Should a lefty start out on a left handed guitar?

[Bone28]

About a quarter of my beginner guitar students are left handed! Should I encourage them to play left handed (with a left handed guitar)? Many of them already have a right handed guitar.

I thought I would consult the wisdom of the forum, especially left handed folks.

[ericj]

I'm left handed and would recommend it.
Hendrix, McCartney etc. made that choice.
It used to be that left handed guitars were hard to come by.
Martin, Taylor and others do a lot of guitars left handed.
Reverb has a ton of left handed guitars (be sure to search 'left handed'.)
Jerry's Lefty Guitars in Florida, Southpaw Guitars in Texas, Adirondack Guitars, etc. etc. all have lots of left handed guitars. My rep at Sweetwater is left handed.

You can make the case in the other direction (both hands need dexterity) but I'd say lefties should stay lefty.

Eric

[MrDB]

I'm left handed. I play righty, but obviously my left hand is involved. You have to use both hands to play so it never seemed important to me which hand does which.

[Athens]

Lot of opinions on this issue.

I'm a natural lefty who had it beaten out of me in parochial school.
You have much greater availability and variety of choice with right handed guitars.

I've never seen a left-handed trumpet or left handed piano.

My less than humble opinion is that they are learning something that requires the use of both hands. They will adapt to whatever they learn on. If you try and change them it will only confuse the issue.

I'm sure there'll be many different posts on this.

[jpbrooks]

I am left handed and started learning about 4 years ago. I chose to buy and learn on right-handed guitars and am really glad I did. Must easier to find guitars and I don't think it would have been easier had I went with left-handed.

Playing guitar is the only thing I do right handed.

[heavy_picker]

I’m left handed and have played right handed guitar for fifty four years. It’s hard to find a wide choice in left handed guitars, chord books are mostly written for right handed players. It’s easier to jam with people and follow their right hand playing movements if you play right handed. The difficult fingering when starting to learn is done with the left hand. Left handed people have an advantage playing right handed guitars. I see no advantage to learning to play on a left handed guitar.

[Napman41]

I’m a lefty and though it can be frustrating at times I’d recommend that you try to learn playing as a lefty.

[Gmountain]

I think that's a hard question. I'm left handed, and I know they say to pay air guitar and that's what you should do. I play air guitar left handed.

I learned guitar right handed though, and so if I pick up a real guitar, it feels natural to hold it right handed. I had a hard time with rhythm and flat picking with my right hand though, and it has taken me some time to learn to use my right hand. I still struggle with it, but I would have to use my right hand for something in any case. Fretting would probably have been even more difficult.

I don't know if there is any right (or left) answer.

Saying it doesn't matter because you have to use two hands....well...I don't know any right handed people who play lefty guitars.

[Steel and wood]

The short answer is yes.

9 out of 10 lefties will gravitate automatically to playing the guitar right handed. (These people often do things with both hands although predominantly left handed). However for those 1% extreme lefties, they will want a left handed guitar. (That's why they don't make too many left handed guitars because they only account for that 1% of the population).

No way that I would force a 1% leftie player to play right handed and I'd be telling them to get a left handed guitar.

[SpiderTrap]

Depends what feels normal ? I play pool right handed, shoot a rifle RH , guitar felt weird LH ? Always played RH. Im fully LH , why I do the others RH I have no idea ? Write LH was never hassled in school as childhood lefty friend would always get LH slapped with Ruler or some nonsense , never happened to me . I agree with the 1% .

[Sagebrush Tom]

I think you should discuss this with each left handed student all the options that are available to them. I'm a lefty that plays right handed only because the guitar i started with was right handed and didn't know what options i had. By the the time i knew it, it was probably too late to try playing lefty. The reason i said probably is the fact that i started playing at age 60 almost seven years ago and in that time my biggest challenge is strumming. Fingerpicking just seems so easy to me versus strumming.

Let nature take it's course and don't try to push anyone towards a certain way. Hopefully each student will end up playing what feels most comfortable to them.
Tom

[Steel and wood]

My wife and son are both lefties but naturally play guitar right handed. (Part of the 9% crowd who are fairly ambidextrous). Playing a left handed guitar just doesn't feel right for them.

The only way to tell like others have said is to give them a right handed to play and ask if it feels natural to play this way. (If it doesn't and they automatically want to turn the guitar upside down, etc. then tell them to get a left handed guitar).

PS: I know some instruments cannot be specifically made to accommodate extreme lefties, but leftie drummers can set up their kit to accommodate their playing, leftie violinist can get a left handed violin I'm pretty sure and therefore guitarists can purchase a left handed guitar.

[Methos1979]

I'm a left that plays right. Thank heavens! I just came naturally that way. I played air guitar righty. Once I started playing it always seemed that the more difficult stuff was going on with the left hand anyway. Strumming is easy and most people start out strumming. I personally think it's backwards.

But regardless, I'm so very glad I learned righty or I would have missed out on playing a whole bunch of really nice guitars. I'm a huge fan of being left-handed and generally consider it a badge of honor but when it comes to guitar, righty all the way.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by Athens

I've never seen a left-handed ..... piano.

Now, you have:

http://www.classicfm.com/discover-mu...istopher-seed/

Originally Posted by Gmountain

...well...I don't know any right handed people who play lefty guitars.

Check out Keith Horne.

[mattyc71]

Why not give them each a test? Let's assume that a right-handed guitar looks the way it does because strumming/picking really is the hard job (makes sense so far?). Have each of your lefty students mute the strings and try out some strumming patterns with their left hand and then with their right hand (just flip the guitar over). You'll know quickly where each one is stronger. If you want to really learn something interesting, have your new righty students do it too. Let us know what you find.

I started playing long ago and have no ability to play right-handed (yes, everyone's alittle bit different in this regard). Problem was that there was little or no lefty equipment to be had, which is why there are so few left-handed guitar players of a certain age. This is no longer such a big problem, as a lot of makers (and some retailers) are catching on. Good Luck!!