Advice for a future Lefty player

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:33 pm

My younger daughter appears to be a lefty like her mom. I was curious to know how many of the lefty players actually play left-handed guitars. My wife used to play and she learned to play right handed guitars. How do you know if someone who is a lefty is better playing left-handed instruments as opposed to just learning to play right handed instruments? Obviously it is easier gear-wise if she learns to play right-handed instruments, but I just want to make sure I am pushing her in the proper direction.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:51 pm

This is the wrong spot for this I think, but...

Let her try playing right handed. Some lefties manage it just fine, I know a lot of them.

I tried but couldn't do it. Playing guitar was so impossible for me right handed. Despite the fact that I can manage to throw and write and do other things with my right hand, playing guitar was so awkward and impossible right handed.

If she can't play right handed, then get her a lefty. And prepare for a lifetime of rage at the injustice of not being able to find the guitars you want.

euan · Post by **euan** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 4:04 pm

Aye whit Pens said. I was put off playing guitar for two years because I was forced to play right handed at school. I struggled to make an E chord, let alone changing between chords. I made more progress in one day playing left handed than I did in months of right handed playing.

Get her a right handed guitar and see how it goes. If she still can't try lefty. That is if she wants to play guitar.

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 5:13 pm

Like both these guys I play lefty too.
Just take her to a shop and let her try both a right and left handed guitar and see what feels natural. If not much difference, then right-handed would be the way to go - cheaper guitars, more choice etc. I couldn't do it - lefty all the way.
Otherwise, like Pens said - a lifetime of injustice.

clarkbar · Post by **clarkbar** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:04 pm

i can say that im naturally left handed in certain things (writing, hammer, baseball..etc) but just about everything else i do right handed; heck i even pitch right handed. anyways i was kinda excited to learn lefty when i first started guitar but i noticed....it sucked....i couldnt do anything. so i learned right handed, which felt wayyyy more natural. guess it worked out fine in the end financially.

so im a lefty that learned to play righty.

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:05 pm

Mark Knopfler is a lefty and seems to manage righty. It's certainly not unheard of. Left-handed violins didn't even exist until a few years ago.

kim · Post by **kim** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:06 pm

you can be left handed but pick up a guitar and hold it righty from the start because it feels more natural.

i'm left handed and when i picked up a guitar for the first time i held it lefty because it felt more natural, i didn't know how to play yet but it jsut felt right.

just depends on how she holds it when she picks it up, it's something that you just know from the start, when you pick up a pen to write when you're a kid you don't stop to think 'hey i'm not gonna be like those others i'm gonna hold it in my left hand' instead it's just something you do without thinking because it comes natural.

kim · Post by **kim** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:07 pm

i can't even use a lighter with my right hand so i defo cannot play right handed. lol

euan · Post by **euan** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:04 pm

bat lefty, golf righty.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 8:08 pm

Since the question has been answered, I'm pretty much both-handed with a lot of things, using a computer mouse is about the only thing I do exclusively right handed and guitar is the only thing I'm actively aware of that I do exclusively left, everything else I'm capable of doing with either hand.

robert(original) · Post by **robert(original)** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 8:12 pm

my buddy alex is a lefty, but plays righty. i taught myself to play a few lefty chords a few years back.
really, i think its better for a lefty to learn righty just for the availbility of lefty vs. righty guitars.
and plus lefties are the work of the devil!

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 8:19 pm

robert(original) wrote:my buddy alex is a lefty, but plays righty. i taught myself to play a few lefty chords a few years back.
really, i think its better for a lefty to learn righty just for the availbility of lefty vs. righty guitars.
and plus lefties are the work of the devil!

It sounds so easy but it isn't. Some of us simply cannot "learn" to play righty. I tried. For two years.

kim · Post by **kim** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 9:15 pm

i don't agree robert.
if you have to force yourself into something that didn't feel natural from the start you might never get as good as when you just would've followed your natural impulse.
i think feeling comfortable playing and getting the best out of yourself as a musician is more important than being able to buy any guitar and have more/cheaper options etc. there's are lefty guitars, switchable guitars etc, it can be a bit frustrating and take more effort to find the right thing but it's totally worth it. but that's just my opinion anyway.

SpaceFace · Post by **SpaceFace** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 9:24 pm

or just let her play a right handed guitar strung for a lefty and rock the shit out of it like hendrix

Reece · Post by **Reece** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 9:25 pm

robert(original) wrote:my buddy alex is a lefty, but plays righty. i taught myself to play a few lefty chords a few years back.
really, i think its better for a lefty to learn righty just for the availbility of lefty vs. righty guitars.
and plus lefties are the work of the devil!

see but, rather like the lefties in this thread, if i hold a guitar left handed, i can't do anything.

i'm worse than i would be if i didn't know how to play guitar and i just picked one up right handed. i can't even strum up and down at all, something which i'm fairly sure i didn't have to think too hard about learning righty.

Post by **dots** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:12 pm

Reece wrote:
robert(original) wrote:my buddy alex is a lefty, but plays righty. i taught myself to play a few lefty chords a few years back.
really, i think its better for a lefty to learn righty just for the availbility of lefty vs. righty guitars.
and plus lefties are the work of the devil!
see but, rather like the lefties in this thread, if i hold a guitar left handed, i can't do anything.

i'm worse than i would be if i didn't know how to play guitar and i just picked one up right handed. i can't even strum up and down at all, something which i'm fairly sure i didn't have to think too hard about learning righty.

same here. i've tried to learn a few lefty chords a couple times, but it just didn't work out. i can bat left handed okay, though.

LimpDickCheney · Post by **LimpDickCheney** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 12:51 am

Or she could play right handed guitars strung right handed with a left handed playing style (a la Babyface).

Yarko · Post by **Yarko** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:20 am

I'm a lefty in everything I do except playing guitar. don't know why, but guitar hero might have had something to do with it.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:45 am

Thanks for the insights. The main thing is that I want to encourage her to do what is best for her.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:27 am

I agree that it would be better for her to play righty if she can manage all right. If it's holding her back that's one thing, but otherwise the whole "lefties are rarer/dearer" thing, plus pianists manage for example, wind instrument players, etc... Paul McCartney plays keys and drums righty, and just as proficiently as his lefty guitar/bass playing.

Guitarists who are/were left handed but played righty include Jeff Beck, Paul Simon, Mike Bloomfield, Billy Corgan, Noel Gallagher, and probably some interesting ones too.
And Hendrix wrote with his right hand.