How to hold a guitar: sitting, standing and left-handed
The photos on this page come from Hal Leonard Guitar Method, Book 1, by Will Schmid and Greg Koch, and from its left-handed edition. The method sets the playing position before the first note, which is why we used it to show the hold step by step.
Method books teach how to hold a guitar before the first note, because the hold affects everything you play afterwards. A slouch, a tilted guitar or a fretting hand that props up the neck makes each new chord harder than it needs to be. Getting the position right takes about five minutes.
This guide shows how to hold a guitar sitting and standing, on a steel-string, an electric or a classical guitar. It covers the fretting hand, the strumming arm and the pick, the three ways to play left-handed, and a table of the usual mistakes with their fixes. One quick check runs through all of it: take the fretting hand off, and the guitar should stay where it is.
To hold a guitar, sit upright on a chair without armrests and rest the guitar’s waist on your right thigh (your left thigh if you play left-handed). Keep the body upright against your chest with the neck level or angled slightly up. Let your strumming forearm rest on the top edge so the guitar stays put without the fretting hand, and keep your fretting thumb behind the neck.
The quick check
Run these five points every time you sit down to play. After a week they take a few seconds.
- A firm chair without armrests, so the strumming elbow has room.
- The waist of the guitar on the thigh of your strumming side.
- The body of the guitar upright against your chest, never tilted back for a look at the strings.
- Your strumming forearm resting on the top edge of the body, so the guitar stays put when the fretting hand lets go.
- Your fretting thumb behind the neck, the palm clear of it.
Players and guitars differ in size and shape, so the details vary from person to person. Keep the five points above and adjust the rest until it feels comfortable.
The parts of the guitar you hold
The waist is the narrow middle of the body, the part that sits on your leg. The upper bout is the rounded half of the body nearest the neck, where the strumming forearm rests. The figure labels the other parts on a steel-string acoustic, a nylon-string classical and an electric guitar.
What each of those parts does, from the nut to the pickups, is explained in the guide to the parts of a guitar.
How to hold a guitar sitting down
Most beginners practice seated, and the casual position below is the one most steel-string and electric players use. It is also the position the first pages of most method books show.
Which leg the guitar sits on
Rest the guitar on the leg of the hand that strums. A right-handed player strums with the right hand, so the waist of the guitar sits on the right thigh and the neck points to the left. The thighs should be roughly level with the floor. If the guitar slides off, raise that thigh a little: put that foot on a footstool or the rung of a stool, or lay a rolled towel between the guitar and your leg. Some players cross the strumming-side leg over the other instead, which lifts the guitar in the same way.
In the photo, the guitar’s waist sits on the player’s right thigh and his right foot rests on the stool’s rung, which lifts that thigh. His back is straight and the neck points slightly up.
The angle of the body and the neck
Keep the body of the guitar as close to vertical as you can, with its back against your chest and stomach. The urge to tilt the top up to watch the strings is strong in the first weeks, and it pulls the wrist into a bend that makes every chord harder. Lean your head forward to look instead, or glance down past the edge.
The neck points level or slightly up, anywhere from parallel to the floor to about 45 degrees, and never down. A neck that drops makes the fretting arm reach and the wrist collapse. Sit straight, without stiffening, with your weight even on both sides of the chair.
The let-go test
Take your fretting hand off the neck. The guitar should stay where it is, held between your thigh, your chest and the forearm resting on the upper bout. If the neck drops or the guitar slides, the fretting hand has been holding it up, and that hand needs to be free to move. Adjust the thigh height or the forearm until the guitar balances on its own, then put the hand back.
The classical position
Classical guitarists hold the guitar on the other leg. The waist of the guitar sits on the left thigh for a right-handed player, and the left foot rests on a footstool about six inches high. The guitar then angles up so the head sits at about the height of your shoulder. Sit near the front edge of the chair so the guitar’s lower bout clears the seat. A guitar support that attaches to the side of the instrument does the footstool’s job and lets both feet stay flat.
