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Hi @elisabethajgmail-com , although I am a bit on the taller side, guitar posture is one of the things I’ve been working on over the past few months. From what I have read and tried there are a couple things t that Imhabe adopted:
– sit with a straight back imagining a floating balloon is gently lifting an elongating your neck and spine
– relax the shoulders, elbows and wrists
– keep your shoulders parallel with one another (ie. avoid having one sloped down lower than the other)
– Keep the guitar body parallel with your body ((eg. avlid kicking the bottom out and playing on a slant)
I began taking a video of myself playing so I could see what I was doing. Then each time I would play I would select one thing to work on (for example literally saying “I am working on relaxing my shoulders and keeping them parallel”). I would play for a while and then restate the goal. Rinse repeat. Then another time I would work on relaxing elbows and wrists. Etc. then I would video myself again and re-assess.
The other thing I stumbled into was pushing the neck of the guitar forward just a bit. This changed the place where my right arm was wrapping around the lower guitar body bout. It really released some of the strain I was feeling in my shoulders and elbow). It also allowed me to extend my fretting arm a bit more. Took some pressure off that elbow.
Final thought – I have seen some shorter statured folks actually stand to play their dreadnoughts using a strap. Don’t know how feasible this is.
Best of luck to you figuring this out! 😀