Guitar · Chapter 2 of 23

Holding the Guitar

A relaxed way of holding the guitar makes everything easier. Here is how to sit, where your hands go, and how to press a string so it rings.

There is more than one good way to hold a guitar. What they share: the guitar stays steady without your hands having to hold it up, your shoulders stay loose, and both hands can reach the strings easily.

Sitting

The usual way (folk and blues)

Sit near the front of a chair without arms, feet flat. Rest the guitar’s waist (the narrow middle of the body) on your right thigh. The body leans back only a little, so you can see the top of the neck without bending over it.

The classical way

Classical players rest the guitar on the left thigh, raised with a small footstool under the left foot (or a support on the guitar), so the neck points up at about 45°. It puts the left hand in an easy spot for the whole neck.

Standing

With a strap, set the guitar at about the same height as when you sit, so your hands find the same places.

In both sitting positions, your right forearm rests on the top edge of the body, and your right hand hangs over the sound hole. Your left hand holds nothing up: the guitar balances on your leg and arm.

The left hand: pressing a string

The fingers of the left hand are numbered: 1 index, 2 middle, 3 ring, 4 little finger. (The thumb is T, used only now and then.)

Your thumb rests behind the neck, roughly behind your middle finger. Don’t squeeze.
Press with the tip of the finger, curved, so it doesn’t touch the strings next to it.
Press just behind the fret (on the side nearer the headstock), not on top of it and not in the middle of the space. Close to the fret, a light press is enough.
Press only as hard as you need for a clear note. Try this: press lightly until the note buzzes, then a little more until it rings. That’s enough.

Press the 1st, 2nd and 3rd frets of string 1 below and listen to the notes get higher. On your guitar, try the same with fingers 1, 2 and 3.

The right hand

With a pick

A pick (plectrum) is a small plastic triangle. Hold it between the pad of your thumb and the side of your bent index finger, with only a little tip showing. Grip it just firmly enough that it doesn’t turn. Medium or thin picks are easiest for strumming.

With the fingers

For fingerpicking the right-hand fingers have letters from Spanish: p thumb (pulgar), i index (índice), m middle (medio), a ring (anular). The thumb plays the low strings; the fingers play the high ones. You will start this in chapter 14.

Left-handed players can play a guitar made or restrung for the left hand (strumming with the left, fretting with the right), or learn on a regular guitar. Both are fine. If you play left-handed, turn on the left-handed switch near the top of the page: chord diagrams and fretboards will be drawn as a mirror image. Wherever this course says “left hand”, read “fretting hand”; “right hand” means your strumming hand.

Looking after your hands

Your fingertips will feel tender for the first weeks; the skin toughens with regular practice. Play in short sessions, and:

warm up with a few easy notes before you play hard things,
take breaks, and shake your hands loose between pieces,
stop if anything hurts.

Sit with your guitar and check each one.

The guitar stays in place when I let go of the neck.
My shoulders are down and loose.
My left thumb rests behind the neck without squeezing.
I press with curved fingertips, just behind the fret.
A note on string 1, fret 3, rings clearly without buzzing.
I can hold a pick (or rest my thumb on string 6) over the sound hole.

Remember

The guitar balances on your leg and arm; the hands don’t hold it up.
Left-hand fingers 1 to 4; press with the tips, just behind the fret.
Right-hand fingers p i m a; or a pick between thumb and index finger.
Warm up, take breaks, stop if it hurts.