Online Flamenco Guitar Lessons Practice Tips: Holding Your Guitar

Playing the Flamenco guitar requires a slightly different position from that of other styles. These tips will help you play more efficiently, making the most of your online Flamenco guitar lessons, and helping you to achieve better results in less time.

Take a Seat

Choose an armless chair that will allow your legs to hold a correct position comfortably. Your thighs should align with the floor at a parallel angle, but slightly inclined, your knees higher than your hip joint. This position will help you balance your guitar in a secure position. Do not, however, allow your thighs to slope downward from your hips to your knees, causing your guitar to slide forward. Put your feet together or slightly apart, whatever feels more comfortable and efficient for you. More important, make sure that your feet are in a position which will maximize the height of your knees from the floor. Keep your knees relaxed, bent outward. Keep your back straight and upright, but relaxed, in order to reduce strain. In a similar vein, square your shoulders, keeping them level.

Balance Your Guitar

Place the larger curve of your guitar on your right thigh, allowing your thigh to support its weight. In most people, the outer part of the thigh is the optimal spot. Gravity, acting on your relaxed arm, pulls it downward, balancing your guitar at the proper angle. Relax your neck and shoulders. Place your right hand in the playing position by raising your forearm, bending your arm at your elbow until your hand lies across the guitar strings between the soundhole and the bridge. Relax your hand. This one thing alone will help you avoid tense muscles, which lead to fatigue. Tense, tired muscles will make practice time a chore. Relaxation, on the other hand, is the key to enjoying practice, as well as performance.

Place the back of your guitar perpendicular to the floor, but slant the neck of the guitar slightly forward, away from your left side. This will make it easier for your left hand to access the neck of the guitar, while at the same time limiting the degree that the back of the guitar presses against your chest. Since the backside of your guitar projects sound forward, you will want to avoid dampening the sound with your chest.

Keep an Eye on Your Fingers

Look over the top of your guitar at your left-hand fingers. This will help you to place them behind the proper frets. Do not be tempted to pull your left hand closer to your body to get a better view, since it will cause the back of your guitar to touch your chest, muffling the sound. Keep the flat portion of your guitar’s front surface as nearly upright as possible.

Remember These Key Points:

1)  Do not support the weight of your guitar with your left hand. In order to move freely, you must not hinder your left hand. 2) Make sure there is a gap between your guitar and your chest in order to produce a clear sound. 3) Keep your upper body relaxed, free from tension.

Though it might seem awkward at first, try to maintain the proper position, keeping these guidelines in mind. The first few times, you might believe it to be a hopeless task to both balance and secure the guitar at the same time. You will, however, be able to master the technique if you persist. Do not despair, though, if the technique proves difficult at first. For a brief time, you may need to lower the guitar so that the indented section between the two curves of the guitar’s body rests on your right thigh. Keep trying, however, to play in the Flamenco position. Over time, you will gain greater comfort and confidence as you play in that position for longer periods of time. Making sure that you assume this position will help to keep your spine straight. This, in turn, will give your right hand more strength and control, while giving your left hand easy access to play frets high on the neck of your guitar.

Master this basic Flamenco position before you attempt to imitate any variation that you might see others using. When you start with sound positioning basics, good habits will become second nature to you, leading you to master skills more quickly, with less effort.

Emre Sabuncuoglu, one of the founders of the Los Angeles Guitar Academy, holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California’s prestigious Thornton School of Music. Emre’s warm style of relating to others helps him reach out to a diverse student population. He incorporates visual, kinesthetic, and auditory cues to accommodate each student’s distinctive learning style.
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