You can adjust your grip, setup, mechanic, etc. slightly to modify the edge angle. Edge picking is associated with speed, but if you prefer the tone with 0 degrees of edge you should be able to achieve that with some experimentation.
@Muso1981 I’ve also started to play with a strap all the time now (except for acoustic) and I think it has helped me transition between different positions with a minimal impact on technique.
I’ve been trying to play the electric guitar in the classical position and I’m finding that I have to turn my body to the left and this is causing a bit of pain in my right shoulder blade. The guitar can’t sit in the middle as my right leg is in the way. Does anyone have any tips please?
Classical all the way. It’s more comfortable, easier to play and causes less health problems.
I have exactly the same problem with the classical position (I’m right-handed). Best comprominse I found was to use the right leg with the help of this little thingy called “performaxe”, but it’s very expensive (sorry for the potatovision):
Good to hear I’m not alone in this, I had a quick Google but couldn’t find that performance thing anywhere. I don’t suppose you have a link? What does it do exactly? Cheers.
Yep sorry I should have said more! It’s basically a leg rest for electric guitar, it allows you to place the guitar on the right leg but angles the guitar neck a bit closer to the classical position. Here’s the link to the company that sells it - I think it’s a very small Italian company - I don’t know if there are others
How exactly are you positioning that Warlock on your leg? (Wondering if you actually put your leg into that scoop-out where the end pin would be…?)
Holy S**t!
I own guitars cheaper than that
This has never been an issue for me, I just use a strap and I’m not thinking about all this anymore.
Get on with your practice you sissies
You’re a lucky man @twangsta, if you found a comfortable posture so quickly!
When I did that in high school and started practicing 5h/ day, after a few weeks I had a continuous back pain all day long! I ended up almost quitting guitar altogether!
I think it’s very important to find an ergonomic solution before starting the hard work.
In fact I recently developed the hypothesis that the best thing is to probably have many playing postures: sitting, standing, sitting with the other leg, [what else???], and basically never spend too long on each one.
I would like to bring this to the attention of the mods as clearly being hate speech
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA just kidding
This. I always play electrical in the classical position and I always use a strap. My body alignment is always dead center. I think if you were to not use a strap and attempt a classical position with an electric guitar, the results would not be good. The body of the electric is not big enough to get it into a true classical position. To compensate you’d need lift your left leg very high, or lean over more to reach the instrument. Either of which would ultimately become uncomfortable.
All those years ago when I was a young man of 17 and was taking classical lessons from Julian Gray (who would go on to become the department chair at Peabody Conservatory) he taught me to sit comfortably with good posture and bring the instrument to you, never position yourself to the guitar. I know there are many areas where electric and classical have about as much in common as ham and hamburgers, but I genuinely think this is good advice, regardless of which posture suits you, your instrument and your genre.
That said, I really want a performaxe now lol! I actually use a similar (MUCH CHEAPER) device when I play true classical…it would never work on the electric though.
I’d say if anyone plays “true” classical and is still using a footstool…save your lower back and try one out. The classical purists may glare at you but screw them.
I would also like to bring that last sentence to the attention of the mods as hate speech
Oh wow, pretty on topic. The amazing @Tom_Gilroy just put together (another) reallyhelpful video on guitar positioning and fretting postures:
Very good stuff, thanks Tom!
I tried this but still don’t understand how it can possibly work (for me, that is )
Again I’m right handed. Because the right leg is in the way, the guitar gets pushed so far to the left that I have to turn my body to the side, enough to cause discomfort after just a couple of minutes.
When I stand up with the strap things get better, as the guitar is allowed to go a bit past the right leg and things are reasonably centered:
Ah I see. I guess I have my strap up just a little higher than you. The body barely touches my right leg. Actually if I stop slouching and sit up straight like I ought to, it doesn’t touch my left leg at all
I think I see what you mean! As far as I can see that position (with the guitar very high up) is certainly good for some things (e.g. left hand stretches, reching higher frets) - but I’m pretty sure it’ll make other things very much harder - like strumming A, D and G chords in open positions - or generally fretting stuff in the low frets
I am not an ergonomic expert, but I sit in that style:
Your left knee doesn’t seem to be high enough, as no hands still support the guitar. You are correct that twisting is bad, so why are you twisting, what problem is the twisting solving? I trust that there is no space between the guitar and your torso? Also, look at the angle of your left elbow, and why is it so far away from your torso? Your right arm looks good…
Thank you @kgk - very valid questions and I don’t know the answer - worth investigating further But I can tell you that the fretboard feels “too far to the left” no matter what I try (I may not have tried enough).
It must be said that the chair I’m using is also not optimal for the task (flat with no padding).
For completeness, here’s what my posture looks like with the performaxe at the highest setting. Different guitar but same strat-style body. I hope these Images are at least helpful for people to understand what not to do
I’ve actually been doing the “super high strap sitting with the guitar center” thing for a bit now, I caught myself thinking about it the other day and was gonna post about it in this topic again! You can see it in my videos.
Ah! So if there was a vector coming out of your chest, and a vector along the guitar neck, for me their dot product is zero, and for you it is not! Your left elbow seems (by my standards) to be quite straight to reach the distant neck. So what happens if you bend your left elbow much more, and bring the neck in closer? (Hopefully the description made sense, but it’s easy to mark up the photo that you provided.)
One sentence summary: Your guitar headstock seems to be really far from your left shoulder. Indeed, I think that you are twisting in the “classical” style because you’re trying to get your left shoulder away from the headstock.