So when Justin’s lessons suggested doing a couple of minutes standing up practice in the routine, I dutifully did it for a while, but I didn’t find it very challenging, didn’t see much point to it, so I dropped it when I went into Grade 2 consolidation mode.
Tonight on a whim I played through a bunch of songs standing up and to my surprise, some stuff actually felt way easier to me. In particular, being able to fret the strings without strangling the guitar neck, barre chords were easier to hold down, vibrato more comfortable.
Maybe it’s just because my posture when sitting is dreadful, but when I’m standing I can feel the guitar body is positively locked in place between my right arm and my torso/hip, so the head end of the neck is kind of just suspended there. I can put my fretting fingers down with hardly any support from my thumb. It felt great.
Sure the chords felt a little weird and fumbly, with the angles being different and all, but I think that would be pretty easy to get past.
Electric guitars are designed to be played standing up. The only guitar I find a little uncomfortable to play standing is a Gibson SG they are headstock heavy.
An acoustic with a properly adjusted strap is also easy to play standing.
Good for you Brendan!! I’ve found it quite a challenge to play happily standing up but slowly getting more comfortable with it. Similar to you my seated posture is terrible which I’ve been trying to concentrate on in parallel, maybe I need a halfway house position like a bar stool to play on
I recall that I used to play standing up quite often back when I was using Rocksmith, so maybe it’s become comfortable for me on account of having already put in that time.
Have you tried experimenting with the strap length Mark? Could be you just haven’t found the right height for the guitar to sit at yet.
Yeah it’s getting there Brendan with playing around with length and I think that’s fine, the biggest key factor for playability I’m finding is actually the up / down angle of the neck, which is easier to achieve with my electric atm. I like it angled quite high it seems, my fretting arm feels completely in the wrong place otherwise. Still very much a work in progress but it’s getting there.
I’m all for standing when playing and I hardly ever sit anymore. I find that the guitar just feels more comfortable and that goes for both acoustic and electric. I also find that by standing the guitar body is more straight up and down rather than at an angle.
I play mostly sitting (my acoustic guitars don’t have straps anyway) though I occasionally stand up to play my electric guitars. However, I haven’t yet noticed any significant difference between how easy it is to play if I sit down or stand up.
I was thinking about this last night, doing my F barre chord practice sitting down. I noticed that the chords sound muddy when I play them, when I looked my fingers were angled and collapsed towards the fretboard. I could force them perpendicular but it was a real effort.
I tried standing up, the guitar body was straighter, meaning the fretboard was less angled towards my face, and my fingers were naturally perpendicular, and it sounded better.
I think the moral of the story is for me, to do more practice standing up
I mostly practice sitting, but as I’ve progressed to the point where I (mostly) don’t have to look at my hands anymore, playing standing up has gotten much easier.
I find the guitar just seems to naturally find a good playing position…as long as the strap is adjusted properly. And it’s easier to make adjustments - neck higher or lower, angled away from the body, etc.
It’s also good for troubleshooting things that feel difficult while sitting. Sometimes you can stand up, find a more relaxed and comfortable position, and then adjust your sitting position to recreate that feeling.
I also feel freer to move with the music when I play standing - swaying in time, bouncing with the rhythm, etc.
Yeah, absolutely. That is a big difference for me too. Moving around on my feet, it was easier to vibe with the song. You can get expressive with how you hold the guitar.
I find that being able to move around and jig about on my feet keeps me more relaxed too, which naturally makes playing easier/better. Perhaps I picked that up from my Rocksmith days too… playing rock songs while sitting down just feels wrong!
That said, it only applies to my electric. I have yet to find a comfortable way of playing acoustic on my feet. High, low, somewhere in between, nothing seems to “fit” quite right. I even bought an acoustic with a slimmer body and neck, but it still doesn’t feel good when standing.
Once I started playing standing up with my acoustic I changed how I held my guitar so it’s as close as possible to the same position when sitting down. This has helped me plenty. It’s still not 100% the same position so if I know I’m going to play standing up (like for a gig) I do most of my playing standing up for a couple of weeks or so before.
It also helps to play standing up facing myself in a mirror. You get to see what you look like to others and it’s caused me to change a thing or two.
100% with you on this Brendan. It took me a while to get standing but once I did it just feels so much more natural.
Yes, it’s a bit of a chord fumble at the beginning but once you’re over that standing is great. It also makes me feel like a more confident player.
I’m playing a fender strat and can hardly find a comfortable position while sitting. Due to its weight, the guitar seems to tilt forwards and backwards when I sit. I have to adjust the strap quite tight to fix it, not feeling comfortable. When I stand up, the guitar is much more stable but I can’t find the appropriate high. Where does the body of your guitar sit (middle of the torso, to the right side on the hip?)? What’s the right hight? Also unsure about the angle of inclination of the neck. Is it up to my individual feeling, or is there a right or wrong? I already tried out different positions but didn’t find the right one yet.
Hi Andrea, Justin says there is no right or wrong answer to the height, you just have to mess around with it until you find what works for you.
For me the body of the guitar is definitely contacting my right hip (well technically the iliac crest, not the actual hip but you know what I’m saying) and also some of my ribs.
I think it’s a similar thing with the angle of the neck. I find I actually adjust that quite a bit while I’m playing, for barre chords near the head end like F and Bm, tilting the neck up a bit seems to work for me, and if I come up the fretboard, I tend to level it out and play more horizontal.
Thanks Brendan, that’s what I assumed. Not playing barre chords yet (shifting only the F up and down the neck so far) and still fumling in the upper frets, so I think, with time there will be a way to find a good positioning. I play sitting at the moment, but thinking to change to a standing position. Time will tell…
