Should a lefty start out on a left handed guitar?

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by Guitars+gems

Here is Paul McCartney teaching a little guitar. Mirror imaging works well. Makes me wonder how I ever learned anything from watching a right handed player, being right handed myself!

It took me a second to reorient to not mirroring.

[Otterhound]

Originally Posted by Steadfastly

Should a righty start out on a right handed guitar?

LOL
Sounds like you need an intervention .

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Bone28

About a quarter of my beginner guitar students are left handed…
…I thought I would consult the wisdom of the forum, especially left handed folks.

Hi B28…

I taught acoustic guitar locally for over 40 years, and in all the artistic community (actors, musicians, painters), it's pretty surprising how many of us are left handed. If every left hand oriented guitar player were to switch to reverse strung guitars, we'd have a lot more people playing reverse engineered guitars.

No matter whether one learns to play conventional or reverse engineered guitars, it's a two handed process. And every beginner student I ever taught for the 40 years struggled with guitars being awkward, strumming and switching chords when starting.

Playing guitar reverse handed is an option with it's proponents, and the reality is when starting from scratch and if a teacher can show them how to properly tune, hold, fret, strum and pick their instrument properly, they will learn it if they have any musical aptitude.

In 40 years of local teaching I had 2 students who played reverse handed (before I met them). Both had bought conventional acoustic guitars and had a tech seal and recut the saddle, and cut a new nut. Neither was exceptionally gifted, but both really enjoyed playing.

It was never the topic of any discussions. They came to learn guitar. I cannot even tell you why they elected to play reversed in the first place.

When a parent of a left handed prospective student asked, I requested they drop by my house (where I taught from) and bring the prospective student.

In about 20 minutes I sat them down with my OM, and had the prospect learn an Em chord, an E chord (played in three positions up and down the neck), learn to switch from C to Am7 (lift one finger) then place the ring finger down to make an Am (then reverse the pattern), and learn a 4 finger G chord all while strumming a simple quarter note-quarter note-half note, quarter-quarter-quarter switch strumming pattern, and they all caught on very quickly.

If they could not have managed that, I might well have borrowed one of my reverse-handed student's instruments and tried them with it. Never did though.

I concluded if they could manage simple strumming and playing the fingerings of 4-5 chords in 20-30. minutes they were good to go.

[Otterhound]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi B28…

I taught acoustic guitar locally for over 40 years, and in all the artistic community (actors, musicians, painters), it's pretty surprising how many of us are left handed. If every left hand oriented guitar player were to switch to reverse strung guitars, we'd have a lot more people playing reverse engineered guitars.

No matter whether one learns to play conventional or reverse engineered guitars, it's a two handed process. And every beginner student I ever taught for the 40 years struggled with guitars being awkward, strumming and switching chords when starting.

Playing guitar reverse handed is an option with it's proponents, and the reality is when starting from scratch and if a teacher can show them how to properly tune, hold, fret, strum and pick their instrument properly, they will learn it if they have any musical aptitude.

In 40 years of local teaching I had 2 students who played reverse handed (before I met them). Both had bought conventional acoustic guitars and had a tech seal and recut the saddle, and cut a new nut. Neither was exceptionally gifted, but both really enjoyed playing.

It was never the topic of any discussions. They came to learn guitar. I cannot even tell you why they elected to play reversed in the first place.

When a parent of a left handed prospective student asked, I requested they drop by my house (where I taught from) and bring the prospective student.

In about 20 minutes I sat them down with my OM, and had the prospect learn an Em chord, an E chord (played in three positions up and down the neck), learn to switch from C to Am7 (lift one finger) then place the ring finger down to make an Am (then reverse the pattern), and learn a 4 finger G chord all while strumming a simple quarter note-quarter note-half note, quarter-quarter-quarter switch strumming pattern, and they all caught on very quickly.

If they could not have managed that, I might well have borrowed one of my reverse-handed student's instruments and tried them with it. Never did though.

I concluded if they could manage simple strumming and playing the fingerings of 4-5 chords in 20-30. minutes they were good to go.

We don't play reverse handed , we play left handed !
This is that exact bias that needs to be eliminated .
Needed to be said .

[Jambi]

Originally Posted by Otterhound

We don't play reverse handed , we play left handed !
This is that exact bias that needs to be eliminated .
Needed to be said .

Well said.

[Psfam]

i am left handed and can't imagine playing a left handed guitar. I think the fingering hand does the harder work on a guitar. Also it's easier to find right handed guitars.

