The Practice Space That Protects Your Playing: 7 Setup Changes That Support Comfort Over 40
Your Environment Is Either Working With Your Body or Against It
Do you practice in the same spot each time? Is it the couch? Maybe it's your desk chair. Maybe it's that old stool in the corner. Maybe it's the one spot in your house where you can get a bit of privacy.
But have you ever considered that the space you practice in shapes how your body feels tomorrow.
When I was finally lucky enough to be able to buy a place of my own, the first thing I wanted was a decided practice space. A little home studio for me and my guitars and my ideas.
After years of playing and keeping the volume down not to annoy my fellow renters I was finally in heaven. A spot where I got plug in my amp, turn it up, sing loudly, out of key and let my ideas be shouted out into existence.
And after months of tweaking and getting the right "looking setup", the "home studio look" I was all set and finally ready to write and jam.
Yet even time I played about twenty minutes in, my lower back started complaining. And my neck felt tight. My shoulders were tensing up.
I thought what's going on, Im doing the warm ups I teach, I'm stretching, I'm taking breaks, why all of a sudden does my space make me feel worse when I play???
When I stopped and started listening to my own body's feedback I realized: most of the tension Im carrying isn't from playing guitar. It's from fighting my environment while I played.
This is why I speak of the importance of fixing setup first in my post on The Guitarists Body Blueprint which you read here.
See as a new homeowner and new Dad money was tight. I didn't have a nice ergonomic chair, I had an old office chair that didn't adjust.
My home studio was in the basement, great for being away from the rest of the house and making noise without disturbance.
It was also cold, no matter how many heaters I had blasting.
It had old lighting, it was dim which added to the "mood" but also made looking at my lyrics or chords id scribbled down jut a little bit harder to read.
Ok so mostly easy fixes that over time resolved. I insulated the basement, installed new lighting, got a better chair.
Made the home studio "function" rather than look like a "cool home studio".
But that period thought me a lot about where your practice and how important it is. Your practice space isn't neutral.
It's either supporting your body or working against it. And if you're over 40, the margin for error is smaller than it used to be.
I started applying this to students and clients I was working with and they found changing the setup of their practice space lead to more positive sessions, easier playing, less physical strain and positive feelings about practice in general.
In this post, I'm going to walk you through seven key environmental changes that many guitarists Ive worked with have found helpful for reducing strain and supporting more comfortable practice sessions.
Not expensive fixes. Not complicated overhauls. Just practical adjustments that address the real culprits behind cumulative tension.
Why Your Setup Matters More Than You Think
Look, when you were younger, you could play guitar sitting on the floor, hunched over, in terrible lighting, for hours, and your body would just... forgive you. It wouldn't hold grudges.
You'd wake up fine the next day. Maybe a little stiff, but nothing serious. Nothing that stopped you from playing again.
But now? Now your body keeps a ledger. And it's way less forgiving about poor positioning, awkward angles, and sustained tension patterns.
The thing is, most people don't connect the dots between their environment and their discomfort.
They think: "My hands hurt when I play, so something must be wrong with my hands."
But often, the real chain of events looks more like this:
Your chair is too low → so your guitar sits awkwardly on your lap → so you hunch forward to see the fretboard → so your neck angles down for 30 minutes → so your shoulders round forward → so your upper back tightens → so your shoulder starts aching → so you compensate by gripping the neck harder → so your hands hurt.
See the problem here? You're treating the symptom (hand tension) while ignoring the root cause (your chair height).
And you can stretch your hands, massage your forearms, and take breaks all you want. (Sometimes yes it is your hands, and if you already have good setup and good playing environment and still have pain, check out my post on The Guitar Comfort system to help figure out what may be going on a and how to address it)
But if the environment is working against you, you're just managing symptoms instead of addressing the pattern.
Your practice space is part of your technique.
The way you set up your environment directly affects how your body moves, how much unnecessary tension you create, and how long you can play comfortably.
So let's fix it.
The 7 Changes To Focus on for Tension Free Playing
1. Chair Height: The Foundation of Everything
What I noticed again and again over the years .... Most people practice guitar sitting too low.
They use their office chair cranked all the way down. Or their couch. Or a spare chair that looked fine but wasn't built for this.
And when your seat is too low, your hips drop below your knees. Your pelvis tilts backward. Your spine rounds.
And suddenly you're playing from a collapsed posture that forces every other part of your body to compensate.
What to look for:
Sit down with your guitar. Your hips should be level with or slightly higher than your knees. Your feet should rest flat on the floor. Your spine should feel upright without effort.
If you're sinking into the seat or your knees are higher than your hips, the chair's too low.
Quick fix:
Get a firm, flat-seated chair with adjustable height if possible. If you don't have one, try sitting on a folded blanket or cushion to raise your hips. Sounds basic. Works.
Many players notice that just raising their seat height by two inches completely changes how their back and shoulders feel during and after practice.
2. Back Support: Stop Collapsing Into the Void
If your chair has a backrest, use it. But use it correctly.
Most people either perch on the front edge of the seat (no support at all) or slump all the way back into the chair (too much support, wrong angle).
