Oi vey - the guy in the picture is right handed but he has the guitar, picture #2, on his left thigh! I tried it. Felt really odd, like the first time I drove in Japan, which is left-road-sided, with a Buick, which has the wheel set for right-road-sided. Weird to the nth for first few days.
Thanks for the excellent tech advice, Booli-sensei. After Christmas I will go to Easy Music Ctr to try out various guitars. Electrics are, for me, swimming in strange waters. FUN!
That's the 'normal' posture/position for
classical guitar. Yes, very different from steel string acoustic guitar, but the neck-up posture has several ergonomic advantages as per the detailed explanations on that page (yes, please read it).
The main thing is with the neck up and body down in this posture, as opposed to the neck and body being basically horizontal and perpendicular to
your body, is that there is much less stress put on you shoulders, elbows and wrists for BOTH hands.
Of course, if you have never played this way before, it's going to feel weird, but I strongly suggest you keep at it and not give up right away as it will definitely take some adjustment (both mentally and physically) in order to be able to see if it helps your shoulder problems.
ALSO - using a strap is a great way to HOLD the position with the neck up, but ONLY if you tie the strap at the headstock behind the nut, instead of buying one of the guitar supports (left pic above) or foot-rest (right pic above) in order to get a fulcrum on your left thigh.
You can ALSO balance the butt-end of the guitar on your RIGHT thigh (
not like the photos), but with the neck UP (like in the photos), and using a strap to hold the head up, you dont have to worry about supporting it with your hand.
Yes, good idea - go try out lots of guitars, even ones that seem too small, you might be surprised. For electrics, try the Squier Strat Mini and the Epiphone Les Paul
Express (FYI hard to find the 'express' model in most shops as it sells so cheaply for ~$129 and there's likely not a lot of profit on it for the shop at that low price). Guitar Center (yes, the hated place) has both of these online and can ship to a retail store and if you dont like it, you can do a return 'in-store' which should be relatively painless, but I dont know if there is a Guitar Center in Oahu?
I am happy to help, anytime, and hopefully I have offered some suggestions that can provide some guidance or focus.