Posture changes that noticeably improved your playing

Playing Technique
#1

Once in a while I’ll make an adjustment to my posture or how I hold the guitar and immediately realize I’ve been increasing tension somewhere. After thinking about if my guitar neck is causing my hand to cramp and looking at posturing my hand differently, reducing my tendency to use a pinch grip, I had some progress but it still wasn’t right and I was blaming the neck shape etc. -

Then today I tried pushing my guitar neck out away from my body more - and everything felt easier including on my picking hand. So I had my guitar (in classical position) laying too flat against my body when sitting. I noticed when I would turn my body toward the headstock and lean the guitar back a bit into my body - and things got easier, but for whatever reason it took me a while to realize the more comfortable equivalent is to tilt the neck out a bit more and try to find what angle works best.

This also made my right hand more comfortable and I feel like I have some more control over palm muting.

Have you found any change in posture, how you sit, the angle of the guitar from your body, etc that have made a significant difference in playing comfort/stamina or control?

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#2

I’ve posted a few times about this myself, but yes, totally agree. The guitar too flat against the torso was something I also discovered!

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#3

I think it came as such a late discovery because I used to always wear a strap set very high, even when sitting, and kept the guitar basically in the same position sitting or standing. Switched to classical this past year and finally realized that angle in relation to my body was causing issues. Glad I discovered that before letting it influence my next guitar purchase.

#4

Having the guitar neck/fretboard stick out in front more is generally better positioning for me as well. Usually when I play live and do solos, I tend to turn myself sideways or blade myself to the guitar; so like guitar body facing the front but my feet are facing same direction as the neck. When sitting I like to push the neck out more. Sometimes being bladed while seated helps optimize playing as well; so instead of the guitar sitting flush to your abdomen or belly it’s more to the side of your hip. Just make sure your spine stays straight is what I’ve been told. In one of my consultations with @Tom_Gilroy he was able to identify how it might be easier for some players like Shawn Lane to play faster because the bigger belly can allow the guitar to sit out more, but I can be totally botching his description of that so I will let him better explain that concept if he so wishes :slight_smile:

#5

He has a lengthy post describing that about Shawn, he’s also modded one of his guitars to attach the strap at the back of the neck. I’ve considered trying something similar with a cheaper Ibanez I have to see if I like it.

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