The other part of my solution was to get a standing desk for the days that I work from home. I don’t always stand when I work at it, but I do tend to have it at height that’s a bit higher than my desk in the office is. At my home desk I sit on a stool that has no backrest and is, by design, unstable, which makes me use my core. The upright moves by up to about 10 degrees in any direction. I’m sure this all helps me avoid the hunched forward position that is common when working at a laptop.
In my opinion, most office chairs, including ones that claim to be ergonomic aren’t fit for purpose. If you spend enough time in one, you will end up with postural problems
Don’t call it lazy. Even with motivation and good guidance, it takes many months or even years to get to where you can play with ease and comfort. Practice and pay attention to details. Do some stretching when you get sore.
I would certainly agree about the couch/chair dichotomy! Currently trying out a large (ish) footstool. Basically move and listen to your body instead of ignoring it.
Not one of them exactly but very much the same idea - I can play guitar on it but usually I don’t. Maybe I’ll upload my next video of me playing on it for a laugh, might give anyone who watches motion sickness
Even if you try to follow the sort of advice that corporate HR divisions dish out you’d likely end up in the same place, just it takes a bit longer - from their point of view, hopefully long enough that you can’t sue them for giving you long term health problems!
I have lower back issues too, and can fully empathise
This, I reckon by far, is the JG lesson that pushed me the furthest along my (beginner) guitar journey thus far. Before that, I couldn’t practice for any more than ~30 minutes without being in pain. Not only could I not practice much, the physical discomfort (even before it becomes pain) just kills whatever enjoyment there is coming out of the guitar. Anyway, I really hope you can find a solution that works for you.
The other thing I do is to alternate between standing and sitting. I try to do all my song practice standing, which I insert into my practice routine between blocks of sitting down doing other technical practice / scales / learning a new riff / etc. This really helps massively.
I’ll try this, I’m having back pain and I’m worried. Recently I’ve been playing on my sofa and not on my bed (which I think also gives me bad posture).
Sofas are made for slouching. Slouching is hard in the back. A good chair that promotes good posture is essential for guitar playing as well as work/computer stations. Google desk ergonomics and apply to your guitar playing. Some classical guitar websites also have great information on guitar ergonomics.
If you need to sit on a soft chair, couch or bed to play, sit at the edge with your feet flat in the floor so you can have decent posture.
I think I’m almost there, I’m trying to get no back pain when playing. I get better results when I’m sitting straight, legs at about 90° degree (I don’t know if sofa, bed or any other accent (or it’s called sit?) makes difference). I think I’ll need the strap to get the guitar higher.
I too have lower back pain if I practice too long. For me it was hunching over to look at my fretting hand. My fix was to stand up for at least half of my practice time, or use a bar stool. Your legs should angle down so your lower back is straight and your hip bone does not rotate. The only down side to standing up is you can’t see your fretting hand very well.
That is not a down side, there is a huge benefit in playing without watching your hand(s) all the time. I actually like standing up as it forces me not to look as often as I do when sitting.
Agreed. If you’re concerned about posture then playing/practicing with your head pointed/tilted towards the fretboard is a bad thing.
Learn to play without looking or at least not looking often or constantly. You shouldn’t need to look to move between cowboy chords or to move up/down a fret or two. Sure it will suck for a while but your body will thank you for it
I’m still on the journey to play without pain. The luthier put the second pin on my guitar and I put the strap on. It’s no longer on the headstock. I don’t know if it will help much in my journey to discover how to play guitar without back pain, but I prefer it this way.
I play more and more standing up. I also stand up at work when working at the computer. I find it much better. I have been suffering from a pain in the left part of the back just below the shoulder blades. I think it arose from a combination of bad posture when sitting, too much leaning over looking at the fretboard and also too much tension in my left hand from pressing my fingers down too hard on the strings. It hasn’t cured the pain completely, but it does mean I can play longer. However, thats when you discover that some guitars are more comfortable than others due to weight and balance. Once of my teles feels very heavy. My Yamaha Pacifica Standard Plus is the best - not too heavy and perfectly balanced - I think they really thought about ergonomics on that guitar.
