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Posture, hands and pick
How to sit, place your hands, hold the pick and play without tension or pain.
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Stop 3 of 6
How to sit, place your hands, hold the pick and play without tension or pain.
No climber starts up a mountain with their boots badly laced. On the guitar, your boots are your posture: how you sit, where the instrument rests and how you place your hands. Good posture isn't a stiff pose; it's the way of playing with as little tension as possible. With it your fingers reach where they need to, you can practise longer without discomfort, and everything you learn afterwards comes more easily.
Start sitting down. It's more stable and lets you focus on your hands. Find an armless chair at a height that leaves your thighs roughly level, and sit on the front half of the seat.
Go through your posture from the ground up:
There are two common ways to sit with the guitar, and a third standing up. None is "the right one": each has its advantages.
Casual
Classical
Standing
The presses the strings. Its fingers are always numbered the same way, in tab, chord diagrams and notation all over the world:
| Finger | Index | Middle | Ring | Pinky | Thumb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
Now put it on the neck:
Now try placing one finger per fret on the 1st string, from fret 5 to 8. Each finger has its own fret: that's the one finger per fret idea, and you'll use it constantly.
String 1, Fret 5: A4 · 1 · Scale tone
Thumb behind (classical position)
The thumb drops towards the middle of the back of the neck. Fingers reach further and spread more easily. It's the starting position for scales, exercises and almost everything at this camp.
Thumb over (rock position)
The thumb rises and peeks over the top of the neck. It gives strength for bends and can mute the 6th string. You'll meet it later: it isn't a mistake, it's another tool.
The is the tool of your . To start, choose a medium one (0.6–0.8 mm): thin picks are comfortable for strumming but flex when you play single notes; heavy ones give more control and attack, but are harder to strum with at first.
Here's how to hold it (look at the right side of the previous illustration):
The pick should strike the string almost flat, parallel to it, with a slight tilt of the edge. Hit with the face completely flat and the pick "slaps"; tilt it too much and it scrapes and sounds weak. Try small variations and listen: you're after a clean, round sound with no clicks.
The motion comes mainly from the wrist, not the elbow or shoulder. For single notes the movement is small: the pick passes through the string and stops very close to it, ready for the next stroke. For strumming, the wrist turns a bit more, like shaking water off your hand.
Listen to an open string played with downstrokes, one per beat. The arrow shows the direction:
And now a strum across all six open strings, also downwards. The wrist swings in a wider arc, but the arm stays relaxed:
The wrist moves a small mass (hand and pick) with forearm muscles, which allows short, fast, precise movements. If the motion comes from the shoulder or elbow, you move the whole arm: more mass, more inertia, more fatigue and less precision. Later, for high speeds or hard strumming, the forearm will join in with a slight rotation, but the foundation is a loose wrist.
A few small details prevent a lot of problems:
| Signal | What do I do? |
|---|---|
| Slightly sore fingertips in the first weeks | Normal. Short sessions and minimum pressure |
| Mild muscle tiredness in the hand | Normal. Rest a few minutes |
| Raised shoulders, clenched jaw | Stop, breathe, let go. Check your posture |
| Pain in the wrist, forearm or back | Stop. Check the guitar's height and your wrist |
| Sharp pain, tingling or numbness | Stop playing for today. If it comes back, see a health professional |
Goal: Play two minutes of open-string downstrokes in a row at 60 BPM, checking your posture every four bars without losing the beat.
String 2, Fret 5: E4 · 1 · Scale tone
Goal: Find, with each finger (1, 2, 3 and 4), the exact point where the note goes from dead to clean, on the 2nd string, frets 5 to 8.
Turn the wrist, not the shoulder. Try to get all six strings at a similar volume and land each stroke right on the click.
Goal: Strum the six open strings downwards, one stroke per beat, for one minute at 70 BPM with a relaxed arm.
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