After years of intermittent playing around with the guitar, I've reached the point where I can (arrhythmically) strum a bunch of open chords as well as a B minor. And in the last 6 months, I've finally gotten to the point where I can boom-chuck. Not satisfied with that, I ran across the AGW guys the other day and decided that I want to learn to play fingerstlye blues since that's what I listen to and enjoy the most. What I'm finding out tho is that I don't hold the guitar correctly.

Usually when I play I'm scrunched way down in my office chair, which has arms, nearly lying down, with the guitar laying on my belly and leg. This has always allowed me to see what I was fretting. Now that I'm trying to play single strings I find that the side of my left hand dampens the 1st string, and that my thumb is in the wrong place (next to the 6th string) to move that hand easily. I tried sitting up straight and putting the waist of the guitar on my right leg, but that puts my hand in line with the strings below the bridge. I tried putting the lower bout between my legs, but have problems with that too.

I found this thread, Odd Ways of Holding Instruments, but can't find one that describes how to hold the guitar correctly. How do you hold it so that you can fingerpick, still palm damp the strings, and not drop that blasted thing on the floor?