How to hold the guitar correctly?

For novice guitarists, it is important to choose the right type of fit with the instrument, because the position of the hands, and the convenience of the game, and the success of the beginner in training depend on it.

You need to understand for yourself a very important point: play all types of guitars related to acoustic instruments (classical, flamenco, dreadnought, folk-western), "By default" should be sitting... And they learn this uniquely in one position - on a chair.

This is the position preferred by musicians playing a classical instrument with nylon strings.... She is also taught to students of music schools in this direction of the guitar.

Sit on the edge of a chair of a suitable height... The height of the chair should be such that when sitting on it (the feet are completely and evenly spaced on the supporting surface), the hip lines are parallel to the floor. Not ideal, of course, parallel, but with minimal angle divergence up or down.

A stand must be installed under the left foot of a right-handed person. height from 12 to 20 cm, which depends on the preferences of the musician, his anatomical features and the height of the chair on which he sits.

Stand provides a lift for the guitarist's knee higher and thus prevents the involuntary displacement of the tool body along the thigh downward.The position initially accepted by the musician and the convenience of playing are preserved. When there are no suitable chairs, and the available ones are either too low or high, then you can temporarily get by with the following: on low ones - without a support for the left leg, on high ones - with a support (raise it higher).

The left leg is only slightly retracted to the left side from the axis of the body direction of the guitarist forward, forming an angle with the axis of the left shoulder slightly less than a straight one, and the right leg is retracted much further from the axis of the body forward - it creates an angle of about 45 degrees with the axis of the right shoulder (see diagram below).

The guitarist's body should be straightened, have no tension.

The guitar in the classical setting is placed with its notch on the left thigh... The lower part of the body is between the legs, and headstock rises to shoulder level... The surfaces of the instrument decks are ideally located in an upright position - without tilting to either side.

The features of such a landing are as follows:

• the guitar is conveniently and securely fixed at several points: at the location of the right hand in the upper part of the body, on the thigh of the left leg, at the point of contact with the musician’s chest and partially supported by the inner thigh of the right leg, against which the body rests;
• high neck lift provides easy access to all frets for clamping the strings with the fingers of the left hand, facilitates the already difficult (unnatural, inverted) position of her hand - the higher the neck, the less the degree of "inversion" of the forearm and hand;
• the extended position of the legs does not impede blood flow in the groin area of ​​a person and legs, which allows you to engage in training or play music for a long time.

The classic fit is suitable for all acoustic guitarists of all styles.

For women, this fit is also suitable for home activities.... If you have to play the guitar in the presence of people, then you will need to take care of the appropriate clothing in advance - choose trousers, shorts or ankle-length loose dress. At concerts, women most often play in floor-length dresses.

An option for guitarists when playing can be the following landing: the left leg is also on a stand, and the right leg is set aside, but not to the side, but under itself (knee down, with a foot back - on the toe). In this case, a dress or skirt, even of medium length, is quite suitable.

Special knee support for a more comfortable guitar playing can also be a great addition to the female fit.

Musicians playing steel-string acoustic guitars sit differently with the instrument, but the basic positions can still be distinguished.

• Landing "foot to foot"... For some reason, women especially love this fit. Men like it, but most likely they realize that it is better not to abuse this position for the male half of humanity, so as not to harm their health. With this landing, one leg is thrown over the other, and on its thigh, which turns out to be raised, the guitar is quite conveniently placed with the body recess. Better if you swing the right leg over the left, as this option allows the bar to be lifted higher. If the left leg is thrown over, then raising the bar is problematic: the thigh of the right prevents lowering the body of the instrument, thereby limiting the rise of the bar.

• On the thigh of the right leg... This fit is used the most. For fingerstyle guitarists, it is the main stance along with the “toe-to-toe” position. Sometimes a support of a small height is installed under the right leg for better fixation of the instrument.

