over the months i have come to notice something strange...i...cant play standing up heh
i tried many ways of holding the guit when im standing up and yet i just cant reach the higher frets on the larger strings "fluidly"(which i can very easily when im sitting down)
thing is, you cant really bring a chair or a sofa to a show

ive tried to simply sit down, put my hands on higher frets and then stand up to see wtf is wrong in my posture thats making me so shitty when standing up, and yet cant seem to find out why

any ideas? i'm thinking that perhaps moving the place where the strap is tied to might help but i dont think i could do that

hrm...

edit: actually here's another bad habit i just cant seem to shake off: i keep resting my hand on the strings(as if palm muting) when i start playing quickly, which imho blocks my "top speed" a bit when string skipping...any exercises/songs to suggest thatd force me to not rest my hand on the strings?

Get a new shorter strap. That will definitely work.

Or if you're cheap, make a hole higher up in your existing strap.


I had a hard time playing standing up too when i started, but after time i got used to it....first i used the highest holes on my strap, then gradually went lower and lower until one point i attached a shoelace to my strap to make it 1 foot longer.

For the past year i've mostly played sitting down so i'm not used to standing up anymore.....i can reach fine, but my accuracy goes down quite a bit....but who cares about me eh?

Try the strap thing.

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I have mine where my nippels are, Tom Morello style heh. Looks kinda dorky but its just like sitting down, you have total access to the lower frets.

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yeah atm i was thinking about just raising it a lot, but im better off just getting a better strap this one's messed up a bit anyways, you know the plastic thing that controls the length? keeps trying to stab my shoulder muscles -_- hehe...

guess that my whole year of sitting down+resting hand on strings "paid off"(aherm in a bad way heh)

i'll go look around the guitar shoppe tomorrow and try to find some strap with more length control(The one i have is those cheap ones that they give when you buy a guit)

yeah i had the same problem as you when i joined my friends band, but after a couple of 6 hour long practices i can play standing up just fine hehe

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worst part for me when standing up is chords like this(which happen to appear often in the songs i play, being Martyr and my own stuff)

ie:
-----------------------------
-----------------------------
-----------------------------
-5--------------------------
-3--------------------------
-1-------and 15+ here--

You mean that type of chord around the 15th fret?

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your strap is too low i think

don't bend your wrist, i think that constricts blood flow to your hands, or makes you start different muscles or something; basically makes you play bad.

extend your hand straight, and look at it sideways. you should see a straight angle form with your wrist and fingers. now point your fingers diagonally to the floor, to form a negative acute angle to the floor (like 30 degrees). that's how your hand should be when grasping the neck, and fretting the notes.
don't bend your wrist into a 90 degree angle like Jimi Hendrix, or James Hetfield.

keep your wrist straighter, you should be relaxed and feel no discomfort and stuff.

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no, i mean that type of chord, AND around the 15thfret+ on lower string...sorry if it seemed ambiguous :P bit tired hehe

That's how I've been playing when I standup! I hadn't really ever realized how different it is to play standing as opposed to sitting. Sometimes I just stand one leg on my amp and prop the guitar on my knee. That seems to work ok for when I'm soloing!

yes it does. It replicated how you sit.

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Yea. Everybody trying to be all cool and play with their guitar by their knees. Although I know it looks cool, but I don’t torture myself and let my guitar to be at about 45 degree angle to the floor, rather than parallel.

And a lot of people make mistake by not putting their left hand thumb on the middle of the back of the neck. Unless you play funk with 9th chords, where you have to mute 6th string with your thumb and other special occasions, your thumb by no means should crawl over the neck. Doing it properly leaves a lot more space for left hand to move and better for joints and bloodflow.

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i play my Vs hangin real low. it took a couple of months to get used to it, but it looks cool and i feel comfortable with it now. and i can reach the higher frets easily enough. just gotta warm up properly.

anyway, experiment with what works and what doesnt, coz theres not right or wrong way to play, its up to you. people tell me its too low, but i wouldnt dream of playing any other way. and i can usually blast them away.

enough said.

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To me, the height of the guitar is very dependent on the left/right position of the guitar. When I'm playing a V or something else that hangs very much to the right, I can usually have the bridge halfway down my thighs without getting any trouble to reach. This does however require me to keep the neck at about 70 degrees to the floor to reach the lower (1,2,3 and so) frets, but it feels really comfortable.
Many other guitars hang too far to the left for me to be able to reach properly even if I have them high up. Too bad for me I don't own a V...

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i play decent standing up but im alot better sitting down
for some reason, standing up messes with how the body is anatomically therefor, i cant stretch my fingers as far. go figure...

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guess we could start a band called The Evil sitting Guitarists...or...something.... *gets some more coffee*

I have the guitar at middle, not so high and not by the knees. But I think that i still look cool. I play both standing up and sitting down at equal speed because when i practice i always stand up.

I know exactly what you mean...........i got the same problem when i was "young"

Now i'm using a very short strap....the guitar hangs "high" and its better to play the high frets....try it and you will see that its work.....

its reall just a matter of getting used to a position that feels good and looks good(if ur worried about that) after time u shoudl get used to it and be able do to do wat u can do sitting down

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I got an other problem

I can't sit down and play... I got to stand up...

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