Left Hand Positioning Basics

Like all properly implemented guitar techniques, the left hand positioning on the guitar goes a long way to helping a guitarist avoid injury.

Tennis players have to worry about tennis elbow, football players have to worry about ACL strains, and we need to worry about the dreaded carpal tunnel syndrome. With a few basic pointers, you can begin yourself on a long track of healthy classical guitar playing.

First of all, when you play guitar, under no circumstance should your thumb ever peak over the top of your fret board. This not only puts an unnatural strain on your wrist causing the carpals to become compressed, but it also leads to poor fingering technique.

Your wrist should shift as little as possible, your thumb gliding along the contour of the back of the neck. This avoids extreme angles and stops you from straining your wrist, which is full of delicate tendons and nerves, all of which can be easily damaged if subjected to gross contortion.

There are no songs which will ever require you to lift your thumb above the back of the neck, and if you find one, its better to steer clear, as you will come to see the composer with wrist splints soon enough. When you need to reach the lower frets simply rotate.

Next up is proper finger positioning. The worst thing guitarists are guilty of --and I used to be guilty myself as well once upon a time-- is the need to look impressive while playing. Let’s face it; fast, far flying digits look neat. They also cause wrist strains and other injuries. Keep ergonomics in mind, making each motion as comfortable and relaxed as possible. A good foundation in this will also help in advanced guitar playing techniques such as legato playing.

Chances are, the frets you are trying to jump between can be played closely together by playing on of the notes on a different string. It may not look impressive, but then again neither does playing not guitar and living with a wrist four sizes too large.

The final and perhaps one of the most overlooked aspect of left hand basics is fretting power.

You should not be white knuckling the strings into submission.

Use as little power as possible to fret the strings without it buzzing. You want clean ringing notes, but you don’t want to break your fingers to achieve this. Also, your fingers should curl around to the fret board. You should have the appearance of a claw when fretting. Your fingers shouldn’t be flat and sticking straight down. This is not only bad form but also leads to more playing related injuries.

Keeping your wrist on an angle with your fingers arched evenly disperses the vibration made by the strings throughout your entire arm. If you are choking down on the strings with your fingers with your wrist bent on an extreme angle, all of the tension and vibration will gather itself in the tissues of your wrist.

Remember, as with all aspects of guitar, proper left hand positioning on classical guitar takes not only patience and practice but awareness as well. You need to pay attention to your form and be sure to correct yourself the instant you notice yourself lapsing into poor form, because a lapse can easily become a habit. 

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