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Post by Admin on Apr 30, 2013 10:33:14 GMT -5
Standing or Sitting
How do you play your guitar ?
If you asked most amateur guitarists whether they tend to sit or stand when they play, I bet most of them would say they sit. Sitting is all very well if you just play the guitar as a leisurely hobby a few times a week and have no real aspirations to take your music to a higher level, but if your goal is to join or start a decent band then you really need to start getting used to playing from a standing position. I don't know of a single professional guitar player outside of Jazz/Classical music that sits while performing.
If you do want to take your music to a semi or professional level at some , you need to at least add the standing positon to your playing habits sooner rather than later. How you hold your guitar will determine just how much muscle changes will be involved. The higher you hold it, the more strain will be placed on your wrist and lower arm muscles. Having your wrist bent at greater angles to get round the fingerboard means every chord, lick, run and bend you attempt will be much harder to achieve than it would be in a sitting position. But you will probably find you can play more accurately in this positon because the higher positons feel more comfortable.
But I suppose it doesn't look cool.
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Post by razzgospel on Apr 30, 2013 14:40:57 GMT -5
It depends, and my answer will be different than most folks on here because I have never played in a band, and I play guitar primarily for accompaniment. When I had my gospel quartet, We always stood up. I liked standing up because I could move more freely with the rhythm of the songs. Even when I do gospel on my own, as I do all the time now, I still perform standing up. I need to move, because the songs are very rhythmic. When I do folk, I more commony sit, because that's the way folkies like it. My performance is different in that many of the songs I do have a story behind them, and I may spend as much time telling the story as an introduction to the song as I do singing the song. I've done folk concerts standing up, and am comfortable with it, but in a smaller, more intimate setting where I'm carrying on a conversation with the audience, the stories and introductions feel more natual when I am sitting down.
Whatever works, depending on where I am. I tend to practice sitting, down out of habit from playing folk music most of my life.
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Post by steve on Apr 30, 2013 16:06:25 GMT -5
In the band I stand up and quite a lot of the time when practicing I do too. Like James, I feel that standing kind of frees the emotions a bit. Having said that, I played a solo acoustic gig last week and I sat down but I think I might try and stand up next time as it is better if you are singing.
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Post by razzgospel on Apr 30, 2013 20:43:03 GMT -5
8-)I had to smile tonight. I was watching a dvd of the benefit concert for ontserrat done many years ago. Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler sat down and did a duet on Layla, Whatever moves you at the moment. I had to smile tonight. I was watching a dvd of the benefit concert for ontserrat done many years ago. Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler sat down and did a duet on Layla, Whatever moves you at the moment. link
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Post by earleg on Apr 30, 2013 21:22:52 GMT -5
Do both, mostly just sit when more tired or playing along with tracks in the room I'm in right now. I try to keep forearm and wrists straight as possible so not to get strain. Think that was something gotten from Howard Roberts - in his 1971 - The Howard Roberts Guitar Book. Don't think it upped the talent meter much though. ;^P
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Post by muddylives on May 1, 2013 2:33:33 GMT -5
I play both ways, but standing when I'm on stage. It takes a truly GREAT guitar player to get away with sitting on stage.
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Post by sarge on May 2, 2013 22:37:22 GMT -5
Sitting. I need to find some sort of strap for my classical guitar so I can practice standing.
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Post by slapjaw on May 4, 2013 21:00:24 GMT -5
I stand. Find it easier to sing.
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