Hey, how are you doing? Justin here.
Today we're gonna talk about playing guitar standing up. Something that I get
asked about often, like how to do the transition and what's difficult
and can you make it a easier and that kind of thing. To start off I want
to talk about what makes it so different when you stand up and then I'm gonna
take you through a bunch of tips to help solve problems.
And the first one it becomes very obvious the first time you stand up to
play guitar, it's the neck all wobbly. When you sit down it's resting
on your leg there and you got your arm kind of resting on the guitar there. Sure
you've got a strap but the neck is definitely gonna feel a lot more loose
when you stand up for the first time. And that can be a kind of a good thing but
it's also it could be a little bit disconcerting. The other thing that's
weird is the angle of the neck compared to your eyes. So a lot of people,
particularly beginners they tend to kind of have the guitar lean over a bit when
they're sitting down there. They're looking at their fingers a bit more.
You can't do that when you're standing up without I mean you can kind of press
it in like that but it becomes really awkward and your craning your neck and
aside from kind of looking weird it's just, it's not a good form. You crank
the neck around like that it's going to screw the angle of your wrist. There's
lots of reasons why that is a bad idea. It will force you to become more relying
on the side of the neck markers rather than the front. So if you're used to
looking at the 3rd fret, 5th fret, 7th fret markers on the front, when you're
standing up you won't be able to do that so much, you will be more relying on the
top. It is quite a different perspective really and it's something that you'll find
it's something that you'll probably find takes practice. Like again
everything else on the guitar it's about doing it here, I'm just
trying to give you as many tips as I can to get you going. Now the other thing
that changes a bit is the way your thumb sits. So when it sits around the back a
lot, if you're standing up and the guitar is in a different angle it will feel
different. For most people it feels a bit more confortable to have the thumb
hanging around over the top and I, I kind of wonder if most of the people
that play standing up most of the time tend to develop with the thumb over
the top more than people who learn alot more sitting down. I found putting the
thumb over the top quite difficult on my journey even though I was giging from
quite a young age and did a lot of playing standing up in order to practice it. But
that's again that's something you'll definitely notice. There's also the
different, not just in the guitar but in the way you move will be different as
well. So just taping your foot, if you, especially taping your toe feels really
awkward when you're standing up, it will make the muscle in your shin feel
pretty tight. If you stamp your foot you'll probably find that your body moves
more. I tend to step side to side when I play, I have this kind of like a sway
going on, which is kind of my way of taping the foot and keeping my body
moving in time. I mean they're a few guys that kind of dance, dance while
they play. That doesn't kind of work for me. But it's one of those things that's
going to feel different as soon as you start. You don't want to be super rigid
and playing because it will look weird and it will feel weird, it won't feel
relax. You want it to feel loose and cool. That stuff, you know, the importance of
it feeling good to you, you know. It can't be underestimated. it's really,
really important that you feel that. So let's get into my top 10 tips for
learning to play guitar standing up. And the first one, I'm making myself out
to be a complete hyprocrite here, is to get strap locks. Now, I already
mentioned that this isn't the strap that I usually use. All of my straps
except this one have strap locks fitted on them. They're are a few different brands
the Schaller ones are really good, D'Addario make one but basically you want
something on there so it will not fall off. You can also use Grolsh the little
red, the little red seals of bottles of Grolsh beer that way you get a free beer
with a strap lock, which is definitely a top bargain. I've got a video all about
this as well, it's a specific video but definitely you want something there
so that the strap doesn't fall off. It is as simple as, if you sat down, if your
strap's loose and your strap turns around the wrong way so it's kind of upside
down and then you stand up and you've got a heavy guitar, it's that simple.
