What You Need to Know About Good Posture

I started my YouTube channel 10 years ago with a simple video about how to sit with the guitar so your fret hand doesn't hurt while playing. That video has gone on to get more than 168,000 views. 

That's a pretty modest number by YouTube standards but it shows that a lot of guitarists struggle with this issue. That's why I talk about this stuff all the time.

So why is good posture so important?

First, it's important to know that good posture alone may not solve the issues. Hand orientation and technique are also factors. But...

Good posture creates the framework that allows proper hand orientation and technique.

When using good posture in your guitar playing, a lot of muscles in your upper body engage a little bit to provide stability--your body's ability to stay balanced. That stability allows you to rest the guitar on your lap or hang it off your shoulder with a minimum amount of effort and little to no strain. 

This allows your arms the maximum amount of mobility--the ability to move your joints and muscles easily--to orient your hands around the guitar. Why? Because you're not leaning on them to hold up yourself or the guitar. Your arms are now free to orient your hands anywhere on the instrument. 

These two conditions (stability and mobility) can prevent tension throughout your body. No one muscle group needs to work too hard, and you have plenty of room to move. That lack of tension is a contributing factor to good flexibility, which is the ability of a muscle to stretch. 

Your muscles can't stretch if they're tensing up compensating for bad posture.

So to sum this up:

1. Good posture creates the condition of stability, which is the ablity to stay balanced. 
2. That stability allows for greater mobility, which is ease of motion.
3. The two together can prevent tension and allow for flexibility, which is the ability of the muscles to stretch.
4. Incorporating all of this should reduce fatigue and make guitar easier (and more fun) to play.

Of course, I'm a guitar player, not a doctor. I'm just providing information as I learned it. If you've got a real issue with pain, seek out an actual doctor. This is not medical advice. 

That said, I want to give you one more thing to consider. 

Your favorite players may not be good examples of good technique in this area.

Mine weren't. Even Steve Vai admitted recently to needing back AND neck surgery to correct posture issues that developed in his early days of playing guitar. 

If you're serious about your guitar playing, you should be serious about your posture. It can't hurt.