Choose the classical position for a nylon-string classical guitar, for music that climbs the neck to the high frets, and if your shoulder or back aches in the casual hold. It brings the fretboard closer to the fretting hand, which helps shorter players and anyone whose arm has to reach in the casual position.
How to hold a guitar standing up
Standing needs a strap, and most of the work is setting its length. Set it so the guitar sits at about the height it sat at when you were seated, with the fretting wrist fairly straight. A strap worn long makes the fretting wrist bend sharply; one that is too short pushes the strumming elbow up. If you will perform standing, practice standing too, since a guitar sits a little differently on a strap than on your leg.
The photo shows the same player standing with an electric guitar on a strap. The body sits around his waist, the neck points slightly up and his fretting wrist stays almost straight.
The fretting hand
Guitarists number the fretting fingers 1 to 4, from index finger to little finger; the thumb has no number, unlike on the piano. Place the thumb on the back of the neck roughly opposite your second finger, and arch the fingers so they come down on the strings with their tips. Press just behind the fret, the metal bar, rather than on top of it or in the middle of the space, and the note rings with the least pressure.
Keep the palm clear of the neck. Gripping the neck like a baseball bat, with the palm pressed against the back, flattens the fingers so they touch strings they should not. Later, some chords and bends ask you to bring the thumb over the top of the neck; learn the thumb-behind position first, since every early chord relies on it.
Seen from the front, the fingers come down on their tips while the thumb stays out of sight behind the neck.
The first chord to try the hand on is E minor: two fingers on the second fret and every string ringing.
The strumming hand and how to hold a guitar pick
Rest the strumming forearm on the upper bout, the elbow pointing toward the top corner of the body. The hand then hangs over the sound hole on an acoustic, or over the pickups on an electric, without reaching. The forearm carries part of the guitar’s weight, which is what passes the let-go test.
How to hold a pick
Curl your index finger loosely, lay the pick flat on the side of its first joint, and close the pad of your thumb on top. A small tip of the pick shows past the thumb, a few millimeters. The pick points at about a right angle to your thumb. Hold it lightly, just firm enough that it does not spin as it crosses the strings.
In the photo, the pick sits between the thumb pad and the side of the index finger, with only the tip showing below them.
Let the wrist make most of the motion, with the elbow staying fairly still. A thin pick bends as it crosses the strings, which suits strumming chords; a thicker one stays stiff, which suits picking single notes. Start with a thin or medium pick for the first chords. Once the grip feels natural, the patterns in guitar strumming patterns put it to work, one rhythm at a time.
How to hold a guitar left-handed
A left-handed player usually strums with the left hand and frets with the right. Everything above flips: the waist of the guitar sits on the left thigh and the neck points to the right. There are three ways to get there. Choose in the first month, before the hands settle into one of them.
- A left-handed guitar. Built mirror image, with the strings in the usual order for a left-hander: the thickest string, the 6th, nearest the ceiling. Chord diagrams and tab drawn for left-handers match it directly. The choice in shops is smaller and the price sometimes higher.
- A right-handed guitar, restrung. Turn it over and string it in reverse so the thickest string is again on top. The nut, the small slotted bar at the head, has to be recut or replaced for the new string order, and the pick guard ends up above the strings.
- A right-handed guitar played flipped. Turn it over and keep the strings as they are, so the thinnest string sits on top. It costs nothing. In exchange, every chord chart and lesson has to be read upside down.
Some left-handers learn right-handed from the start, since both hands are new to the guitar either way. Try both in a shop and pick the one that feels less strange. The guitar string names page shows the string order that every chord chart assumes.
The left-handed edition of the Hal Leonard method prints its playing-position page for left-handers: the seated position on the left thigh and the standing position on a strap.
The same book shows the hands from close up. On a left-handed guitar the right hand frets, with its fingers numbered 1 to 4, and the left hand holds the pick.
