Day 32/60: Get Comfortable Sitting & Practicing The Guitar

Your Sitting Position Matters

It is day 32 of my 60-day cleanse to help myself heal. I share a video live on Facebook daily to keep in check with everyone. I appreciate your support on this journey. If this is the first post of the series you are reading, you can know more about my healing cleanse through other blog posts HERE.

Today, I have some exciting information on how to sit for my guitarist friends. Hey, wait! Even if you are not a musician, it is still beneficial for you. Sometimes, you might have to sit for hours, due to either work or anything else. In such cases, your position is important.

What is the Right Position to Play the Guitar?

I see my many music friends becoming so lost in practicing the guitar that they hunch and fold themselves over the instrument. It would have been fine if they did it for a couple of minutes or so. But staying in this position for long practice hours is not recommended!

To your surprise, there are no particular right or wrong labels to attach to your sitting positions. I prefer using a comfort scale to label instead where 1 is the most comfort and 10 is the least comfortable and the most strain. Most players never think about this and just play in any position that suits them and that is a huge mistake. The way the guitar is shaped dictates that you’re more likely to fold your body over the instrument creating a position of more strain. Folding over is the rounding of the entire spine. If we multiply this position times hours of this position, we are looking at many health disorders down the way.

Due to this important point, it bodes a reminder. You can play the guitar in any position, but understand that a certain amount of strain is present in every posture. Ideally, when you sit in an upright posture and not folding over the guitar, your back muscles would not strain. Upright position also increases your audience engagement.

Be Upright and Engage Movement

So alignment is one consideration so your skeleton can support you with less strain, and then here’s the kicker… MOVEMENT! Everything you do with your body equates to a feeling and that feeling is derived from how you hold or don’t hold yourself. Yes, don’t hold yourself is where movement comes in. Why? Because holding raises up your comfort level to more strain, and if we induce movement in our postures your comfort level will increase. To observe yourself with your best alignment and then engage movement… Ah that’s what we aim for. So, how do we do this?

See Yourself while Practicing!

We do it first by awareness through observation as you sit and play. I encourage all the musicians to look at themselves either in the phone camera or a mirror while sitting in an upright posture without holding that position. I encourage all the musicians to look at themselves either in the phone camera or a mirror while sitting in an upright posture and practicing the guitar. Feel your body light with movements flowing gently like gentle waves against the shore. You can see that there’s a lot to consider, especially if your body position folds over the guitar.

Best Exercise Program for the Musician

How can you learn all the important details of how to play with the most comfort and power? I am launching a new course soon, the BEST EXERCISE PROGRAM FOR THE MUSICIAN. This musician wellness course will have all the details on how to take better care of yourself as a musician.