Stand Up & Rock: The art of playing guitar standing up

How often do you see your favorite rock stars playing concerts sitting down, drummers excluded? Part of learning to rock on the guitar is, well, ROCKING on the guitar. And that means strapping that guitar around your neck, standing up and rocking out! The first time you play guitar standing up though, it can almost feel like you're playing guitar for the first time... period. It takes practice to get comfortable, just like everything else involved with playing the guitar. But give it some time and practice, and anything you can play sitting down, you'll also be able to execute standing up.

Any time my guitar students are preparing to perform live for the first time, I make sure they start practicing standing up at least a few weeks before the performance. Since most of us practice sitting down, trying to learn to play standing up during your first performance can really put a damper on the "rocking out" element of the show.

Where to start:

• Sit down and hold your guitar like you would normally when you're playing sitting down.'
• Hold the guitar next to your body.
• Now stand up without moving the guitar from next to your body.
• You should adjust your strap so that the guitar hangs to that same point on your body. This will position your guitar so that it feels most like it does when you're sitting down and playing.

I know what you're thinking -- none of your favorite rockers play with their guitars hiked up that high. True. But they're also more comfortable playing standing up because they've played hundreds of concerts that way. Here's what you can do to sling the guitar low, like Slash, and still sound good.

Get comfortable playing with the guitar strapped in the original position. When you can play chords, solos, etc. smoothly, adjust your strap so the guitar is about an inch lower. Continue this until you're happy with where your guitar is positioned AND you're playing comfortably. Don't sacrifice your playing though. Sure you want to rock out, feel comfortable, and look cool, but you also want to sound good when you're playing live. The key, as always, is practice.