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Beginning Here • First Week
Well, on Thursday afternoon, I got an Eastman AC122-1CE guitar. (Yikes!) After I bought it, she said, “Oh, by the way, it’s also an acoustic-electric guitar!” I guess that’s a bonus.
Anyway, I love it and started playing it that afternoon with the 30 Days to Play.
About 25 years ago, I was learning the banjo, but I lost my love for the Bluegrass sound. Now, it’s the guitar, and I plan to work on the TAC plan!
<b style=””>Question: Do you use a guitar shoulder strap when learning? Right now, I’m just sitting on the couch and playing, but I was wondering if the shoulder strap would feel more secure.
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8 Replies
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I usually use a strap but often don’t if I’m in a hurry and just pick up it up for a few minutes of play. The most useful thing I learned in habit building is to not put your guitar in a case. The small effort of opening the case and taking the guitar out is just enough hurdle to deny one countless mini sessions. And I keep the strap on the guitar so sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t depending on the context of the mini session.
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Thanks! I plan to keep it in the case so I don’t accidentally knock it over. 🤷♂️
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By the way, nice guitar!
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I agree with your comment about using the case! I bought a stand for $20 and have it sitting right next to my computer so it is always right there for me to look at and quickly pick up and practice.
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🙂
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Welcome to TAC @BryanDean , and congratulations on your new guitar. She’s beautiful. I hope you have a lot of fun playing her.
I always suggest a strap, even while sitting. It holds the guitar more securely and will actually hold it more upright and secured properly. Be careful playing while sitting on your couch, because if you play for long periods, your posture tends to be slouched when playing. It may be okay for short periods, but it could cause back, leg, arm pain, or Eb pen affect your ability to fret chords clearly.
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I too just started the TAC course (last week Jan 16, 2024) after trying umpteen times to teach myself the last 10yrs from an overwhelming collection of DVD lessons from 3 different instructors; an assortment of tablature songbooks; 2 cheap guitars. I work 12hr days and it is tough to find time when I am not mentally exhausted from work, but now that football season is here and my husband is preoccupied watching that—I sneak off to our spare bedroom (aka the “studio”) and try my best to plunk around but would lose interest rather quickly. I needed guidance to help motivate me better, and I am thrilled to have purchased the TAC course as a birthday gift to myself.
When it came to deciding to use a strap or not, I was finding out 2 things: 1) using a strap took the weight of the neck out of my fretting hand so I could focus on finger placement. I find it better to attach by the nut vs the heel, otherwise my guitar has serious neck dive! 2) And this isn’t a great thing, but….using a strap was making the guitar more perpendicular and not allowing me to see the strings very well for being a beginner, so then I took the strap off. Now I am faced with the dilemma of the neck weight interfering with my ability learn fret finger placement while holding up the neck.
I am frustrated and tempted to go have my guitar looked at and maybe have lighter tuning pegs installed ??
I don’t know if this helped you or not, but I thought I would share my dilemma
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@RiverRooo Tuning pegs don’t weigh that much and don’t add to the weight of holding the guitar up. Whether you attach t othe nut or the body is a personal preference. Most prefer the body of the guitar. I think what you’re referring to as neck dive simply happens when you let go of the neck. It is the guitars natural tendancy to have the neck drop straight down and out of the way. A strap will keep the guitar from dropping to the groud. I walk around with my guitar hanging down all the time. It is safer for it to be perpendicular (straight up and down) when walking around with it. It won’t bang into everything.
Having a strap on should not prevent you from being able to look over at the strings. I would try to keep the guitar as parallel or horizontal (side to side) to the floor as possible, but it is expected of newcomers to angle the guitar “slightly” back in order to see the strings, but try to keep it as upright as possible for proper finger placement on the strings. In fact, most of us do this. If necessary, loosen the strap a little to give yourself some slack.
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