Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Guitar strap placement

I know it sounds weird but I am having the hardest time figuring out where my guitar strap adjustment should be. I end up with backaches if I am not sitting down and using my body to keep my guitar propped up. Is there a “best” place to have the guitar land on the body? Maybe if I try to put my guitar right, I can get the strap adjusted right…

Good starting spot is usually where the instrument is when sitting. Sit down, adjust strap, then stand and try it. You can adjust for personal preference from there (I normally play standing with the instrument slightly lower to accommodate what is comfortable for my right arm/hand).

Playing standing up takes practice. Some things to possibly expect if you haven’t run into them already:

kink in neck form looking down at an angle your not used to
back ache from bending back/weight of instrument, etc.
instrument moving on you
left or right hands or arms not hitting things as cleanly because angle front to back or neck angle is slightly different.

Time spent experimenting with angle of the instrument and length of strap while practicing playing standing up in short sessions should cure most of these problems over time.

At least a guitar doesn’t weigh near as much as a banjo. :smiley:

My two cents… I prefer the guitar a bit higher standing than when I am “normally” seated. I like for the height to be where my right arm falls naturally into my preferred playing position. When seated normally, I don’t generally get my leg up high enough to feel ideal for me. As a result, I am starting to use foot rests more often to help in that regard. Like fiddle said, experiment with the strap length and see what feels good for you. If it just doesn’t feel natural in any position, do it a little every day and pretty soon something will work for you and standing while playing will become natural.

One last thing I thought of and I suspect it’s not a problem for you, but just in case… I have seen people just totally contort themselves trying to look at fret markers on the front of the fretboard… just learn to use the fret markers on the side of the neck.

Oh thank you both for the input. Yes, I can make the chords without having to twist to see where my fingers go. So I just sat down and it looks like I will need to raise the guitar a little higher than when just sitting. Now I am seeing that in order to make my left hand comfortable, I can shift the neck a little forward while I am standing. I am going to try that for a lil while. I have shyed away from playing while standing, and it’s something I have wanted to do. Thanks for the advice. I just joined a jam session here in Louisiana in the Baton Rouge area, and we surely have lots of music around here. This jam covers Bluegrass and Country Gospel and the like. I plan to learn as much as I can from Banjo Ben. Hopefully the videos will play soon on this site for me :smiley: gwen