The Decision to play the guitar seated or standing will depend on various factors.
Image Credit: Sator Arepo
Firstly, Refer to the pictures. The first is of a flamenco guitar player. That would be the typical stance for a classical guitar player. It is also customary for one to play in that position during performances, etc.
The second picture is of guitar virtuoso Steve Vai. Like most artists, he is loud and proud and hence would prefer to be rocking out to his music. His performances are thus played standing and usually running around the stage.
So the first and most important factor in deciding whether to playing standing or sitting is the position in which you will likely be making a performance in. Logic follows then that you should invest some of your practice time to playing in that position.
That said, the answer for classical or flamenco players would be straightforward.
However the answer obviously isn’t as straightforward for those who perform standing up…
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Image Credit: MaartenG
The reason is because playing standing is usually harder than playing seated.
This is then because when you are seated like in the first picture, your fretting hand (in this case the left hand) is approximately at or above the line of the chest. This gives a neutral and relaxed wrist position.
Compared to say this picture:
Image Credit: Jake Arciniega
In which the wrist is bent at a 90 degree angle the the fingers needed to be stretched.
But face it, don’t we all want to look like the cool guy in the picture?
But you do get my point. Playing standing demands more finger and wrist flexibility, but strapping the guitar high enough to solve this compromises the ‘guitarist look’.
We then only have 1 solution, which is to increase finger and wrist flexibility and control.
The answer to the question should then be straightforward: If you intend to perform standing, you should practice standing to the extent that it feels like playing sitting down.
There are other factors that come into play during playing standing. Most notably would be the changing of the picking angle and the increased stretch you need to reach certain notes. Such can be solved with various flexibility drills and what not, but the most straightforward way is to simply strap the guitar at waist level and start playing. If you’ve never done it before, you will instantly lose some speed and accuracy.
The last and arguably most important point is that playing standing adds a lot of variety and challenge to an otherwise dull practice session. Sometimes its a lot easier to just lose yourself and have some fun rocking out on the guitar while standing up compared to sitting down. This can then make for much more interesting, and likely much more productive practice.
Myself being biased towards the rock and instrumental genres would recommend anyone to practice standing. Do use your own judgment though and always enjoy the journey!
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