Guitar Parts and Posture, Left and Right Hand Basics

The body of the guitar rests on the player's left thigh. To achieve the proper pose, use a foot stand to lift your left leg 15 to 20cm high. If you do not have a stand, you should cross your left leg over your right leg. The head of the guitar should be approximately on your shoulders level. The guitar can rest comfortably on your left thigh, with no need for your hands to support it. The hands are solely used to play the guitar.

The Left Hand

The strings are pressed with the fingertips of the left hand. Press immediately behind the fret. This does not require power so much, practise a little to realize that. The thumb should press against back of the neck and it should stay in the middle of the neck. Practise fingering strings with the left hand to get a sense of how little strength is needed.

The Right Hand

The right hand's fingertips pluck the strings to produce a note sound. To make a rich tone, you usually use nails of your fingers. Normally the thumb of the right hand plucks strings 6 to 4, and index, middle and ring finger pluck the strings from 3 to 1. Keep your thumb in front of your fingers so the index finger doesn't get struck with it.

Alternate Picking

When plucking the same string repeatedly, it's a good idea to alternate your plucking finger, for example, if you play 3rd string, you alternate index and middle fingers. To try this, let your thumb rest on 5th string.