raised too high with the strap as this
          will cause the guitar to obstruct your view of the fret board.



          Hand Positioning

                 Your fretting hand should be posi-
          tioned with the thumb resting roughly in
          the middle of the neck and your fingers po-
          sitioned so that the tips of the fingers make
          contact with the strings. Attempting to hold
          the thumb too high on the neck will result
          in a decreased range of motion for your fin-
          gers as well as a loss of grip strength. Your
          playing will improve if you keep the nails of
          your fretting hand short as long nails pre-
          vent the tips of the fingers from touching
          the strings.
                 The strumming hand should be po-
          sitioned comfortably over the sound hole or
          pickups. The pick should be held between
          the thumb and first finger. Do not pinch the
          pick. Instead allow the pick to rest on the
          side of the first finger closest to the thumb
          and hold it in place with the thumb.
                 Proper body and hand positioning
          will save you from a lot of injury down
          the road; get it right now so that the habit
          sticks.
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