Should a lefty start out on a left handed guitar?

[Otterhound]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

Now, you have:

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Check out Keith Horne.

First off . Play the way that you are more comfortable with . Left handed guitars certainly are available . In fact , there are at least 4 stores that I know of that cater primarily to the lefty player . On the flip side , I have guitars that the majority of right handers can't play . Fair dinkum . A left handed guitar is less likely to be borrowed or stolen as well .
A few years back , I was at the Woodstock show . Sadly , the only lefty guitar exhibited that year was the same one there the previous year . Before leaving , I decided to watch the act on the stage , and there it was . A lefty guitar and player . I waited until the end of their set to have a word of thanks to the guy for bringing a lefty guitar . As we spoke , he told me that he does everything else right handed except for playing the guitar . It just felt so natural to him and he never regretted his decision .
Most recently , I met a guy at Tellus 360 that was from Jersey . He asked about my guitar , so I let him check it out . He turned it upside down and began to tear it up . Later , he explained that his dad played lefty so he learned .
Anyway , should you choose to go lefty , try to learn like Elizabeth Cotten or Albert King at the same time . It will give you a distinct advantage over most of us .

[TBman]

If they already bought their guitar, then don't say anything to them. As a "righty" I never really understood why right handed players fret the chords with their left hand. It would seem that the dominate hand would do the intricate high dexterity work (ignoring finger style and high speed flat picking, and intricate rhythm playing for this discussion)

[Seagull S6]

Originally Posted by 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.

As has been mentioned, there are different degrees of left handedness. For someone that is naturally left handed, it is a crime to force them to play R/H.

When I was 10 I had a borrowed guitar that I restrung and was minding my own business sitting in my room trying to pick Chet Atkins lick off of a record. Well, my dad sees this and immediately makes me restring the guitar backwards (right handed) and spouts a bunch of nonsense on why playing L/H is wrong.

Not much after that, I gave up trying to play because it just felt unnatural to me. It wasn't until I was almost thirty and bought a L/H guitar that I took up trying to learn how to play.

I would like to thank my dad for screwing me out of my most important learning years. Your students should have both guitars available to them so they can make their own decision without pressure from a world that doesn't understand.

[Steel and wood]

Originally Posted by Seagull S6

As has been mentioned, there are different degrees of left handedness. For someone that is naturally left handed, it is a crime to force them to play R/H.

When I was 10 I had a borrowed guitar that I restrung and was minding my own business sitting in my room trying to pick Chet Atkins lick off of a record. Well, my dad sees this and immediately makes me restring the guitar backwards (right handed) and spouts a bunch of nonsense on why playing L/H is wrong.

Not much after that, I gave up trying to play because it just felt unnatural to me. It wasn't until I was almost thirty and bought a L/H guitar that I took up trying to learn how to play.

I would like to thank my dad for screwing me out of my most important learning years. Your students should have both guitars available to them so they can make their own decision without pressure from a world that doesn't understand.

In a nutshell.

Learning guitar can be difficult enough and making it more difficult for a percentage of lefties is not the way to go.

Plenty of famous left handed guitarist playing left handed guitars including Paul McCartney for starters.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by TBman

...As a "righty" I never really understood why right handed players fret the chords with their left hand. It would seem that the dominate hand would do the intricate high dexterity work (ignoring finger style and high speed flat picking, and intricate rhythm playing for this discussion)

That exactly the reasoning Keith had in deciding to play lefty instruments.

[The Bard Rocks]

When I started I was only vaguely aware that there were such things as left-handed guitars. My reasoning was that the left hand (on a RH guitar) does all the hard work, while the right hand just strums. By the time I got around to fingerpicking, it would have felt all wrong to change. And I am glad it worked out this way.

I have picked up left-handed guitars and tried to form chords, wondering, "Was it this hard when I first learned?" It never seemed possible that it could have been that hard.

[virob]

I’m another lefty that plays RH. When I started it never occurred to me that there was a choice. I do notice that my dominant hand is better at rhythm, and suspect that I would be a better strummer/rhythmic player if I had learned to play LH. If someone is interested in the more modern percussive techniques, this could be a consideration, if they have a similar bias.

