Left knee

[clintj]

Guess I'm an oddball. I play with it on my right knee, but with my legs crossed right over left so it is more centered on my body. With both feet flat, either knee was slightly uncomfortable for some chords. I tried this way when I didn't have something to prop up a foot on one day, and decided I liked it. Hey, no one ever accused me of being entirely normal.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by clintj

Guess I'm an oddball. I play with it on my right knee, but with my legs crossed right over left so it is more centered on my body. With both feet flat, either knee was slightly uncomfortable for some chords. I tried this way when I didn't have something to prop up a foot on one day, and decided I liked it. Hey, no one ever accused me of being entirely normal.

Hi clintj...

Flamenco players often sit with a leg crossed.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by ridethatbike

I'll ask the inverse, what advantage is there to putting the waist of the guitar on the right knee, as most contemporary players seemingly do?

I find all this talk of knees baffling... I put my guitar on my thigh, not my knee .

Anyway, my view on the right-leg position (standard in pop, rock, blues, folk, etc) is that it makes strumming easier. One doesn't strum in classical guitar. In flamenco they do, but they use a rasgueado movement of fingers and thumb, not a movement from the elbow.
The angle of the guitar in classical position means a strumming action from the elbow puts the strumming hand movement almost parallel with the strings.

Classical position is ideal - basically - for the kind of techniques required in classical guitar. It makes the whole fretboard easily available for the left hand without your body getting in the way; on the right leg, to reach the top frets your hand has to cross in front of your body (not much admittedly), or you need to move the neck forward (which then makes reaching the lower frets more difficult, and puts the fret hand in a bad position.

One disadvantage of the left-leg position is it can feel stiff and formal for beginners. It doesn't feel nearly as natural to start with as the right leg one, where the guitar feels balanced, and one's legs feel comfortable. Left leg position means the right leg needs to be tucked away sideways a little awkwardly - and one also needs a footstool to bring the guitar to a good height. Easy to see how amateur non-classical players (esp if self-taught) are not going to go for that.
It's also quite uncomfortable for the usual steel-string acoustic bodies, which are larger than classical bodies.

So IMO the choice of right leg is a combination of intuitive comfort (ignoring technical issues of little interest to non-classical beginners) and ease of strumming chords.

I also like the crossed-leg position, which is a happy medium between either side, and also puts the guitar at a good height for most styles of playing. (I notice it's popular with jazz guitarists in particular) However, for long periods it risks circulation problems....