And the guitar is on the floor. You've got yourself like a Les Paul or something
like that, you're gonna have yourself a really, really unfun time with a broken
headstock and going to the guitar store and asking them to fix it. So I would
definitely, definitely recommend getting strap locks first. You can see then how
easy that fell off then and I didn't have to press it very hard either. It would
just be the weight of the guitar that would make that fall off. So get yourself
strap locks that's a really good idea. Make sure your strap is secure and while
I'm on it your cable should be secure too. So this is another thing just to, you
know, you don't have to it but it can save a lot of embarassment. You take your
strap you pass it up the back of the strap there and then put it into your, hold
there so that way if you accident tread on the cable and pull it up it's not going to
pull the socket out which is...I've done it in front of people, very embarassing
when tread on and the lead just goes out and there's no volume from the guitar,
you know. Not a great way to start a solo. So worry about that. So strap height,
that's something that everybody worries about and it's one of those things it's
very personal. I'm going to tell you how I do it but that doesn't mean that you
should do it the same way but I recommend it as a good starting point. And for me
I set the strap so it's the same height as when I'm sitting down, when I'm sitting
up straight, sitting down. So I'm going to enlist my old friend the amplifier
here because my regular chair didn't fit. But the way I've set the height of the
strap is the way that I set my usual straps and it is like one finger distance
between the bottom of the guitar and my leg. And the reason for that is because
it helps me sit up straight. OK?. I'm prone like everyone else to kind of
round shoulders and sitting like that with a bad posture. When I've got my gap there
if I've got my strap on when I'm practising it means that the guitar is
lifted up and it's like a little cue "Oh I've got to sit up straight". So you
might want to do that especially if you've got, you know, posture issues or a bad
back then that would be a way to helping ensure that you sit up straight. Now
that's what works for me but that isn't what works for everybody. And I'm not
saying that that is what you should do. What I think you should do is experiment
a bit and see what feels confortable for you. You might put the guitar right up
here like the Beatles with a really, really short strap and be like "Oh wow
this feels great I can, I'm close to it all ...". I'm not sure why you would want
to play like that. But people do and that's OK. Because it's for you to find
what feels confortable for you not what I tell you you should do. I'm recommending
that you find the strap height that's confortable for you. Now if that means,
and again like this realy, really doesn't work for me. If you want to be, you know,
Mr. Hetfield or you know, whatever guys like super, super low like that. Like the
bassman from Metallica whose name I'm forgetting now. But like playing right
down there, like, the wrist angle is just, if your going to put the thumb at the back
of the neck it's like, it's killing you. So you're gonna have to play a little
bit more wrappy. But that kind of works all right there like if I'm playing it
that way it doesn't feel that unconfortable. I couldn't do a gig like
it. I just couldn't. No matter, I think it looks pretty cool, you know, if you're
playing in a rock band and you have a low guitar there, it's pretty hip look. But if
you want to do it, if you play like that and you're like "I really want that look,
that's really important to me" then the important thing is that you practice that
way. OK? Because it's no good practicing sitting down with the guitar at this
height and then expecting to go out to a gig and putting the guitar really low and
expect to feel the same, because everything will feel different. The
motions you make with your picking hand, the way your arm moves, the way the
fretting hand is, the position of your thumb, all of that is going to change
and there's nothing wrong with it. You just have to make sure you practice
that way. So when you're doing your daily practice you shouldn't do it
sitting down if you want that strap really low there. You want to have the strap
set at the height that you want. Now I already touched on this already but just
to be super clear here, the important is not how high the strap is, it's that you
practice with the guitar at the same height as you intend to play when you're
standing up. OK? That's the important thing. I made a decision earlier on that
I wanted to sit down because I was doing long practice days, it didn't feel
confortable to be standing up although like I said I got a couple of tips on if
you do want to go for the low strap thing coming up. But it's just really important
that you make a decision there. Now it doesn't mean you can't change the
decision. You might play with a little higher and actually no this isn't
working for me, I want it a bit lower. That's OK. But just make sure you
practice in the way that you want to set your strap. Now if you're planning to
go and do a gig, if you're graduating from kind of beginner home practice
and you're actually going to make it out to do a gig, I would recommend doing
a few long practice sessions at least as long as the gig itself is. I met lots
of students over the years that do like 15-20 minutes practice a day and then
they go to do a gig which is an hour long or 45 minutes long and they've
never actually played for that long before. And particularly standing up
different muscles are involved that you're going to find in your neck
and in your shoulders, in your arms, in your legs. Everything is gonna
feel different. So what you don't want to be doing is practicing at home, keeping
things one way and then you get tp the gig and 15-20 minutes into the gig your
shoulder's really sore and you've got these other aches. You want to be
thinking about your playing and loosing yourself in the music not be
worrying about your shoulder really hurting or that kind of thing. That's
just not the point. So make sure you put in some practice time, like if you
like a practice gig. Great thing to be doing would be to play your whole set
end to end at home standing up pretending you're at the gig. So you're doing all
your pedal changes, your amp sound, all of that stuff, guitar changes if you need
to, ironing out all of those little problems to make sure you get that out
of the way before you go to a show. So even though my strap is set at the
same height when I sit and stand, the angle of the neck changes a little bit.
