Guitar Playing Position Basics

Sitting Positions

There are two sitting positions for holding the guitar - the classical and casual positions.

1. Pick up the guitar and make sure that the guitar body is supported by your leg.

2. Position yourself on the front half of your chair.

3. Ensure that your back isn’t arched, ensure that it is straight but not so that it is tight.

4. Lean the guitar back towards you slightly.

Standing Position

1. Pick up the guitar and place the strap over your shoulder. Adjust the strap so 

 that the guitar is positioned mid-body.

2. Use your fingering hand to support the neck of the guitar.

3. Rest your strumming hand over the bridge of the guitar.

 

Hand Positions

It is important that you relax your wrists and hands when you are first learning about finger

placement because straining them can cause injury.

Fretting

        When you play the guitar, you use the fingers of your fingering hand to press down the strings

on the fret board of the guitar and use your strumming hand to pluck or strum the strings at

the bridge end of the guitar. Which hand you use will depend on whether you are left-handed

or right-handed. Using your fingering hand to press the strings on the fret board is called

fretting. Here are some tips to help you with fretting:

1. Keep your fingernails short as you will need the tips of your fingers to press the 

    strings.

2. When making a chord, be sure that each fingertip is placed as close as possible to 

    the fret, the closer they are they less chance there is for buzzing strings.

3. Check to make sure that each string rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing.

4. It’s important to make sure that your fingers approach the strings on the neck at a 

    perpendicular angle. If they are at right angles to the neck there will be 

    less fret buzz.

As a beginner guitarist, it may hurt your fingers to play. This is normal. Every guitarist starts

this way for the first couple of weeks. With practise, you will develop guitar fingers (hard skin

on your fingertips).

Holding the Pick

1. Position the pick between thumb and index fingers as shown in the diagram below.

 

Free Guitar Video Course Download

My complete course on Guitar for Free download.

                                          Guitar Video Training course and Books 

 

  Our Beginner to Advanced Course gives you the best start to learning to play the guitar. That's because it does what other major guitar sites don't. 
       

      The best step-by-step guitar lessons on the internet!

      No previous knowledge needed

      For both acoustic and electric guitar

      Step-by-step, skill building 

       Real play along tracks

       Video Demonstration

Tunning Tips Book Free Download

 You can Download the Tips Book From Here

 

Before we start on the methods for tuning your guitar, we will go through some

handy tips that could save you from making any major mistakes the first time you

tune up. It is a good idea to ask an experienced guitar player to help you work

through the following tips on tuning.

New strings

When you are dealing with new strings, it can be a little nerve racking at first.

They can make some pretty frightening sounds. When your strings are new, they

are at their most vulnerable. They will break if you pull them too tight, too quickly.

The key is to tune them slowly. You really have to take your time. You will find

that they will reach a certain pitch and then drop back down very quickly. This is

because they are stretching and it is quite normal. You just need to keep tuning

them up slowly until they hold their pitch.

Work the string in

After a string is put on the guitar, it needs to be worked in. This is done by pulling

the string away from the fret board with the thumb and first finger of your right

hand. You only need to pull the string a little or else it could break. You are really

just stretching the string so that it will hold its pitch.

A quiet room

It is important that you can hear each string clearly as you tune it. Find a room

somewhere that is very quiet with good acoustics. A room with good acoustics is

one where the string sound can be heard crisply and clearly. The bathroom is often

a good place as it doesn’t absorb sound like a room with furniture does.

Temperature

The temperature of a room affects the way your strings behave. Moving between a

warm room and a cold room can change the pitch of your strings. Try to stay in

one room at the same temperature while you tune.

Pay attention

You really have to be patient and pay attention when you are learning to tune your

guitar. Make sure that you are always tuning the correct tuning key on the guitar

head or you may end up quite confused as to which strings need tuning.

Strumming - A Major chord

In a strum there are two types of guitar stroke. They are the up stroke and the down stroke.


             When you play a stroke, you strum across the strings just in front of the bridge of the guitar

with the pick in your strumming hand. When strumming a chord, make sure that you play all

the necessary strings in the chord. The stroke direction will depend on which stroke is

indicated; up or down as shown above. 

 

Position each finger with care,according to the chorddiagram (right). Make sure that each fingertip is placed as close as possible behind thefret. Firstly, pluck across the strings one by one with your pick, checking that each string rings clearly and is not muted or buzzing. Once you are sure that you are holding the A major chord correctly, practise strumming the chord in single downward strokes as

indicated below: