Best Chair for Practicing Guitar
Not Recommended
The Edge of Your Bed
The bed is not designed for guitar practice.
Advantages: everybody has a bed, so you don’t need any special equipment.
Disadvantages: Sitting on your bed to practice will lead to poor posture, back problems, and perhaps eventual damage to your mattress. Or spine. It is best avoided.
Office Chair: Executive
Advantages: More comfortable than the floor.
Disdvantages: Many. Don’t do it. The big reclining chairs might be good to take a nap in, but they are terrible for guitar.
Wooden Bar Stool
Advantages: Simple, flat seating area.
Disadvantages: Height is too high. If you have a saw, you can fix that quickly enough. Also, there is no back support. For some, this is a deal breaker.
Acceptable
Office Chair: Task
Advantages: cheap, easy to find
Disadvantages: A guitar chair should not roll around, so you should replace the wheels with glides (non-rolling feet) if this becomes a problem. Guitar chairs should not have arms, but most office chairs come with them. The arms can often be taken off. Check to make sure that the chair will still be structurally sound and safe to sit on without the arms.
Suggested: Eurostyle Bungee Chair[?]Affiliate Link.
Standard Folding Metal Chair
Advantages: You might be surprised to learn that for many people, this is by far the best option for playing guitar — at least among those that are widely available. The standard folding chair will allow you to achieve a natural posture while playing the guitar.
Disadvantages: The chair is not very comfortable. If you will have many long practice sessions, you may need to consider some other options. But for just 30 minutes a day, the folding chair may be the ideal choice.
Suggested: Upholstered Folding Chair[?]Affiliate Link.
Doctor’s Stool
Advantages: A low height, good for playing guitar, with a simple, flat seat and even a little back support. This might be the perfect option for most people.
Disadvantages: None?
Suggested: Boss Medical Spa Stool[?]Affiliate Link.
Fancy Solutions
The Sound Seat
Advantages: Made for guitarists. An adjustable height, unobtrusive seat, and optional back support.
Disadvantages: Relatively expensive, at over $300.
The sound seat this is one of the only chairs that is marketed directly towards musicians. It began as a percussion and recording seat, but due to demand they are now models of it available for guitar as well.
Fans swear by it on the forums (check yourself!). We didn’t try one for this write-up.
Brian Boggs “Sonus”:
A wooden chair handcrafted for guitar playing
Advantages: Custom tailored by hand, each Sonus Chair is built custom. The subtle contours of the seat support both a backwards-resting posture and a forwards “leaning-in” posture depending on playing style.
Disadvantages: Price
With a price tag starting at $2000, this kind of chair is not for the casual learner.
This chair is handcrafted out of wood and designed to allow the guitar player to achieve optimum posture for playing the guitar. Although it is not upholstered, it is said to be contoured for maximum comfort. The player can perch on the edge of the seat for a highly-engaged posture or rest on in the back of the seat for a more relaxed sitting position.
I love them. Had I known how nice it is to sit on them I would of bought them years ago... it’s essential. — Nick Tuttle, Guitar Instructor
Correct posture for playing the guitar (seated)
When playing the guitar, the back should not be hunched over excessively. A straight, erect spinal position or a slight recline can both be comfortable.
Your feet should rest flat on the floor. Or, one foot on the floor and one foot on a Hercules Foot Stand[?]Affiliate Link.
The neck should not strain to look at the music. The music stand should be raised to eye level so that you are not craning your neck down to look at it. Those with even slight vision impairments should get wear glasses to read the music.
Coda
Be familiar with the basic principles of how to hold the guitar, and get yourself some good, ergonomic seating to support your practice.
As the creator of Hub Guitar, Grey has compiled hundreds of guitar lessons, written several books, and filmed hundreds of video lessons. He teaches private lessons in his Boston studio, as well as via video chat through TakeLessons.