A method written for left-handers saves you from mirroring every photo and diagram in your head. The left-handed edition of Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1 is the same course as the standard book, with its photos and diagrams drawn for a left-handed player.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Each of these habits shows up as a specific ache or a specific sound, which makes it easy to spot.
| Mistake | What it causes | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Slouching over the guitar | An aching upper back and shoulders after twenty minutes; the strumming arm loses its rest on the upper bout | Sit tall on the front half of the chair and bring the guitar to you, raising the thigh with a footstool if needed |
| Tilting the top up to see the strings | A bent fretting wrist, fingers that cannot arch, chords that buzz | Keep the body vertical and lean your head forward to look; use the fret dots on the edge of the neck as landmarks |
| The fretting hand holding the neck up | A tired, tense hand and slow chord changes, since the hand cannot move without the neck dropping | Run the let-go test and adjust the thigh height or the forearm until the guitar balances without the hand |
| The palm pressed against the back of the neck | Flat fingers that mute the strings next to them | Move the thumb to the middle of the back of the neck, opposite the second finger, and leave a gap under the palm |
| Gripping the pick or the neck too hard | Sore hands, a harsh strum, a pick that sticks in the strings | Press only as hard as the note needs: lighten the grip until the note buzzes, then add a little |
| A strap worn too long | A sharply bent fretting wrist when standing; chords that work seated fall apart | Shorten the strap until the guitar sits where it sat on your leg |
| The neck pointing down | An arm that reaches for the first frets and a wrist that collapses | Angle the neck level or up, anywhere up to about 45 degrees |
Any pain that stays after you stop playing is a reason to rest and check the hold with a teacher. Tension is usually the cause, and a teacher sees it in a minute.
Practice the position from day one
Start every session the same way. Tune the guitar first, since a guitar that is out of tune makes good technique sound wrong. Then run the quick check and the let-go test, and play one chord: E minor, four slow downstrokes. Watch that the body stays upright and the fretting thumb stays behind the neck. When E minor rings, add a second chord and move between the two. A song like “A Horse with No Name” by America rocks between E minor and one other shape, so the hold gets a real song to settle into.
After the first chord, a method book adds notes, chords and rhythm one at a time. Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1 starts with tuning and the playing position, then builds the first notes, the first chords and strumming, for acoustic or electric guitar. The first months of learning guitar follow the same order.
Frequently asked questions
Which leg do you put a guitar on?
In the casual position, the leg of your strumming hand: the right thigh for a right-handed player, the left thigh for a left-handed player. In the classical position the guitar sits on the other leg, the left thigh for a right-hander, with that foot raised on a footstool.
How do you hold a guitar pick correctly?
Lay the pick on the side of your curled index finger, close the thumb pad on top, and let a small tip show past the thumb. Hold it lightly, at about a right angle to the thumb, and move from the wrist rather than the elbow. A thin pick suits strumming; a thicker one suits single notes.
Should a beginner use the classical position?
Yes, on a nylon-string classical guitar, or if the casual position hurts your back or shoulder. On a steel-string or an electric guitar most beginners start in the casual position, and both work as long as the guitar stays upright and balances without the fretting hand.
How do you hold a guitar left-handed?
Mirror everything: the guitar’s waist on the left thigh, the neck pointing right, the left hand strumming and the right hand fretting. Play a left-handed guitar, restring a right-handed one in reverse with the nut recut, or play a right-handed guitar flipped and read every chart upside down.
How should a child hold a guitar?
The same way as an adult, on a guitar sized to the child, usually a half or three-quarter size. A footstool under the strumming-side foot helps when the legs are short. The guide to guitar for kids covers sizes by age and the first chords.
Before your first chord
The guitar sits on your strumming-side thigh, upright against your chest with the neck level or a little up, and your forearm holds it so the fretting hand is free. Check that with the let-go test every session for the first month. Then tune up and play your first chord.
With the hold in place, Hal Leonard Guitar Method, Book 1 moves straight on to the first notes, chords and strums, for acoustic or electric guitar.
View scores on MuseScore
Rate this article
Be the first to rate this article