Getting your body and fingers into a good position will help you play well and develop good habits. In this lesson we will talk about good posture and placement of your fretting fingers, which is REALLY important for beginners....

Video Lesson

Extra Info on Posture

Fretting Finger Position Exercise
Making sure that you understand why it is important to out your fingers just behind the frets is important, if you know why you are more likely to do this the right way and it makes a big difference to beginners because it means that you will not press down as hard and your fingers will hurt less (although all beginners get sore fingers, this is normal, so don't worry about it!).

Do the exercise that I show you in the vid and then always make sure that you get your fretting fingers right up near the frets. Please. REALLY IMPORTANT!!

Classical vs Rock posture
If you want to play classical guitar then use the classical posture (put the guitar on the same leg as your fretting hand). If not then play the "normal" way and place it on the same leg as you strumming hand. For right handed players this means placing your guitar on your right leg.

It will give you a better posture for playing and I think it looks kinda strange when people play rock or pop with the classical posture. Just looks weird ;)

Strap placement and standing up
I think you should set your strap so that the guitar is roughly in the same place when you stand as when you sit. This will make it a lot easier to play, unless you want to play with the strap low, and always practice standing up (not recommended!).

Keeping the neck still
Make sure that your fretting hand is not supporting the guitar neck at all and that the neck is stable when you are playing. The last thing you want is the neck wobbling about when you are trying to practice getting your fingers in a good position!

Thumb placement
Try and keep the thumb positioned behind the neck when you start. Later on you will probably bring it over to play some chords, play bass notes and all sorts of other tricks, but as a beginner keep it behind the neck and it will help develop the muscles that you will need when you play barre chords!

Keep the nails short on your fretting hand
I already mentioned it, but make sure that you keep them nice and short, or the nail will dig into the wood and make your fingers lay too flat. You should use the tips of your fingers to play the notes when you start. Later you might start to use them a little flatter but learn to use the tips first!

Relax your shoulders
Many people develop tension in their shoulders when they play, especially when doing difficult things. Try and keep it relaxed and it will actually make it easier for yourself. Imagine that you fretting hand is nailed to the neck and then just let the whole shoulder and elbow relax. It will help your stretch too, you will always get a better reach when you are relaxed.

HELP!!!!

If you need to ask a question about this lesson - there is a topic set up specifically to help you with this lesson. To help you find it easily you can click the following link and it will take you right the topic. You'll be able to see questions that other people had and ask your own questions! Hopefully one of the very helpful members of our community will be there to help you soon, I do go there and answer stuff too - but there are just too many questions for me to answer alone! So click this link to get help with this lesson!

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