{"id":703,"date":"2020-03-14T12:43:29","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T17:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/?p=703"},"modified":"2020-03-14T12:43:34","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T17:43:34","slug":"should-you-use-a-guitar-foot-stool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/should-you-use-a-guitar-foot-stool\/","title":{"rendered":"Should You Use A Guitar Foot Stool? Why You Should Think Twice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Previous to writing this article I was only vaguely aware of guitar footrests and didn’t think much about it. As I’ve recently decided to practice the guitar more I wanted to improve my ergonomic position in playing the guitar and decided to do some research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Should You Use a Guitar Foot Stool? The purpose of the guitar footstool is to promote a straight back, even shoulders and straight wrists. Many guitarists find a significant benefit with the footrest, but some guitarists experience additional back pain. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So is there no hope in finding the perfect ergonomic posture for playing guitar? Well, luckily there are some things you can test before you go buy a footrest or some other guitar support. I’ll share the results of my research with you and by the end you’ll have some solid places to start. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (by the way, I’ll be using the term guitar footrests and guitar footstools interchangeably)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before we get started, I wanted to give you a little tip to save you some money. These mechanical devices are extremely simple. You don’t have to purchase one before improvising with a substitute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Practice with a substitute for a few hours and see if you can feel a difference–that should give you enough information to know if a particular ergo device will help you or not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The purpose of the guitar footrest is to promote a better posture in the following areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re playing the guitar in classical position, you have the guitar between legs with the neck pointed diagonally away from you at roughly a 45 degree angle from your body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If your feet are level, then the bottom of the guitar is pushing against the inside of your right thigh, but it is difficult to hold up in this position, so you end up holding some of the weight of the guitar with your left hand<\/strong>–which makes playing really difficult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you use a footrest, your guitar can comfortably sit against your leg, held in place with your right arm, with the bottom of the guitar pressing into your right thigh.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m the first to say… I have really bad posture and I get that it sometimes is much more uncomfortable to have “good” posture–but I did want to mention what can happen without any work on posture for holding the guitar<\/p>\n\n\n\n Probably the most infamous posture adopted by thousands of guitarists is the “slackers position.” Where the guitar neck is parallel to the ground, with the guitar’s nook (the center curve of the guitar) resting on your right thigh. <\/p>\n\n\n\nDon’t Buy, Try<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why Use a Guitar Footrest?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Alternative Postures That Can Hurt Your Back That the Footrest Helps With<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Resting the Guitar on your Right leg<\/h4>\n\n\n\n