Where To Look While Playing Guitar: 5 Tips To Look Pro

Looking at the fretboard while playing the guitar is recommended for beginner guitarists as it helps you hit the mark without missing any notes. 

It’s great for your hand-eye coordination and helps build muscle memory, so as you play more and more, you won’t be needing to look at the fretboard.

Later once you become a better guitarist, it depends on what type of song you’re playing and the setting you’re playing in.

In my experience, generally, it’s best to keep your eye mainly on the fretboard as that is where most of the action happens. 

If you’re playing music while reading from a tablature, then it’s best to alternate your gaze from the tablature to the fretboard.

This article will discuss where to look while playing the guitar in detail and five tips to look pro when playing. Here are the topics we will cover in this article:

1. Should I Play Guitar Without Looking at Fretboard?
2. When Should I Look at the Audience?
3. Which Hand Should I Look at When Playing?
4. 5 Tips To Look Pro

It’s not a bad thing to look at the fretboard when playing the guitar, but it’s good to limit it so you can have more contact with your audience as you look around when playing. You need to make your guitar playing more of a performance.

In front of an audience, there are a lot of factors that you need to be careful about. As a beginner, it’s okay to look at the guitar, but make sure you can play without looking at the guitar in the long term. Make sure you don’t get distracted by your fretboard.

If you’re playing guitar for just one person, alternate between looking at them and your fretboard and the person you’re playing for. 

If there’s a group of people, dividing your gaze and giving everyone attention is recommended. If you’re playing for a crowd, it’s best just to give a general look to the crowd.

It’s best to focus on the fretboard for the most part when performing.

Often, guitarists try to look at the audience while playing but just have a blank expression on their face which can look very awkward and sometimes unsettling to the people watching them play. 

Selling your performance is what matters here. Whether you look at the audience or just look at the fretboard, your performance has to show your emotions, and you should look like you’re feeling what you’re playing. Only that is how you will connect to your audience emotionally.

When playing guitar, looking at the fretting hand is better than looking at your strumming hand, and the fretting hand requires more precision, while the strumming hand is more related to keeping a rhythm than knowing exactly where to hit.

Fretting requires a lot more precision on the guitarist’s part, and playing the correct chords involves a lot of hand-eye coordination, especially for a beginner. Looking at the strumming hand can adversely affect you losing your tempo.

Most of the time, beginner guitarists think that it’s all about buying a guitar and learning their favorite song on YouTube. It’s a bit more than that. You should know the fundamentals of playing the guitar before thinking about looking good doing that. Here are a few things to help you get started.

 

1. Choose a good guitar

Choosing a guitar with the right size, finish and color. Your guitar should have a good tone production and accuracy.

Make sure to select a guitar that has been thoroughly inspected and is adjusted for an adequate playing experience.

You don’t need to get an expensive, branded guitar but make sure you don’t settle for cheap.

Your guitar will help you play, and it also defines your personality. So choose something that you can play well and turn people’s heads.

Related article: Fender Vs PRS & Gibson: Are They Good & Worth It? (Electric)

 

2. Keep a Good Posture

A correct posture when playing the guitar is essential. Unwanted tension in the muscles can be caused by a lousy playing position and can restrict your hand movements.

 Not only that, unnecessary strain can drain your stamina quicker if you’re playing at a higher tempo.

When sitting, make sure to use a guitar strap when playing as it prevents the guitar from sliding and costing you stamina or making you lose focus. 

Put the guitar on your left leg as it allows a broader range of motion to your playing hand. Only put your guitar on your right leg if you’re sure you can play in a relaxed manner.

When standing, a guitar strap is a must. This will stop the guitar’s weight putting strain on your muscles, and allow free movement of your hand on the guitar. 

Your guitar should be placed in a good position relative to your body. Many guitarists think they look cool when the guitar is down to the knees, but it can hamper their playing ability.

Ensure that your guitar is held in a way where the neck is inclined at around a 30-degree angle.

In the end, what matters is your comfort. So position your guitar in a way that makes you comfortable and doesn’t put a strain on your muscles.

3. Tune Your Guitar

Playing an out-of-tune guitar hinders your playing experience a lot. Just tuning your guitar will make it sound a lot better.

Many professional guitarists can tune their guitar by ear, but if you’re a beginner, you can use a smartphone app or buy a clip-on tuner.

The notes on the 5th fret are a great way to check if your guitar is in tune as long as you know that the 1st note is an E. 

The note on the 5th fret can be used to check the tuning of the string under it. For example, tune the open 3rd string by playing the 5th fret on the 4th string and so on. Remember that in the 3rd string, you fret the 4th string to tune the open 2nd string.

 

4. Learn Some Basic Chords

Learning chords is the most rewarding thing one can do when learning the guitar. Chords help add depth to your music, and playing them will make your music sound a lot better. 

Knowing different chords will give you a lot of rhythm and confidence to collaborate with other musicians.

A beginner should always start with open chords as they don’t need a lot of finger strength to be good at them.

Once you learn open chords, it will motivate you to go further and learn different chords. A few chords I recommend beginners are the A, E, and D chords as they are straightforward to play even as a beginner. 

Make sure you can change between them with ease before progressing further.

Once you’re done with major chords, learn about barre chords. Note that these are significantly harder to learn, so take your time with these. 

After this, you should play most of the songs on a guitar. Learning chords takes a lot of time, so be patient and memorize them before moving further.

 

5. Get Good at Strumming

Proper strumming makes your playing sound very pleasing, and it looks mesmerizing to the viewer.

 If not done correctly, strumming can feel very unnatural and awkward. That’s precisely why you need to make sure that your strumming is not only pleasing but also elegant.

As a beginner, never stop moving your strumming hand. This makes you stay on beat and doesn’t make you lose tempo.

Make sure you keep your wrist loose, and your grip should be very light on your pick (if you have one). You might think you need to hit all the strings with your strum, but that’s not the case.

Now that you know the basics, start learning a strumming pattern. It can be confusing if you instantly begin playing them on the guitar. Make sure to say them aloud first and then practice them on the guitar.

Combining this with learning chords from the precious step puts you on your way to becoming a great guitarist.

Where you look when playing depends totally on the complexity of your music and what type of audience you have. You need to work hard on building your guitar-playing skills to impress your audience. 

I hope this article helped you understand where you should look when playing the guitar and look better when playing.