The TuneUp Program

The natural position for most modern electric guitars is hanging from a strap. It allows you to avoid the big problem with the guitarists posture - sitting. Classical guitar players long ago developed a way to sit and play that works well for the classical guitar but is simply too cumbersome for larger steel string and electric guitars. That's OK we'll take advantage of the strap and learn to stand properly and then we can start to look at the problems we encounter when we sit down.

Here we're going to adapt the basic standing position that you first saw in the relaxation program into one that you can use when you're playing. There are two things that need to be changed from the basic tai chi stance. Firstly there's the position of your arms which is covered in detail in module 2, for now just hold them however you feel comfortable. The other change comes about because you're centre of gravity moves forward with the weight of the guitar.

Firstly we need to examine a normal standing posture. The horse stance, from the relaxation program, presents a basic stance for tai chi practice and it's essential principles can be applied to us. So to recap:

• Your feet are parallel and shoulder width apart.
• Your weight is evenly distributed across your feet and you're knees are just off-lock so that your legs take your weight.
• Your pelvis is relaxed and your chest is open.

So get into the horse stance, taking particular note of the weight distribution on your feet, the load in your legs when you unlock your knees and keeping your spine supported on a relaxed, floating pelvis. Then put your guitar on and do it again, noticing any changes resulting from the extra weight of the guitar. It may take some time to be comfortable tuning in like this, you don't need to be an expert, any extra awareness you bring to this position will help.

• Is your weight still even on your feet. If it's drifted toward the front then your centre of gravity has shifted forward and you'll probably find that you've arched your back a little.
• Are your knees still off-lock, this will help get your pelvis back, reducing the arch in your back. You'll notice again a change in the weight distribution on your feet depending on what your knees are doing. The extra weight of the guitar should be taken by your legs.
• Place your hands into the muscles in the small of your back. You shouldn't feel any contraction in the back muscles. If you do then you're pushing your pelvis forward, double check your feet and knees, get someone to take a photo if you need to

This level of attention to your bodies responses is purely for the sake of the exercise. If you can get so comfortable with it that you can do it at gigs then that's great but it's not necessary. Just practice and eventually, like everything else, you'll find it becomes part of your routine without you even noticing it.

The following slideshow will take you through a number of common standing positions, some problematic, some not. As you scroll through if you want further information simply click on the image.

Standing positionA comfortable standing position. With the guitar high enough I can place my left hand at the neck with a neutral wristPrevious Image 1/6 Next

There are two advantage to bringing your weight back onto your legs. Firstly the small muscles in your low back won't fatigue and secondly the lumbar curve will now allow the rest of the spine to unfold in the shape it prefers.

• When your knees lock and your pelvis floats forward you create a curve that starts way down at your ankles and ends up in the middle of your thoracic spine. Try it yourself and you'll generate a curve that loads the muscles in your calves, your hamstrings, the lateral hip rotators and the muscles in your lower back. Add an extra weight with your guitar at the front and you increase that load.
• Notice too the angle that your back is making as it heads up to the middle of your thoracic, the curve in your lower body means that your lower thoracic is angling back way too far. In order then to straighten up you need to roll your upper thoracic forward into what is effectively a hunched posture in the upper body. This has unwelcome consequences for the shoulder as you'll find in module 2.
• In extension of the hunching in the upper thoracic the lower cervical vertebrae protrude forward. In a final effort to keep your eyes on the road your upper cervicals then have to arch back creating a lot of tension at junction of the first cervical and the bottom of your skull.

Practice this exercise every day for a few weeks and you'll start to make some significant changes to the way you approach your guitar. You may need to revisit the chong exercise, ensuring that your weight is on your legs and your upper body relaxed.

The height of the guitar is obviously crucial here and it won't hurt to experiment with a few different positions. It doesn't need to be as high as mine but note that it will have a significant affect on the position of your wrist and hand and is absolutely worth spending the time to get it right. That may not happen till the end of the program once we've drawn everything together.