Another advantage to lefties...because the world is predominantly right handed, we have to adaptable.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Otterhound

We don't play reverse handed , we play left handed !
This is that exact bias that needs to be eliminated .
Needed to be said .

Hi O

I have zero bias about you, or which way you point the neck.

It is reverse handed as far as I'm concerned…whether you like it or not.

I'm left handed and play conventional guitars.

[Otterhound]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

I'm left handed and play conventional guitars.

Reverse handed .

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Otterhound

Reverse handed .

Hi O

Smiling…

[Seagull S6]

Originally Posted by Pitar

My playing partner, however, was completely behind the learning curve as a lefty playing a righty guitar.
He could not get his right hand dexterity working for a very long time.

Holding a pick and using it were two very distinct steps.
Frustrated with that, he tried finger picking instead and found he could not get his 2nd thru 4th fingers to cooperate.

His ambition won the day, though, and he eventually got the pick working. Then, he got some basic finger picking going but only used his 1st and third fingers.

His middle finger was dead. He looked like he was giving the dreaded gesture when he played. I have tried to hold and play a left handed guitar. No way.

The person described here would have passed your Righty test with flying colors because chording does come easier if you use your dominant hand and his strumming would have been at least passable. Did playing R/H work for him? No, apparently not.

I could have passed your Righty test as well and did try many years from time to time to play righty. Didn't work for me either. My strumming/picking articulation and expression was just atrocious.

Switching to lefty for me anyway, was the best thing I could have ever done. These days I'm learning how to finger pick (Travis Picking?) and my playing has a lot better expression than it ever did R/H.

Should everyone Left handed learn L//H? Certainly not. You, Mark Knopfler, Glen Campbell and others have proven that. However, there are some that by far L/H for them is the best option which your Lefty/Righty test probably wouldn't have weed out those people.

There. I feel better now...........

[scriv58]

i play left handed guitars, have often thought wistfully about playing righthanded...the bad side is i can't play others' guitars, the good side is no one can play my guitars.
During a lesson with roy book binder a long time ago, he explained that the fretting hand is what you know, the picking hand is who you are. So it would seem that the most expression would be gained with the dominant hand picking the strings.
Bottom line is do what you want. All these pages (i didn't read past the first page, this being such a shopworn subject) just show that the only opinion that counts is your own.

[s2y]

The nuns at Our Lady of Asbestos Elementary tried to switch my writing hand away from the evil left. Yet, I'm not offended by right handed guitars.

There's a lot of confirmation bias going on. You can't perfectly duplicate the learning conditions as controlled as a conventional medical study. If you tell someone that playing a right handed guitar is impossible, that will be the perception and they'll be more likely to "need" a left handed guitar. The guy who sold me my guitar was a lefty and said it wasn't a big deal and that psychology worked on me.

[Seagull S6]

Originally Posted by scriv58

i play left handed guitars, have often thought wistfully about playing righthanded...the bad side is i can't play others' guitars, the good side is no one can play my guitars.
During a lesson with roy book binder a long time ago, he explained that the fretting hand is what you know, the picking hand is who you are. So it would seem that the most expression would be gained with the dominant hand picking the strings.
Bottom line is do what you want. All these pages (i didn't read past the first page, this being such a shopworn subject) just show that the only opinion that counts is your own.

That is some real wisdom right there.

Something I learned from watching this gifted player which Roy seems to do as well is that they never seem to even look at their dominant hand but watch their fretting hand like a hawk as if they are supervising what it does.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Gabriella9797

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by Seagull S6

That is some real wisdom right there.

Something I learned from watching this gifted player which Roy seems to do as well is that they never seem to even look at their dominant hand but watch their fretting hand like a hawk as if they are supervising what it does.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Gabriella9797

Hmm, that's true. I do that, too. No matter how complex my dominant hand fingerpicking is, I never look at it. I wonder what that means, and if lefty players playing right do it the same way.

I like that "picking hand is who you are" line. For my first year, of course, everything was about the fretting hand, but there came a point when I thought, if I'm going to drag a lefty guitar around on international flights, I'm going to take advantage of my left hand, and then I started to really focus on it and invent all sorts of complex patterns and rhythms. I'm reasonably sure I couldn't play them with my right hand, though I could do a basic strum ok.

[jimmy bookout]

And finally, here we are....
Right handed players trying to explain to left handed players why they should not play left handed.

Some folks (like me) started out playing left handed (I am right handed, btw).

This will be my last entry in this month's lefty verses righty hand wringing. EVERY single one of these threads ALWAYS ends up the same way, and every time I pose the same question, which has NEVER been answered:
Why do you care how someone chooses to play the guitar? It just confounds me.