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