It's just a little bit more pointing toward the sky. There it's flat, now
stand up, that feels weird, I want it to be that much more. Now one of the
things I find a little bit interesting when I was researching for this lesson
is that actually if I put the guitar on the other leg, it's actually a little
bit closer to the angle that it would be when I'm standing up. I don't,
I feel like that's the point. Now I've never liked practicing like that.
It feels weird I've always preferred practicing like this. I still recommend
to people to practice that way. It feels more confortable, more natural when
I'm sitting. That way definitely has a like an angle of the neck thing that
feels a little bit more like it's standing up, which made me kind of doubt myself
just a little bit. I'm not suggesting that you change to this and I do still
feels like it looks weird, like I wouldn't want to go to a gig and be playing a
folk gig like that. It just feels weird. But it makes sense why particularly
the real technical players you'll see playing this way because perhaps it
means that, you know, when you're going for real precision techniques where
there's a lot of fast stuff going on , yes it's technically challenging then it
probably makes a bigger difference when you stand up to make sure that it's
exactly in the same place. So it's something that you should experiment
with. I said quite a few times already, it's a very personal thing finding the
one that feels good for you. We are all anatomically different. You might
have longer arms or weaker shoulders or frame which is particularly suited to
one playing style or another. There's definitely something to experiment with
is putting the guitar on the same leg as the fretting hand and seeing if it makes
any difference for you when you're sitting down. Now one thing I should
mention as well is to do with the weight of your guitar. You don't,
if you're going to do long gigs, you definitely, definitely don't want a
heavy guitar. My Gold cup which is here this thing, this weighs a lot, I don't
know how much it is. It must be 10 or maybe even more 15 kilos it's really
heavy. And when I gig with that guitar I've really, really not enjoyed it to be
honest. Even with a super soft strap it makes my shoulder hurt. It just
feels weird. I find it a bit head heavy as well so it was kind of pulling over a bit.
So that was not my favorite one. Now if you're going to be giging regularly
it's the kind of thing you want to think about. If you're mainly playing
at home, it doesn't matter. I've still got that guitar. I love it dearly, I'm never
going to sell it. But as a giging guitar that one is very unlikely to come out.
Besides it's kind of valuable one and it's a bit special for me. So thinking
about the guitar that you would use for playing our might mean buying
another guitar. Oh I bet you regret hearing that! So it's a great excuse
to buy another guitar if you need one. finding one that sits really well when
you're standing up, that's really confortable I think is really important.
It leads on to the next point as well which is getting a confortable strap.
This strap is pretty decent actually, I'm surprised. It's just a regular, like made
of canvas kinf of look funky retro styling thing. Most of the straps that I use are
quite heavily padded. You know, if I'm standing up for 2-3 hours or whatever
I want a strap that's really confortable and they can be remarkably unconfortable.
If you get like a thin nylon strap. They really can dig into your shoulders. I
find them really unpleasant thing to wear full stop. So like the big wide
leather strap I think to be quite confortable. Lately my favorite strap
has been made by Mono brand. It's got really, really nice padding and it's
guite wide. Generally, the width is the thing you want to go for. There's a nice
neoprene one I 've got as well but just give it some consideration. Don't just
buy the first strap because somebody else had one that you liked or whatever.
