Standing upand playing

[LuisSavesTheDay]

I cant play HALF as good standing up as i can sitting. Any suggestions other then standin more often?

[Koala]

#1Well, practice standing up. #2Raise your guitar strap (this fashion craze about playin with the guitar around knee height cant be healthy). #3 ook at how you position your guitar when you play sitting and try to imitate the position when standing up.

hope this helps,

[sugarbee]

Lol, that's funny, cause for me it's exactly the opposite, I play better standing up! For me it's a question of where I rest my guitar when I'm sitting down, vs letting my shoulder support it by the strap when standing. Maybe for you it's a focus shift thing. Like, think about your posture sitting and why it's more comfortable and try to compensate for it when standing, find some other aspect of standing that's comfortable for you. Focus on what works standing, make that your rock and go from there. Does that help at all???

[Bizarro]

Practice....

Gee, I bet Steve Vai can really shred when he's sitting down! :)

[rmuscat]

i found this useful ... although you get the guitar a bit high which is as we know pretty uncool :P ... but anyway we don't try impress with how low the guitar is no?

ok when i sit down i adjust the strap so that it's tight around my neck as if the guitar is hanging, unfortunately then i have to place the guitar on my left leg and pull the neck up, but that helped me pretty much because:

1. when you're standing up the guitar is the same hieght as when you sit down
2. when sitting down you get to reach ALL the frets without actually bending you wrist sideways which is not very good (especially when you reach high frets)

hope that helps

[LuisSavesTheDay]

Thanks guys. I stood up for a while and i adaptedpretty quick. Its not as easy to do a stretchy tap, but thats about it.

Back in heat.

[GuitarLausing]

I do stretches betting while standing up-- I guess it's a habit thingie..

And, when I'm standing up, I kinda feel the groove much more than if I'm sitting down, and when I'm standing uprigth I have better timing!

(this is probably just because i'm a weird person, but try it out anyway)

I'm gonna try and get some sleep, my next exam is in 8 hours sharp :P

[GuitarDreamer20]

yeah I'd say Koala's advice is spot on. One thing that helped me was playing in a band, b/c I had to play standing up at rehearsal a few times a week and out at gigs...so it just got more and more comfortable :D

[RockSuperstar]

had to play standing up at rehearsal a few times a week and out at gigs...so it just got more and more comfortable

oh god yes, i have to agree with this. A good 3 hour rehearsal and two gigs per week soon gets you into the habit :)

that said, i was playing a gig last week and diring a song where i have quite a complex wee chord thing to do, i sorta positioned myself on the drumrack and had a rest ;)

2 hours with a les paul slung round your neck hurts ;)

[Koala]

Thanks guys. I stood up for a while and i adaptedpretty quick. Its not as easy to do a stretchy tap, but thats about it.



Hey Luis, something that really helps when youre doing long stretches is to bring the guitar headstock towards your head. What im trying to say is try to get the guitar "upright". This makes the stretchig feel less awkward at the wrist.

hope this helps,

[LuisSavesTheDay]

that helps a lot koala, thanks. One more question. Its REALLLLLLLLY hard for me to walk around and playsomething clean. Does anyone else have this problem?

[GuitarDreamer20]

Hey Luis,

I think it's definitely harder to do that...b/c now you are moving more than one body part...you're moving a bunch of different things. I think what makes it harder is that you're moving and it may or may not be with the tempo of the song, so it creates this "misalignment" and it's harder to play. I'm sure lots of practice doing it though will make it much easier!;)

[GuitarLausing]

Hmm... If I walk around while jamming/playing, it's with the band and I propably know the songs perfect like 134 %, so I'm confident about my playing and I move around because I feel it's natural. When doing something difficult, put your foot on the speaker, because it looks cool. And it stabilises your body. I think.