In the first lessons, simultaneously with the landing, beginner guitarists are taught the rules for placing the right hand on the instrument, and her fingers on the strings. Correct fit with the instrument is inseparable from setting the right hand.as it is one of the two main anchor points for the guitar. First point - this is the lower support of the tool on the thigh of the leg, second - upper body support with the forearm of the right hand.

For any kind of fit after placing the guitar on the thigh of the selected leg the guitarist holds the body with his right hand by placing his forearm on its most convex part at the place of the rib formed by the top deck and the shell:

Especially noteworthy are the following points in the setting of the right hand.

1. The place of contact of the forearm with the body of the guitar - just below the elbow bend... The distance is influenced by the size of the instrument and the features of the structure of the hands. On average, it is 6-10 cm below the elbow. But this value can change during the game, which depends on the nature of the composition, the techniques used and the strokes performed. It is even possible to move or completely remove the forearm from the instrument (performing artificial harmonics, changing the timbre of the sound, and so on).
2. The weight of the hand cannot be completely transferred to the point where the forearm touches the guitar.... The musician's hand should be felt as one whole - from shoulder to fingertips. If the weight of the hand is transferred to the body of the instrument, then the so-called "effect of a broken arm" occurs (the forearm and hand are separated from the shoulder), and this is bad for the performer.
3. Forearm and hand line with fingers for the same reason as in the previous paragraph (excluding the "effect of a broken arm"), should be straight. A common mistake for the vast majority of beginners is placing the palm across the strings:

All that remains is to place your fingers correctly on the strings. It needs to be done like this:

• thumb placed on one of the bass strings (top three);
• pointing - on the third from the bottom;
• average - to the second from the bottom;
• nameless - on the thinnest (first) string.
• little finger remains idle, so it just rises slightly above the strings without touching them.

In this case, the shape of the hand should be rounded, curved to the outside at the wrist joint:

The guitarist is now ready to play open strings with his right hand.

The left hand can begin to be played after the right hand learns to correctly extract sounds from the strings, play a few brute force (arpeggios), and the future guitarist himself feels comfortable at the instrument.

The position of the left hand on the guitar neck is called the playing position of the index finger.: if he squeezes the string at the 1st fret, then the hand is in the first position, if at the V fret, then in the 5th. In that case, when the index finger does not participate in pressing the chord or sounds, then the position is considered the fret on which it could be... All four playing fingers can simultaneously be positioned on four adjacent frets, therefore, the conditional location of the index finger (and position) should be considered from here.

Left hand finger placement rules can be indicated by the following items.

• The thumb is placed on the back of the bar strictly across it. The top of the toe is just above the middle longitudinal axis of the neck.
• The lower the hand position (by fret number), the further the elbow moves away from the guitarist's body. This will make it possible to reduce the angle of rotation of the left hand.
• The hand and fingers should be on the front of the neck. The fingers are placed "above" or "on" the strings.
• The strings are clamped in the middle of the finger pads from the end side.
• The last phalanx of the finger is perpendicular to the plane of the neck when the string is pressed.
• The brush is rounded.

The place where the strings are pressed is in the middle of the fret (between the frets) or closer to the higher fret (from the side of the guitar body).

Fight is certain rhythmic and harmonic patterns of guitar accompaniment: Alternating chords to match the key of the song and various strumming and body striking techniques that further enhance the effect by simulating some percussion instruments (kick, snare, cymbals). To a large extent, all of the above is done by the guitarist's right hand..

When performing simple types of combat ("four», «six», «eight") With plugs the main skill lies in the clear keeping of the rhythm and accurate chord transitions... There are no special changes in the rules for staging and holding the guitar: the left hand clamps the chords in different positions, the right one strikes the strings at a given tempo, muffles them in the right places solely due to relaxed wrist movements, without changing its staging in any way.

For standing play, you need to purchase special beltsfor which electric guitars, semi-acoustic guitars and some models of acoustic guitars with metal strings have fastening devices.

It is not accepted to play classical guitars while standing.so they don't have a belt clip.

Any belt model is adjustable in size, so the game becomes comfortable even while standing. Everything else - the positions of the hands and the neck of the guitar - does not change.