You know. Go try some on if you can and see what feels confortable for your
body. Now I mentioned already this idea of having the thumb over the top
particularly with a low hanging guitar. But I think it's the kind of thing you
want to experiment with anyway. For me, definitely having the thumb over the top
when I'm standing up just feels nice, I like it. Even playing a bar chord like
that feels a little bit weird for me now. I just would tend to play it like that
with the thumb over. Which isn't something for beginners by the way. You should still
be working on your regular bar chord throught the intermediate stage But having
the thumb sitting around over the top is going to change how it feels. So being
aware of that particularly with the open chords it's something that we've talked
about in this, you know, the lesson 14, in the end of Grade 2, is having the
thumb over the top. You almost certainly find it easier to have the thumb over
the top there. So experiment again, so what feels good for you. Be happy that
it might evolve, OK? So it doesn't have to be like "I'm doing it this way
forever". You can go "right now this feels the most confortable for me. I'll revisit
it in a few months time or whenever there's a reason to, if I start giging
more or I'm looking at doing my first gig, then I'm going to revisit how my hand
position feels what I think the best is gonna be for that particular type of
set that I'm doing". There was a period, when I was 17 years old or something
back in Tasmania I've been into Rock and metal I had long hair and everything
you want to see the pictures, and one of the things, because I knew about this
making sure that I practice the way I wanted to play, so I had a period of
using this kneel chair. So it was basically like a little pad for your knees
so you'd kneel down on that and you'd still have a pad for your bum. But it
meant that you could hang your guitar quite low and still be, you could sit
in the same position as if you were standing. Now that would be overkill
if you're only doing an hours practice. But if you're kind of getting serious
about your guitare and you're doing 6 hours a day or whatever, like long
practice sessions, you're gonna need to sit for some. I mean maybe you don't
maybe you're superhuman and you could deal with all of that. Like I would be
tired if I just stoud up, if I had to stand up practicing for 8 hours,
I'd be nakered. So it's the kind of thing you might not think of first of all but
again the importance of keeping the guitar at the same height as when you
gona go and play is so important that if you need to sit down I'd definitely
recommend checking out a kneel chair. And really good for your back and your
general posture too. Even if you don't want to play really low I'd recommend
them. It's not something I use every day but I have done in the past and
they are a pretty cool tool. And the last thing, it's something I've talked about
a few times so I really want to make a point of it because it's really important
and that is for you to explore this a bit. And don't just go like " Oh Justin said
we should sit the same if am sitting or standing but...figure it out.
Spend some time on your own and experiment. Put it down real low what
does it feel like "Oh there's no way I'm going to play it". OK. Try really
high like the Beatles "Oh feels OK but I look silly". You know whatever.
Figure out what works for you. We are all anatomically different. So it's really
important that you find the right position of the strap, the right place for the
neck. You put, do you keep it down flat like that, do you angle it up a
little bit more. These straps are really weird. It's like there leather, getting
squeaky, in case you've notice that sound I don't know if the mike picked that one
up. I'm finding it distracting for myself anyway. The point here is just
about the experimenting. I talked about it, the further you get down the guitar
road, the more important it is you figure out what works for you. We all
like different music, we all like different things and that's great.
Otherwise we'd all like the same band, we'd all play the same songs the same
way, would be really, really boring. So this diversity within the guitar
community is really, really important. And that should infect every aspect
of your guitar playing. From your choosing your strap, choosing your
guitar, the pedals that you use, the amp you use, the combination of stuff, the
way you play. All of that stuff should be considered and thought about and try to
figure out what feels best for you. I really hope you enjoyed this lesson.
Let me know in the comments if you like it hanging low or if you like it up high.
Really appreciate your support if you slap that subscribe button and like. And I'll
see you for plenty more lessons very soon. You take care of yourselves.
Bye bye.