Playing while standing

[Realoldguy]

Having some lower back problems. Not sure it is related to guitar playing but looking to eliminate anything I can.

Have any of you found that playing while standing puts less strain on your back?

Can someone explain the ergonomics?

[Robin, Wales]

If you sit badly, then standing will be better. But you may be able to get into a better sitting position, if that's really how you want to play. I would say that most of us who stand to play do so out of necessity because we gig (particularly if you gig with a band).

There must be something that's not working for you when you sit and play. Without seeing you play it is difficult to tell you what that may be and what changes you could make so that sitting became more comfortable for you. It could be worth asking a physio therapist to help you.

[rmp]

if your problem is your posture when playing try regular using a strap, adjusted so that the guitar is suspended by the strap and not your thighs.

One in particular that helps keep your posture good is a Neckup support.

https://www.neckup.com/Products/Neck...8964735.707116

[zuzu]

A "seasoned" bluegrass guitar player related something that helped me when playing my banjo, which easily weighs three times as much as any of my acoustic guitars do; stand up as usual with your arms down by your sides, turn the hand you use on the neck forward to face the same direction you are facing, then bend it at the elbow until it is about 1 foot from your shoulder/chest area, mount the instrument for the neck to match the height of that hand and for the neck to match the angle of the bottom of the fingers on that hand.

That sure is easier to demonstrate than write down! But it certainly helped me with back fatigue, my primary complaint at the time, but also made me a better player. Using those parameters had me mount my instrument higher than I ever had, with the neck at a steeper angle than ever as well. My wrist stays straighter and my fingers fall more naturally into any position on the neck, definitely making my neck hand more nimble on the instrument. I had to get used to some adjustments on my picking hand but I found it absolutely worthwhile and have made the same adjustment on all the instruments mounted with straps that I play. Might be something to try, it did help me and has done so for decades now.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Realoldguy

Having some lower back problems. Not sure it is related to guitar playing but looking to eliminate anything I can.

Have any of you found that playing while standing puts less strain on your back?

Can someone explain the ergonomics?

Classical guitarists have had this sorted out for decades. If you're playing fingerstyle, or with a guitar the same size as - or smaller than - a classical guitar, that position is definitely worth checking out.

However, that position is not great for strumming, and awkward with a large body steel-string.

But if you play with the guitar on the right leg, you can take tips from the classical position. The main one is to sit with a relatively straight back, and not crane your head forward to look at the fretboard! Keep the guitar tucked back against your torso - back at the top of your thigh, not forward towards the knee.

And find a way of raising the guitar, so that it is wedged firmly under your right arm without you having to lean over it. A footstool under the right foot will do, or various devices resting on your thigh to support the guitar.
A strap can also work in bringing the guitar higher, but it doesn't secure the guitar as firmly as those.

IOW, securing the guitar firmly (so the neck doesn't wave around too much) is not about helping your back, it's about stopping you having to support or control the neck with your fret hand. Your fret hand should be doing nothing but fretting the strings. This is the reasoning behind the classical position. which wedges the guitar between both legs, as well as under the right arm against the body; and also puts both hands in their ideal position of course.

But it's really the straight back, and not craning the neck forward, that minimises back problems. Getting a good position otherwise will relieve certain unnecessary stresses on the arms or shoulders that might also contribute to backache.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by

Having some lower back problems. Not sure it is related to guitar playing but looking to eliminate anything I can.

Have any of you found that playing while standing puts less strain on your back?

Can someone explain the ergonomics?

Hi Real-old-guy

I have found some difference on the strain on my back standing or sitting. If I'm going to be playing more than 45 minutes, I'm going to be sitting. Sitting puts less strain on my back.

And when I sit, I use a great guitar chair (Soundseat) and even though it has a back, I sit forward enough my back doesn't rest against it's back.

I also have the shortest piston version, and my feet are flat on the floor when sitting. Even when I sit in a 'normal' chair I want both feet flat on the floor. I use a 'lift' (called a NeckUP) to elevate the lower bout so it rests on my right knee.

I taught for 45 years, and had many older players for students. None of them ever opted to stand when they had back issues. In fact, several played sitting on normal height chairs all the time.








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[Realoldguy]

Thanks for the replies.

I have been looking at/reading the information on Bradford Werner's site.

Now that I am playing longer (hour to hour and a half per day) I guess I need to be more aware of my position while playing.

I know I need to quit looking at my fretting hand.

[difalkner]

Because of an 'exploded' vertebrae in my lower back and three bulging discs in my neck I've been forced (by my doctor) to not stand and hold my guitar when I play in church. They got a stool for me and I now sort of stand/sit with one foot on the lower rung.

This has taken all the pressure off my back and neck and I can now even endure the 90 minutes of rehearsal each week. Playing for 25 minutes each Sunday morning no longer brings me to my knees in pain.

[Cecil6243]

All I know is I bought a stool for sitting and playing and it's not comfortable for me at all no matter what I do. I hate those stools.

[BlueStarfish]

Here’s a musical opinion, not a medical opinion. If you enjoy singing while you play … which many of us do … you’ll sing much better standing up than sitting. It’s no contest, your internal apparatus is just much more opened up and free to move in all the right ways when you sing standing up. You’ll have more power when you want to project volume, it will be easier to hit the high notes, you’ll be able to sustain longer.

If some sort of back injury or other health condition makes standing for longer periods too difficult, a high barstool-height stool (27” or 30” inches) is a 2nd best option. Use a strap to hold your guitar, not your right leg hiked up high, and keep both feet on the ground. A typical chair height (18” or 20”) is bad, it folds up you lungs and diaphragm in very unhelpful ways. Worst of all are those little classical guitar footstools, they force your left leg into a position that folds up your diaphragm even more.

[Nama Ensou]

Originally Posted by Realoldguy

I know I need to quit looking at my fretting hand.

Practice while looking at things around the room or out the window will give a lot more confidence, and also help in moving around the neck by feel and arm position. It's a great feeling when you can jump up or down the next by several half steps and nail the positioning without having to see it.

[Methos1979]

Standing is pretty much the only way my back does NOT hurt. Fortunately, I've always played standing. I'm currently working through Dr. Stuart McGill's excellent book 'Back Mechanic' to better understand my back issues and work through them. I'm quite sure that if I would just drop the extra 40 pounds I'm carrying around it would go a long way towards helping that. At 62 I'm not getting any younger and all the pickleball I'm playing is not helping things! Thankfully, playing the guitar is one of the few things that does not aggravate my back.

[Silly Moustache]

Hi, on this subject - this might help :

[Brent Hahn]

One thing that seems to help me a lot with playing while seated -- actually two things in one -- is to play with the strap on, and have it slightly elevating the guitar off of your leg. That way, my arm and hand angles are the same standing and seated (so I only have to get good at it one way, not two) and I'm not having to work at simply keeping the darn guitar from falling on the floor.

I picked this up, weirdly enough, from seeing BB King on TV. Toward the end of his career, health issues required him to sit. But he had that gigantic Gibson electric and not much of a lap, so the strap was the solution.

[JackC1]

Originally Posted by Realoldguy

Have any of you found that playing while standing puts less strain on your back?

Can someone explain the ergonomics?

Standing definitely puts more stress on my back since my back is carrying the entire weight of the guitar. Sitting, my back is entirely free of the gutiar's weight (I sit straight up; I don't look at the guitar while playing).

If you hold the guitar "western style" where it rests on your right leg when seated. Try raising your right leg by putting some books under your foot. It might make a difference.