How to Play Electric Guitars: Lesson Two - Holding the Electric Guitar

What you need is an armless chair. Take a seat, make yourself comfortable, but ensure that your back is against the back of the chair. How do you hold your electric guitar? It's simple. Just ensure that the back of the body of the guitar comes in contact with your chest or stomach. The bottom of the neck should run parallel to the floor. So the thickest string (low E) should be closest to your face while the thinnest string (high E) should be closest to the floor. Hope you're not holding that guitar upside down. If you are just turn it in the other direction.

Are you a left handed player? If so you obviously need a left-handed electric guitar. And in that case the headstock will point to the right. On regular electric guitars (right-handed), the headstock points to the left.

How to play electric guitars - sitting

If you're sitting down, the body of your electric guitar will rest on one of your legs. Typically, a right handed player will rest the guitar on the right leg while a lefty will rest the guitar on the left leg.

(Please note that this posture doesn't apply to classical guitarists. Right handed classical players typically rest the guitar on their left thigh and maintain the instrument's neck at a 45 degree angle to the ground.)

How to play electric guitars - standing

Maybe you want to stand up with your guitar. You will need a shoulder strap. Put the strap over your head and put your right arm through the strap. The weight of the instrument should be across the upper-right area of your back. I'd suggest setting the strap so the guitar hangs at the same height as it would when you are sitting down. The bridge should be at roughly waist height. It's easier to play the instrument at this position. For now, don't worry about what you see your favorite stars doing - later on you can adjust the instrument to your personal preferences. That is when you become a better player.

I hope you're with me... You are? Ok. Let's proceed with our lesson on how to play electric guitars - holding the electric guitar.

Let's now talk about the fretting hand. It's the hand used to hold down the chords (or the notes if you prefer). It's the hand on the neck of your electric guitar. If you are a right hand player, it's your left hand. It's the opposite for a lefty. You should rest your thumb behind the neck of the guitar and curl your fingers at the knuckles over the strings.

Here are the lessons I recommend for learning how to play guitar.

Further Reading: