Why You Need To Know How To Hold A Guitar

Playing the guitar is a lot of fun. I remember back when I first got interested in playing the electric guitar. I was about 15 years old and some of my heros were Eddie Van Halen and Slash!

So I bought a guitar and started taking lessons. I quickly learned that if you don't know how to hold a guitar, you will first not reach your fullest potential, and second your back will ache really bad.

The first thing my instructor taught me was how to hold a guitar and how to correctly hold the pick. Without these 2 fundamental basics, my playing would have suffered badly.

And it took some practice. Because playing the guitar is not necessarily a natural thing, I had to literally practice how to hold the guitar and how to hold the pick. But, like everything with the guitar, with a lot of practice, it became almost second nature.

What my instructor taught me was that the most important thing in holding a guitar is having a comfortable chair. Once seated in my chair, the bottom part of the body of the guitar rests on the upper thigh of my right leg (I am right handed. If you are left handed, this would be opposite).

Then, I had to place my left hand on the neck of the guitar with my fingers wrapped underneath so they can craft chords on the fretboard. The thumb of my left hand comes across the top of the neck or it can rest on the back of the neck, whichever is more comfortable. My right hand then rests across the strings of the guitar over the hole and my upper arm rests on the top of the body of the guitar. The right hand does the strumming and the hole in the guitar creates the beautiful sound that you hear when you play.

Again, if you are left-handed, all of the above would be opposite. And, if you are left handed, you need to make sure you have the correct guitar. A left handed guitar is basically a right handed guitar with the strings ordered in the opposite direction as a right handed guitar.

The bottom line is that you have to test out what is most comfortable for you. The easiest part of learning to play is learning how to hold a guitar. You may feel awkward at first, but keep at it and it will get easier and easier.

Learning how to hold a guitar is your first step in learning how to play the guitar. To discover the rest of the secrets to becoming a guitar master, head on over to http://www.learnelectricguitaronline.net/

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