In Part one of this series on how to sit with a guitar properly, I explained why good, solid and consistent posture is critical for you as a guitarist – mainly because good posture can save a huge amount of time and frustration.
In this part, we are getting right into the meat and potatoes of the series where I’ll show you what I have found to be by far the most optimal playing position for guitarists.
Many people have no idea how to actually sit with their guitar for the most optimal playing comfort, efficiency and technique. Some sit in a downright terrible way. This places a huge strain on their wrists, leads to their backs being hunched over and their guitar being placed at a weird angle.
In this two-part post, I’ll explain why it is essential that you start sitting in the proper manner, why most teachers get it wrong, and what you can learn from the sport of golf. Most importantly I’ll show you what I have found to be by far the most optimal playing position for guitarists.
If you are a novice guitarist or a frustrated beginner, then you are probably still experiencing some sort of unpleasant noise or lack of clarity when playing your basic guitar chords.
In this post, I’ll share with you five basic tips I give out to students on a daily basis to help them overcome this frustrating part of guitar playing.
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One of the worst habits a guitarist can have (and one I used to be very guilty of committing myself) is the habit of ‘bouncing’ their fingers off the fretboard. I talked about this briefly in my Ultimate Guide to Practicing Scales but want to expand upon this, as it is a very important subject.
In this post, you will learn why ‘bouncing’ your fingers can really hamper the way you play guitar, why fixing it will make a big difference to the accuracy of your playing and how to actually fix it.
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Guitar by Yngve Bakken Nilsen, licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)
A lot of my students know how to play quite a few songs. Some of those who have played for a while know anything upwards of 10 songs.
A while back, I noticed that some students would neglect to practice some songs so I got to the bottom of it and asked them why hadn’t they practiced these songs.
Welcome to our 3rd Q and A. So far we have had our first two with singer/songwriter Harry Harris, and super popular YouTube guitar teacher Drue James and now for this month’s we have session guitarist Mike Georgiades.
Grohl at The Concert for Valor in Washington, D.C., 2014 by DoD News Features, licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Most guitarists who want to learn how to play guitar and sing often prioritise the guitar part over the vocal part but this is a common mistake that will hold you back.
The reason why? Because it takes much longer that way. Spending too long perfecting the guitar part before adding singing can work against you.
Singing and playing the guitar is tough and does take a little time, but you can shorten that time by doing things in the correct order which I’ll show you.
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Fingerpicking is a wonderful part of guitar playing and it is one of my favourite things to do on a guitar – especially on a nice acoustic guitar. The trouble is many guitarists do not really know how to fingerpick properly.