How To Hold a Guitar - Standing Up or Sitting Down

Since good posture always results in better playing, here, we explain the best and most comfortable way to hold your guitar whether you’re sitting down or standing up. While you can play an acoustic or electric guitar either standing or sitting, if you’re a complete beginner, we recommend sitting down to play at first. This will help you make a habit of adopting the right posture every time you play so that, when you do stand, you’ll be set up with the best possible way to play.

Left-Handed?
Playing Sitting Down
Sitting Down
Rest Your Guitar On Your Thigh
With Your Right Arm…
With Your Left Hand…
Now…
Standing Up
The Guitar Strap
With Your Left Hand…
Now…
See also…

Left-Handed?

If you’re a left-handed guitarist, simply swap the right hand for the left hand and left hand for the right hand when we mention them.

Playing Sitting Down

How To Hold a Guitar - Standing Up or Sitting Down

Sitting Down

Grab a chair or stool that doesn’t have any armrests.
Sit close to the edge of the seat.
Keep your back straight.

Rest Your Guitar On Your Thigh

Rest the body of your guitar on your right thigh.
Make sure that your thigh is horizontal to the floor and that your right foot is flat on the floor.

Note: If you’re taking classical guitar lessons, then you’ll probably learn to rest the guitar on your left thigh and place your left foot on a footstool.

With Your Right Arm…

Use your right elbow and forearm to hold the body of your guitar against your own body.
While it’s tempting, make sure that you’re not tilting your guitar back so you can see the strings better. Make sure the soundhole or pickups are facing forwards.

With Your Left Hand…

Hold the neck of your guitar in your left hand.
Make sure that the neck is tilted up a little bit. This will definitely make playing much easier in the beginning.
The idea is to make sure that your guitar doesn’t tilt towards the floor the moment you let the neck go. It needs to be sitting stable on your thigh. Always make sure that you’re not holding the weight of the guitar with your left hand.
Place the thumb of your left hand on the back of the neck, somewhere around the third fret.
Rest the other fingers of your left hand against the strings.
Avoid curling your thumb around the neck, even if you’ve seen your favourite guitarist doing it. This is one of the bad habits you’re free to pick up after you’ve got the basics down.

Now…

You’re free to look at your left hand to check your fingers are in the right place, just make sure you’re keeping your back straight and that you’re not leaning forward and over your guitar.

Standing Up

How To Hold a Guitar - Standing Up or Sitting Down

The Guitar Strap

Before you can even think about playing standing up, you’ll need a guitar strap.
Also, you need to check that your guitar has at least one strap button fitted on the base.
One end of your strap is secured to the strap button on the base of your guitar and the other end can be secured to either the strap button fitted on the upper bout (the side of your guitar. With some electric guitars, the strap button might be near the base of the neck) or you can use a piece of string, cord or a shoelace to tie the other end of the strap to the headstock of your guitar. Simply thread the cord under the strings just behind the nut and then around the headstock before tying a good knot, like in the photo.
Make sure that your guitar strap is firmly secured to the strap buttons. There’s nothing worse than watching helplessly as your guitar falls and hits the ground. For an extra level of security, a lot of guitarists use strap locks, but they sometimes come with special strap buttons that will need installing. If you’re not interested in installing a new set of strap buttons, then you can use a set of strap blocks instead.
If possible, you can adjust the length of your guitar strap. But how long should it be? We recommend the following: sit down as if you’re about to play, as described above. Now, adjust the strap so short that your guitar is hovering just above your thigh. Now stand up.

A lot of classical guitars don’t have any strap buttons, because these kinds of guitars are usually played sitting down. But if you really want to play a classical or Spanish guitar standing up, then you can get a guitar strap that’s specially designed for classical guitars. Another option is to install some strap buttons. For this, we recommend going to a local luthier or guitar shop for help.

With Your Left Hand…

Hold the neck in your left hand.
Make sure that the neck is tilted up a little bit. This will definitely make playing much easier in the beginning.
The idea is to make sure that your guitar doesn’t tilt towards the floor the moment you let the neck go. It needs to be sitting stable on your thigh. Always make sure that you’re not holding the weight of the guitar with your left hand.
Place the thumb of your left hand on the back of the neck, somewhere around the third fret.
Rest the other fingers of your left hand against the strings.
Avoid curling your thumb around the neck, even if you’ve seen your favourite guitarist doing it. This is one of the bad habits you’re free to have after you’ve got the basics down.

Now…

You’re free to look at your left hand to check your fingers are in the right place, just make sure you’re keeping your back straight and that you’re not leaning forward and over your guitar.