Posture and care
How to sit or stand with the guitar without tension, how to plan practice to avoid injury and how to look after the instrument.
Essential
Content under musical review. It may contain inaccuracies.
Loading…
How to sit or stand with the guitar without tension, how to plan practice to avoid injury and how to look after the instrument.
Essential
Good posture isn't a stiff pose: it's playing with as little tension as possible. When your body is comfortable your hands move better and you can practise longer without pain. And a well-kept guitar sounds better and is easier to play.
This Em chord is a quick check: with a comfortable posture you should be able to fret it so all six strings ring clearly, without squeezing.
Go through your posture step by step, sitting or standing:
Step 1 of 5 · Back and shoulders
Warm up with a gentle exercise at a slow tempo. Look for the least pressure that makes the note ring clean:
Fingering & coordinationChromatic spiderOne finger per fret across all strings for independence, accuracy and hand synchronisation. Metronome at 60 BPMPlan your practice to protect your hands:
And look after the guitar:
Change them one at a time so the neck doesn't lose all its tension at once. Leave two or three wraps on the peg for plain strings and a little less for wound ones. Gently stretch each new string and retune several times. It's also a good moment to wipe the fingerboard with a dry cloth.
Wood reacts to humidity. Acoustic guitars are usually happiest at 45 to 55 % relative humidity; very dry air can sink the top, make fret ends stick out or crack the wood. If the action rises or falls with the seasons, the guitar may need a truss rod tweak, a saddle height change or an intonation check. If you're not experienced, leave truss rod adjustments to a technician: overtightening can damage the neck.