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How to Properly Hold the Guitar
An easy and fun instrument to play is the guitar. The proper method of handling the guitar is the first thing to learn. This is how you do it:
Correct Posture
Get a chair and sit down, rest your back on the backrest of the chair. Feet should be flat on the ground with your legs in front of you. You are now positioned to be the support to rest the guitar on.
When picking up a guitar the bottom of the neck should be parallel to the ground. The back of the guitar body should be touching your chest when it is held close to the chest and the stomach. The thickest string should be near the face while the thinnest should be near the ground.
A left-handed person holds the guitar so the headstock is pointing to the right and a right-handed person normally has it pointing to the left.
The body of the guitar has to be resting on either thigh to play sitting down. The leg farthest from the head stock is where the instrument should be resting. A person naturally rests the guitar on the leg that is the same as the hand they normally use.
Right hand and Arm
A crucial part of playing the guitar is proper hand position. If your hand is in an incorrect position you will have several problems. You will not only have difficulty playing chords and tire easily; you could injure your hand with the wrong position. The wrong hand position is all it takes to do all of this.
Strumming is done with the right hand, to get the various sounds of the chords. The arm and right hand should rest over the guitar. The hand must be placed directly on top of where the sound will be made by guitar and the bicep should rest on the very top of the guitars body. Make sure the position is comfortable.
There are two options for a left handed person. They can either purchase a guitar that is specially made for left-handed people or they restring a right handed guitar to reverse the order of the strings.
The hand that is near the guitars neck (fretting hand) should be focused on when sitting in the correct guitar position. The thumb of the fretting hand should rest at the back of the neck of the guitar with the fingers in a slightly curled position balancing on the top of the strings. It is extremely important to keep these fingers curled.
Fingers:
The left hand’s fingers should be bent also and pressed onto the strings on the fret board. The hand should be molded into the necks shape since the back of the neck is curved.
When creating chords it is right to press or push the thumb at the back of the neck. This is often done when scales are played. Find the thumb position you are most comfortable with by testing them.
Since you are in the process of getting to know your instrument do not worry too much about which strings the fingers of the left hand are pushing down at this time.
At this early stage you should not worry about if you can play a good tune or not. There are still many stages and many things to learn and lots of practice before the right tones and notes are there. Be patient in the beginning.
Being comfortable holding the guitar and feeling at ease with it are the important things here. The rest of the techniques will come easily now.
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