What works for many guitarists:
Sit far enough back that your lower back contacts the backrest. Not leaning heavily into it. Just touching. This gives your spine a reference point without forcing you into a rigid, locked position.
If your chair's backrest pushes you too far forward or feels like it's in the way of your guitar, try a small lumbar cushion or rolled towel at the small of your back instead. This supports your natural spinal curve without forcing you into an unnatural shape.
Why it matters:
When your spine has support, your shoulders don't have to work as hard to hold you upright. And when your shoulders aren't working overtime, they're not pulling tension up into your neck and down into your arms.
3. Lighting: Your Neck Doesn't Want to Crane Forward
This one's sneaky. And almost nobody thinks about it until I point it out.
If your practice space has dim lighting or the light source is behind you or off to the side, you end up leaning forward and tilting your head down to see what you're doing.
You don't notice it consciously. But your neck notices. Your upper traps notice. And after 20 minutes, your shoulders start creeping up toward your ears.
What to look for:
You want light coming from above or slightly in front of you, illuminating the fretboard and your hands without creating harsh shadows or glare.
Quick fix:
A simple adjustable desk lamp or clip-on light positioned to light the guitar from above can completely change how you hold your head and neck while playing.
Many players report that after adding better lighting, they notice their shoulders feel looser and their neck stops aching during practice. Not because the light fixed their neck. But because they stopped unconsciously craning forward to see.
4. Music Stand Placement: Stop Leaning Into the Page
If you're reading sheet music, tabs, or chord charts, where's your music stand?
If it's too low, too far away, or off to one side, you're constantly leaning forward or twisting to see it. And that forward lean? That's a tension pattern waiting to happen.
What works:
Place your music stand at eye level, directly in front of you, close enough that you can glance at it without shifting your torso forward.
If you don't have a music stand, even propping your tablet or phone at the right height on a small stand or stack of books can make a huge difference.
Why it matters:
When your music is at eye level, you can glance at it with just your eyes, not your whole neck. That small change reduces cumulative strain over a 30-minute session dramatically.
5. Temperature: Cold Hands, Tight Hands
This one's simple but often overlooked. I experience this first hand (pun intended) when I practiced in my cold basement.
If your practice space is cold, your hands will feel stiff before you even start playing. And stiff hands mean you're working harder, gripping tighter, and creating more tension than necessary.
What to look for:
Ideally, your practice space should be comfortably warm. Not tropical. Just warm enough that your hands don't feel cold when you pick up the guitar.
Quick fix:
If you can't control the room temperature, keep a small space heater nearby or wear fingerless gloves until your hands warm up. Some players run warm water over their hands for 30 seconds before practice. Simple. Effective.
Many guitarists notice that when their hands start warm, they feel more fluid and relaxed throughout the entire session. If you want some ideas on how to warm up your hands before you play check this post out.
6. Guitar Positioning: Height, Angle, Support
Here's where a lot of strain sneaks in: the way the guitar sits on your body.
If your guitar is too low (like when you're slouched on a couch), you end up hunching forward to reach it.
If it's angled awkwardly, your wrist bends in ways it doesn't want to. If you're holding it up with pure muscle tension instead of support, your shoulder and back are doing work they shouldn't be.
What to look for:
Seated: The guitar should rest comfortably on your lap without you having to hold it in place with tension. Your fretting hand wrist should be relatively neutral, not sharply angled up or down.
Standing: If you practice with a strap, adjust it so the guitar sits at roughly the same height it does when you're seated. Many players wear their guitar way too low when standing, which forces awkward wrist angles and shoulder strain.
Quick fix:
Try a guitar support cushion if you're seated. It raises the guitar slightly and stabilizes it, so you're not muscling it into position.
Adjust your strap shorter than feels "cool." Function over fashion. Your wrists will thank you. Or read Keep Playing: The Release → Reset → Rebuild™ Method for Lifelong Guitar Playing for more in depth outlines of how you should setup.
7. Session Structure: Stand, Sit, Move
Here's the one almost nobody thinks about: how long are you staying in the same position?
Even if your setup is perfect, sitting in any fixed position for 45 minutes straight is going to create stiffness. It's just how bodies work.
What works for many players:
Build movement into your practice. Not elaborate routines. Just simple position changes.
- Practice 15-20 minutes seated, then stand for 5-10 minutes.
- Take a 2-minute break every 20 minutes to stand up, shake out your arms, roll your shoulders.
- If you've been sitting at a desk all day, spend the first few minutes of practice standing instead of immediately sitting again.
Why it matters:
Movement breaks aren't wasted time. They're the thing that lets you practice longer and more comfortably over time.
Your body isn't designed to be locked into one shape for extended periods. Give it permission to shift.
The Setup Change Nobody Talks About: The Transition Ritual
Alright, here's something I learned the hard way that changed everything for me.
Most people finish their workday (or whatever they've been doing), walk over to their guitar, sit down, and start playing immediately.
And they wonder why they feel tight from the first chord.
But think about it: you've just spent the last few hours hunched over a laptop, gripping a mouse, tensing your shoulders, holding your breath during stressful emails.
You're carrying all that tension into your practice session.
