New player, saw myself playing for the first time and thinking my posture needs work. Advice?

[Elo1638]

Got my guitar on December 18 and started following the Justin Guitar app a few days later. I’m about 60 hours of practice in and on Module 6 (G Chord Hacked).

The first 20 or so hours I was playing sitting on the edge of a futon and started getting neck and shoulder pain because I was leaning forward to peer at the guitar way too much. I moved to a hard chair with a back and have played there ever since.

I filmed myself yesterday just to keep a record for comparison later. This was my first time seeing myself play, and yikes. My position and posture looks off. Especially the way my right shoulder hunches up so much, but it won’t really drop with the way I’m holding the guitar. If I move the guitar closer to the center of my body, the cutaway is no longer on my thigh and then the neck dips down.

I filmed this quick clip this morning working through the app versions of Mad World (Tears for Fears) and Zombie (The Cranberries) to show.

Any tips? Also this is mainly a question about posture, but please feel free to roast my playing as well. I want honesty. (I know the G to D transition is often bad). Thanks!

Edit: added a second video, posture adjusted. This seems to fix the right shoulder but now my left tricep gets fatigued very quickly and fretting feels less natural. Does anything look wrong here, or is it just a matter of relearning what I’ve been doing incorrectly?

Take 2, adjusted position:

[sairfingers]

Hi Eoin and a warm welcome to the Community. You’ve come to the right place to learn guitar. Posture is a subject that often comes up in discussion. Do a forum search on the word posture and you’ll get a ton of opinions and advice.

[mattswain]

I see what you are saying about your posture but I’ve seen a lot worse. You are at least sat on something proper (not a bed or a sofa) and have a strap. That said if your strap is adjusted right it should counter the neck dive you mentioned when you tweak the position

For early in your journey the playing is good. Imperfect transitions are normal but most of yours sounded good. The real good thing was your rhythm, you kept that arm moving nicely throughout. Stick with it, you’re going in the right direction

[Rolandson]

Your right shoulder a little bit two high. Not much but still something that could make you problems in the future

[LadyOfTheCastle]

For not even two months in, your playing certainly sounds good.

As for your posture/technique: all your strumming motion comes from your wrist. You might want to try to get some movement from your forearm to prevent wrist problems.

[Prof_Thunder]

I thought the posture looks better on the 2nd video regarding the shoulders but as someone else mentioned all the strumming movement is from the wrist. Look at Justin’s videos of his forearm moving. I think it could make your drumming feel more relaxed and then you might relax your body more.

[AJSki2fly]

Hi Eoin

2nd video posture is better, I agree with what others have said. One thing a Guitar teacher advised me to use when sitting was one of these a Guitar Foot stand , there are loads on Amazon and not expensive, I use one all the time with it raising up my right leg under the guitar, I also have adjusted the strap so that if I stand up it is in the same position as when I am sitting, then the transition playing from to sitting to standing has less of an impact. It also give some support to the guitar when I am sitting.

I sit in a firm chair and try to keep my back straight and not slouch over the top of the guitar, and try to keep the neck of the guitar pointing upward slightly , probably around 15-20 degrees from horizontal. If you experiment with this you will notice that if it too low you have to bend your wrist back, too high and bend your wrist round into a C shape, neither are not great and as I understand it impedes playing, I think your left shoulder may be a little low as you are trying to adjust your poster to fit the position that the guitar has naturally settled on you leg, it also looks like the strap is giving little or no support to the guitar. If it is a web-mesh one these are notorious for slipping and not gripping, I have 3 straps and all are leather backed, the one I use most is a wider one with padding where it goes over the shoulder, DSL Guitar strap not cheap but the most comfortable I have ever had in 50 years, and it does not slip. there are cheaper without padding.

Hope this helps.

[Richard_close2u]

@Elo1638

Hello Eoin and welcome to JustinGuitar and the Community.

You have made a positive move to help yourself - when you think you have an issue, ask for help and if possible post a photo or recording. So bravo for that big first step.

You have already had some positive reinforcement that I will echo.
Sitting on a firm chair (no arms) and wearing a strap is all good.

As @AJSki2fly says, those straps are notorious for slipping so you would benefit from a suede style backed strap and adjusted to a shorter length so it actually does support the guitar’s weight. The guitar can still rest on your leg but the strap holds it there, at that height.

Forgive me being blunt - your man-spread isn’t helping. The guitar is on your left leg as most people recommend but your left leg is pushed over to the side and away from you, which means the guitar is also pushed away from you and is not in front of your mid-riff. This is causing several of your shoulder and arm problems. Bring your leg more in front and that will allow your strumming arm to be more relaxed. It will also place your pick-hand closer to the guitar bridge and not so close to the neck - where it should be for strumming most of the time.

Both @LadyOfTheCastle and @Prof_Thunder mention that you are using a lot of wrist for strumming. I actually advocate for using the wrist in strumming, a relaxed wrist. In the very early stages of the Beginner course, Justin does talk about moving the forearm and swinging it for the strumming action. I do see people take this too strictly and only move their forearm which, in the long-term, becomes a hard habit to break and their playing becomes stiff and robotic. So I definitely advocate a little forearm movement allied with a loose, relaxed wrist.
That said I definitely see an issue with the rotation of your wrist and it needs to be addressed and corrected sooner rather than later. You are rotating it so that you have a scooping movement of the pick from in to out then out to in.

The end of an upstrum & The end of a downstrum.

-

If you look at the knuckles on the back of your hand you can see how much ‘scoop’ your wrist is making. This is being caused by the position of your arm on the upper edge of the guitar body. It is simply resting on a small point of contact which renders it almost unable to move in an upwards and downwards arc. Your forearm needs to come around and lie almost flat against he front of the guitar body, hugging the contours.

Here are similar pics of my strumming motion.

-

Notice how my forearm has moved through an arc that ‘hugs’ the surface of the guitar body and the knuckles of my hand have rotated a little but only a little. The wrist movement, the arc it moves in, is in tandem with arc of the forearm.

I hope that helps.

[MadModMcd]

Welcome Eoin, this is definitely the forum for you to improve. Everything Richard has said above is spot on. Hope you enjoy.