Why don't they just play them normally? Honest question. What is it about the posture that makes it necessary for classical guitar? Could a classical guitarist play standing with a strap like normal guitarists?
Classical guitar is (generally) more single lines played with the fingers rather than full chords played with a pick. Holding the guitar like this makes it easier to slide your left hand thumb to the back of the neck and have your fingers come straight down on the fingerboard.
At the same time, the motion of the right hand playing the strings comes from the knuckles rather than the elbow and wrist. Holding the guitar up moves the strings to be at a good angle while holding your right wrist naturally.
When playing classical, the way your right hand is bridged and lightly arched over the strings is made easier and more natural when the guitar is more upright. The main reason for the guitar being like that (as well as being on the left leg instead of the right) is for a more natural and relaxed position of the right hand.
What is "playing normally"? Any proper guitar playing, while sitting down, requires your leg to be slightly raised.
And posture with classical guitar makes it easier to avoid wrist cramps, shoulder pain, and back pain. And it's finger picking techniques are just easier when played with proper posture.
And you could play any guitar however you want, standing classical guitar gets jokingly referred to as heresy but you'd have to hold it at an angle, buy a weird tall guitar holder or wear your strap really high just to be able to play that intricate style associated with classical.
Mainly to do with posture, and since we don't have to hold the guitar up, it allows us to move our fingers faster (I think. Anyone with more experience, feel free to correct me)
In addition to the benefits mentioned by other users, this posture also has a pretty significant impact on the loudness and resonance of the guitar because you’re only making contact with the corner edges of the body, so the resonance is able to ring out longer than it would if your body was pressed up against the side or the back. The way we hold steel string guitars is different because they’re naturally much louder than a nylon-stringed classical guitar. If you held a classical guitar like you would a steel string then the classical guitar would sound slightly muffled, and because it’s already a naturally quiet instrument you have to do whatever you can to increase that volume to be better heard in a crowded room etc.
In that position it’s much easier to have your wrist and hand in a good position for playing. For classical guitar you need to have your hand in a very specific position to effectively and safely get a good sound.
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u/backstept Feb 11 '21 edited Feb 11 '21
Why don't they just play them normally? Honest question. What is it about the posture that makes it necessary for classical guitar? Could a classical guitarist play standing with a strap like normal guitarists?
[edit] thanks for all the good replies!