3 Tips For Improving Guitar Posture – How To Hold A Guitar

Posted on by James

If you are having trouble reaching notes (especially on the low string) it’s probably because you need to learn how to properly hold a guitar! Other problems include wrist and back pain as well as a general lag when changing chord shapes. Learning how to hold a guitar will fix all of this and ensure a lifetime of happy playing!

In this tutorial, we do a diagnostic test to see if you know how to hold a guitar properly. Basically, when you let go with your chord hand, you want the guitar to not move. If it moves, that means you are supporting the weight of the neck with your chord hand, which could have dire consequences!

How do you hold a guitar?

How to properly hold a guitar

Follow these 3 steps for proper posture:

rest your strumming arm on the guitar to hold it in place
Position your strumming arm on the guitar so it can rest and support the full weight of the guitar (gravity ftw!)
tilt the neck upwards to make it easier to play
Make sure your neck is angled at least parallel to the ground (up to 45 degrees).
sit up straight to play guitar properly

Finally, sit up straight and don’t tilt the guitar. I know it’s tempting to want to peek at your fingers, but this habit is probably one of the most damaging to your wrist and back!

I hope these tips help you play for longer and get better faster!

Holding the guitar is just the start of it… if you’d like a guided tour through everything it takes, from absolute beginner to confident strummer, check out my complete beginner’s course. It is laid out in a simple way, no crazy music theory or anything like that… Just a straight-forward course that’ll get you playing songs and having fun!

Click here to learn more!

Take care!
-James