Hi everyone, I bought myself a guitar for Valentine’s Day and just starting my journey. It feels like my strumming arm is moving the neck of my guitar slightly and interfering with my chord changes. I tried a few different ways and I can’t seem to stabilize the neck.
Any tips? Thanks!
I don’t think it’s a major problem. You’re new to it so it feels a bit uncomfortable, you will get used to it with time. One thing you might try is changing the angle you are holding the guitar, as in bring the neck closer to you body, that might give you more comfort.
Mike, from the video it didn’t appear to be causing you any problems when you were playing. I did notice it when it was hanging freely as you air-strummed with no chord held. I suspect that would be caused by the movement of your body, perhaps an arm in contact with the guitar body?
If it is bothering you perhaps try standing up. That may make a difference.
You might also rest the upper arm on the body and concentrate on strumming from the elbow.
But as I said, your chords and rhythm in the clip sounded fine to me
@Shawbird720 Hello Mike, welcome to JustinGuitar and the Community.
Congrats on your guitar and starting to learn.
I believe that the issue is due to the way you’re sitting and the placement of your guitar, how you hold it.
The second lesson at the very start of the beginner course is ‘How to hold your guitar’. https://www.justinguitar.com/modules/before-you-begin-guitar-basics
Your guitar is on your right leg but the body and neck are very far from running across your upper body. They don’t want to be parallel to your chest but they do want to be across it. Yours seems to go from behind you to way out in front. The back of the guitar body is behind your left shoulder, the tip of the neck is out in front of your eyes.
It may be that the camera angle exaggerates that and I may be wrong, the perspective isn’t ideal to see it clearly.
But if I’m correct then that would be my first suggestion to you.
Swing the guitar more in front and across your upper body, angle the neck up just a little, point it out just a little too if that helps.
Thanks for the feedback. When I hold the neck closer to my body my strap wants to spring the neck forward a bit. I think I will keep practicing and hopefully it will feel more natural with time.
Justin’s video is what is making wonder if I am holding it wrong. His guitar seems very stable in his video. I was worried I was practicing a bad habit and making that habit permanent.
Having another look at your video I feel like the body of the guitar is by your side, you want it more in front of your stomach. You may also need to move your leg to allow the guitar to move to a more frontal position. Your legs seem to be wide apart, try to bring them closer together. See how that goes.