Stand Up Lesson on JustinGuitar

If you plan to play in both positions, you should also practice in both positions. After I reached the lesson that Justin has about practicing while standing, I just started switching between standing and sitting during my practice sessions. 1st practice item while standing, 2nd item sitting, etc. then swap them the next time.

The benefit is, my feet get equally as tired as my butt that way LOL!

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For no apparent reason, when I first started, I did lessons and drills sitting, played songs standing (electric guitar.) When I added an acoustic, I found playing standing to be difficult, so I played it sitting. Thatā€™s still my practice: lessons, drills, and acoustic sitting, songs on electric standing.

I was bothered by not playing acoustic standing until it was pointed out that some very good guitarists, like Clapton and Bonamassa, sit down when the acoustic comes out.

Since I never ā€œperform,ā€ I just did whatā€™s comfortable and works best for me.

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Hey Tony,

Like most (I should edit this to read ā€˜manyā€™) of us, I started playing sitting down. I came to Justinā€™s lesson on playing standing (Grade 2, Module 14) and gave it a try. I definitely noticed the challenges posed to both left and right hands from the different position, so practicing in both positions made sense: I figured Iā€™d gain more flexibility and control in forming chords playing both ways. Still I found myself mostly sitting.

I became irritated that the guitar strap flopped around when I was sitting. Iā€™m 5ā€™3", and the guidance about adjusting your strap so there are 1-2 inches between the bottom of the guitar and your lap just doesnā€™t work for me. Additionally, I find electric guitars are more difficult to hold without a strap, while sitting, than acoustics (they are heavy, and the body geometry is just all different). All to say: I play mostly standing up now, but do practice sitting probably 20% of the time because, well, Iā€™ll need to do that some times! Iā€™ve been doing this for only about 2 months now.

Interesting, your question about whether there are benefitsā€¦I suppose like so many things on this journey, much depends on the individual!

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I always do the lessons while sitting, but I just started to practice playing songs while standing. Itā€™s challenging after sitting while playing for so long, but Iā€™m starting to enjoy it! After adjusting the strap a few times, I found a comfortable playing position. I find have better playing posture while standing. Plus, I canā€™t see my fretting hand as easily and Iā€™m forced to change chords without looking. I also like to roam around the room a bit while playing. I thought it would help if I looked at my fretting hand in the mirror, but itā€™s more confusing! Interesting to see my hand from a different angle though. Somehow standing while playing makes me feel like a ā€œrealā€ performer :grinning:

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Its good to practice standing up also , but not vital if you never really plan on performing.

I have a goal to perform live at least one song at some point in my life, not sure how thatā€™ll happen butā€¦. Haha itā€™ll be fun achieving that

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Nice! It takes a bit to learn to play standing up, dont try with the guitar too low and make sure its at an angle not flat.

Same as many others, began sitting, decided I should learn playing standing, found it challenging for a bit till I got to use to it, but now comfortable with both. In general though I still practice sitting much more than standing as I interact with my computer a lot, so that is typically much easier when seated :wink:
But in agreement with others, I think itā€™s important to learn both, as even if you donā€™t intend to perform, you never know if you could find yourself in a position to play with others or perhaps do an impromptu performance for family/friends so having standing as an option would surely be useful :slight_smile:

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Sitting, standing, lying down, slouching whatever it all helps your connection to the guitar

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I always practice sitting down :blush:, but I know standing is much better for your health
Greetings

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I always practice standing up, but for a different reason to the others :wink: I do it for health reasons. I found that I sit for a lot of the day and standing up to play the guitar is good for posture, and it burns more calories, which is always good for an old overweight person like me. I also find that is now more comfortable than trying to play sitting down. I play Electric not acoustic.

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that a good point, I also spend a lot of my time sitting (work from home IT guy) so I suppose there could be a health benefit as well

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Like many others, I initially started sitting down. Once I got to the lesson in the beginners course on standing, I started trying to stand from time to time. Now I almost always play standing. I do have times where I will sit- like when I am in the initial phase of learning a new song or technique. But once I have a song down enough to be comfortable playing it most of the way through, I much prefer standing.

My ultimate goal is to be able to play live as part of a band, so learning to play while standing was important to me. If someone does not want to play live, playing while standing may not be as important to them. Overall, I think the choice to stand or sit just depends on what your goal is with the guitar and what is comfortable for you, while taking into consideration any physical limitations you may have.

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I normally play only sitting. But when I practiced for a big live event (it was actually an attempt for a world record by building the largest rock band in the world), I didnā€™t want to be the only person with an electric guitar sitting on a stool. So I learnt to play standing within 3 days :see_no_evil:.
The most important thing was to raise up the neck of my guitar a fair bit (I hope this explanation makes sense :thinking:), and to have the strap tightened. This worked surprisingly well.

The next step will be to try it as well when playing on my acoustic :grin:.

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I started playing sitting down holding my guitar in a classical position. This proved problematic when I wanted to play standing up so I changed my sitting down position to similar to what Justin does in his lessons.

This made standing up when I wanted to a lot easier but still not exactly the same. I like to play standing up when doing open mics and such and in prep for those I do plenty of rehearsing standing up.

Mostly I prefer to play sitting down on my sofa and thatā€™s the majority of how I play. Lately Iā€™ve been doing my open mics and other public performances sitting down so will be sticking with that for the foreseeable future.

Standing up while playing is great (and doing in front of a mirror also helps you see what others see when you are playing).

So as you can see Iā€™ve done both. :slight_smile:

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