[Rudy4]

Contrary to popular opinion I'd downplay anyone's need to play a specifically oriented instrument. Guitars aren't specifically right-handed, but simply mimic the vast majority of instruments that are noted with the left hand.

The "need" for a lefty to play an instrument set up as a mirror image of a standard instrument has much more to do with social pressures resulting from a basic misunderstanding that anything relating to handedness. The need for a left-handed version of whatever the task at hand requires starts becoming programmed as a mindset as soon as we start to be taught to write.

The hand interacting with the fretboard of a standard guitar requires a much higher degree of physical manipulation than the right hand, which might need as little "skill" as performing a simple strum pattern.

Although there's always a high-dollar answer to the left-handed piano argument the bottom line is simple economics, with the VAST majority of pianos NOT relating a handedness qualifier. There's always a manufacturer willing to accept someone's money if they feel they must have a reverse configuration for a keyboard before their brain will allow them to interact with an instrument to create music. That's plain silly.

I'm STRONGLY left-handed and I'm very fortunate that no one ever tried to tell me I needed a "left-handed" guitar.

Excuse me, I have to go out and find myself a left-handed bicycle now...

[Looburst]

Speaking as a left handed person who was encouraged to learn and did learn right handed, I would say it's all up to whether they bought one already, Like Barry said. I'm very happy I learned right handed because of all my dexterity being in the left hand. If they've never played before, start them right handed, they'll thank you later!

[Guitars+gems]

Originally Posted by TBman

If they already bought their guitar, then don't say anything to them. As a "righty" I never really understood why right handed players fret the chords with their left hand. It would seem that the dominate hand would do the intricate high dexterity work (ignoring finger style and high speed flat picking, and intricate rhythm playing for this discussion)

I've always thought this too. So one day after reading one of these handedness threads, I flipped my guitar over and tried to make chords with my right hand. I didn't change the strings, I just made the chord shapes as if the high E was at the bottom, etc. Know what? It was darned hard! Part of the problem may have been not having the muscle memory in my right hand, but still, I found it difficult. What I can't be sure of though, is if I had never played guitar before, and started out using my right hand on the fretboard, would it have been as difficult?

I agree with the idea of letting individuals choose for themselves.

[Looburst]

Yep, muscle memory is probably 90 % of the difficulty.

[Steel and wood]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

Contrary to popular opinion I'd downplay anyone's need to play a specifically oriented instrument. Guitars aren't specifically right-handed, but simply mimic the vast majority of instruments that are noted with the left hand.

The "need" for a lefty to play an instrument set up as a mirror image of a standard instrument has much more to do with social pressures resulting from a basic misunderstanding that anything relating to handedness. The need for a left-handed version of whatever the task at hand requires starts becoming programmed as a mindset as soon as we start to be taught to write.

The hand interacting with the fretboard of a standard guitar requires a much higher degree of physical manipulation than the right hand, which might need as little "skill" as performing a simple strum pattern.

Although there's always a high-dollar answer to the left-handed piano argument the bottom line is simple economics, with the VAST majority of pianos NOT relating a handedness qualifier. There's always a manufacturer willing to accept someone's money if they feel they must have a reverse configuration for a keyboard before their brain will allow them to interact with an instrument to create music. That's plain silly.

I'm STRONGLY left-handed and I'm very fortunate that no one ever tried to tell me I needed a "left-handed" guitar.

Excuse me, I have to go out and find myself a left-handed bicycle now...

It's not about telling a left hander they need a left handed guitar, it's about making it easier and more natural for them by giving them an alternative solution. (There are golf clubs, musical instruments and anything in between to cater for left handers). As we said, only a small minority of lefties will gravitate to a left handed guitar.

Why would you learn to play golf on a standard right hand set of clubs if you could purchase a left handed set and then learn. (And how many famous leftie golfers using leftie golf clubs are there by the way). The point is that lots of things are reconfigured for lefties who need it so why do we draw the line with musical instruments and specifically guitars.

I don't get that everyone should learn on a right handed guitar if it doesn't feel natural. (You are simply putting this very small group of people off learning guitar). A left handed guitar (like a left handed set of golf clubs) is a blessing for some people.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by 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.

Bone, I've taught a lot of students myself over the years, including a lot of lefties. What I have found is that some lefties can learn right-handed pretty well, while others simply cannot. It depends on how strongly left-handed they are.