So here's what I started doing, and what many players find helpful:
Before you pick up the guitar, take two minutes to transition.
Shake out your arms. Roll your shoulders. Take three slow, full breaths. Maybe do a few gentle neck rolls or wrist circles from the warm-up routine.
You're not trying to fix everything. You're just hitting pause on whatever tension you brought with you. You're telling your body: we're doing something different now.
That two-minute buffer? It's the difference between starting practice already behind the eight-ball and starting from a relatively neutral place.
Try This: The One-Week Space Audit
Here's something you can do this week that will show you exactly where your setup is working against you.
Pick one practice session. Set up your phone to record a 30-second video of yourself playing from the side angle.
Don't change anything. Just record how you normally sit and play.
Then watch it back and look for:
- Is your head tilted down the whole time?
- Are your shoulders rounded forward?
- Is your back curved or collapsed?
- Are your feet flat on the floor or dangling?
- Is the guitar sitting stably or are you muscling it into position?
Write down one thing you notice. Just one.
Then make one small change based on that observation.
- Raise your chair height.
- Add a light source.
- Move your music stand.
- Adjust your guitar strap.
Practice for a week with that one change. Then assess:
- Do you feel different during practice?
- Does anything feel easier or looser?
- Are you noticing less tension in specific areas?
At the end of the week, record yourself again. Compare.
You're not trying to fix everything at once. You're just gathering data. Listening to what your body's telling you. Making one informed adjustment at a time.
Small changes add up
Look, I'm not telling you to build the perfect practice space. I'm not saying you need to buy a bunch of expensive gear or redesign your whole room.
Most of the changes I'm talking about cost nothing. Or close to nothing.
A folded blanket to raise your seat height. A desk lamp repositioned. A music stand moved closer. Standing up every 20 minutes.
The goal isn't perfection. It's awareness.
Because once you start paying attention to how your environment affects your body, you'll notice patterns you've been ignoring for years.
You'll realize: "Oh, every time I practice on the couch, my lower back hurts the next day. But when I use the kitchen chair, I'm fine."
That's not random. That's information.
And once you have that information, you can make choices that support your body instead of fighting it.
What This Changes
So here's what happens when you start setting up your practice space with your body in mind:
You stop blaming your hands for problems that started in your environment.
You start practice sessions from a more neutral place instead of already carrying tension.
You notice discomfort earlier because you're paying attention, so you can adjust before it becomes chronic.
You build sustainability into your playing instead of just pushing through until something breaks.
And maybe most importantly:
You stop thinking of comfort as a luxury and start treating it as a prerequisite for playing long-term.
Because here's the truth: you can have perfect technique, a great warm-up routine, and excellent body awareness, but if your environment is working against you for 30 minutes every day, you're still going to accumulate strain.
The space you practice in matters. Not because it's glamorous or Instagram-worthy. But because it's the container that holds your body while you play.
And if that container is poorly designed, you're starting every session at a disadvantage.
So take a look around. Notice what's helping and what's hurting. Make one small change.
Your body will tell you if it's working.
Your Invitation
If this resonated and if you want more practical strategies for supporting comfortable playing, check out Keep Playing: The Release → Reset → Rebuild™ Method for Lifelong Guitar Playing
Inside, you'll find:
- Simple body adjustments that many guitarists find helpful for reducing strain
- Movement patterns that may support more comfortable positioning
- Strategies to explore better alignment without overthinking technique
Your practice space isn't neutral. It's either supporting your body or stealing from it.
F.P.
Founder, Gentle Octaves
F.P. O’Connor
F.P. O'Connor is a Musician and Movement Specialist whose work is informed by extensive training in Manual Osteopathy, Psychology, and Strength Coaching.
He is the founder of Gentle Octaves, helping adult players develop practical, science-based systems for ease, control, and long-term playing confidence.
FAQ
Q: Do I really need to change my practice space if I'm not in pain?
A: If you're comfortable now, that's great. But many guitarists don't notice cumulative strain until it's already become a pattern. Small environmental adjustments can support long-term comfort and help you keep playing without developing tension over time.
Q: What's the most important setup change I can make?
A: For most players, chair height makes the biggest difference. When your hips are level with or slightly higher than your knees, your spine can stay upright without effort, which reduces strain throughout your entire upper body.
Q: Can a bad practice space actually cause injury?
A: Poor ergonomic setup doesn't directly cause injury, but it can contribute to tension patterns and cumulative strain over time. If you're experiencing discomfort that persists or worsens, consult a healthcare provider to understand what's happening and get appropriate guidance.
Sources & Science
- Ackermann, B., Driscoll, T., & Kenny, D. T. (2012). Musculoskeletal pain and injury in professional orchestral musicians in Australia. Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 27(4), 181-187. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23247873/
- Steinmetz, A., Seidel, W., & Muche, B. (2010). Impairment of postural stabilization systems in musicians with playing-related musculoskeletal disorders. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 33(8), 603-611. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21036282/
- Zaza, C. (1998). Playing-related musculoskeletal disorders in musicians: A systematic review of incidence and prevalence. CMAJ, 158(8), 1019-1025. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1229223/
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