What I've always done is start by saying: "Well, let's try it right-handed at first, and see how well you do." And a lot of them do just fine. But others try and can't make it work right-handed.

All this talk about how much more convenient it is to play right-handed is completely irrelevant if the student cannot do it. And unlike some folks, I find that trying to browbeat left-handed kids into playing right-handed is worse than useless - if the students are so strongly left-handed that right-handed playing is outside their grasp, continuing to insist that they learn right-handed is actively destructive and demoralizing. Chances are that you'll scare them off playing entirely, possibly for life.

You see, there's a continuum of handedness, and some of us are more strongly right- or left-handed than others.

1**2**3**4**5**6**7**8**9

If someone who is strongly and completely left-handed is a 1, and someone equally strongly right-handed is a 9, then someone who is completely ambidextrous would be a 5.

My mother was a left-handed kid, and back in those days teachers would smack children with a ruler if they used their left hands, in the misguided belief that they could "cure" the children of their left-handedness. If left alone, my mother would have probably have been around a 3 or a 4 level lefty on this scale, but the coercive methods used in schools back then nudged her more towards the middle.

Likewise, as a small child I favored my left, mostly, but once I started going to school it was just easier to do things right-handed. So I'm probably a 6 or maybe a 7, as opposed to my sister and father, who rank around 8 or 8.5.

Since most lefties seem to hover around 3 or 4 on this continuum, it might well be easier for them to acquire the skills to learn to play right-handed than it will be to go through the trouble of finding a left-handed guitar or to convert an existing instrument.

But some of those lefties you'll encounter simply do not have that option. If they're not allowed to learn and play the instrument left-handed, they're just not going to be able to play at all. And as a teacher, part of your job is to be sensitive to their needs and figure out how to reach them and how to teach them.

So if you decide to tell those strongly left-handed students that they need to cowboy up and learn how to play right-handed, that would be an abdication of your responsibilities, frankly. Even though we'll hear from lots of lefties who'll tell us: "I did it, so anybody can!"

Uh, sorry, but no - maybe a LOT of lefties can learn to play right-handed, but others simply cannot. Part of your job as a teacher is to figure out which kind of lefty student you're dealing with, and for those who are so strongly left-handed that they need to have a lefty-strung guitar, just start teaching them as though you're looking into a mirror.

It's really easy to teach that kind of lefty student, actually, once you get used to it.

So, short version: what I do with a left-handed student, always, is explain why it's more of a hassle to play left-handed because instruments need to be converted, etc. I'll say: "So let's start by trying to play right-handed, and see how that works out."

If it absolutely does not work, then they need to get the instrument restrung.

I would say that at least three fourths of the time, lefty students seem to do pretty well learning to play right-handed. But that leaves 25% of them who will need to be accommodated. No matter what some folks bellowing on the Internet will tell you.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Guitars+gems

I've always thought this too. So one day after reading one of these handedness threads, I flipped my guitar over and tried to make chords with my right hand. I didn't change the strings, I just made the chord shapes as if the high E was at the bottom, etc. Know what? It was darned hard! Part of the problem may have been not having the muscle memory in my right hand, but still, I found it difficult. What I can't be sure of though, is if I had never played guitar before, and started out using my right hand on the fretboard, would it have been as difficult?

One of my standard exercises that I do before starting to teach any new instrument class is to flip my instruments over and play them left-handed. For a least five minutes. It's awkward and cumbersome and it HURTS!

I do it as a practical reminder of how difficult and physically painful it is to start playing stringed instruments as a beginner. From what I've seen, a great many musical instrument teachers seem to forget that awkwardness and sometimes astonishing pain.

Originally Posted by Guitars+gems

I agree with the idea of letting individuals choose for themselves.

As I wrote in my previous post, when I have lefty students, at first I encourage them to try playing right-handed to see how they do. But if it's just insurmountable for them, I let them switch. I don't tell them to go away and come back when they're serious about learning guitar, which some teachers apparently do...


whm

[Steadfastly]

I'm right handed, bat, golf right handed but shoot left handed when playing hockey so I guess some left handed people would prefer to play guitar right handed. Many of us are a little ambidextrous but let the person choose.