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#1
10-25-2005, 10:53 AM
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Left handed - should I learn to play left handed or right handed?
Hi everyone,
I'd really like to learn guitar. I am left handed. I went into a guitar shop yesterday and spent over an hour talking to a shop assistant. He let me try out left and right handed guitars. On first picking up each of the two, he said I looked more comfortable left handed. But, eventually, he said I looked comfortable right handed too. He himself is left handed but learned to play right handed. He heartily recommends learning to play right handed as there are loads more, lower priced, guitars and it's easier to follow instructions in books. All the left handers he knows play right handed too. He said that playing right handed can be advantageous when you're left handed because a lot of work is done by the left hand in fingering chords. But I feel my right hand could do that too. I walked into the shop thinking I should play left handed - feeling quite assured. But now the prospect of learning right handed seems more rewarding. The guy said I could buy a right handed guitar and if I don't get on with it after a month they could fit a device to convert it to left handed. Even if I had to pay for the converter thingymabob, the total would be cheaper than initially buying a left handed guitar. But I just don't know. In my head, it still feels the more comfortable option to play left handed, just a whole lot more convenient to go right handed. However, I wonder if it would become second nature to play right handed if I learned that way. Also, would it take longer for me to learn right handed, if it's less immediate, than it would to learn left handed? I wonder if I favour left handed because I don't want to forfeit being left handed and am being unduly stubborn or if I really should go left handed. *Confused.* I'd really appreciate any advice or stories of your own. Thanks for reading this.  Jo x 
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#2
10-25-2005, 11:03 AM
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I think there is no right answer, but I have heard folks say that you should go with what you are most comfortable with.
I am left handed, but I do play guitar 'right handed', although I do use both hands to play guitar It never occurred to me to get a left-handed model when I first started playing. As far as learning is concerned, I have an instructional DVD by a very accomplished left-handed player (John Doyle). I though it would be confusing to follow along but it is not - it is just like looking in the mirror.
__________________
Paul 2020 ?? 2016 Gibson 1958 Reissue True Historic
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#3
10-25-2005, 11:08 AM
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I am a lefty that learned to play right-handed, because I learned on other peoples' guitars. It felt terribly awkward to play right at first, and I really wanted to learn lefty, but out of necessity, I learned righty.
Very soon, though, I felt way more comfortable righty than lefty. I'd say within a few hours of playing. The way I look at it is: Right now, you can't play guitar. If you learn lefty, you'll know how to play lefty. If you learn righty, you'll learn how to play righty. Either way, you start at zero ability and end up at some amount. I don't think that getting over the hump of initial comfort will take much time or effort at all. You might as well make it easier on yourself in the long run as was recommended by the shop guy, as far as convenience, cost, etc. I'd say, try righty first, and if you find that after a few weeks of playing, it's just too awkward, switch it up and see where you are.
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#4
10-25-2005, 11:18 AM
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Hi SB
It sounds like you are getting some very good help at your music store. I've been teaching guitar for 20 years and I recommend playing right handed. I have had left handed students but most of the music out there is for right handed playing. When you are typing, you don't do it right or left handed. You are using both of your hands and I see guitar playing the same way. Best of luck and welcome to the forum, Don
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#5
10-25-2005, 11:58 AM
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paralysis by analysis....
Quote:
take a breath of fresh air... drop to your knees... and give thanks that you don't have three or four arms.... that'd get whacky complicated...... maybe take up the piano so there's no decision to worry about... worrying about things will make you scatterbrained...then it'll kill you over time.... go one way.... there is something to be said for first impressions/gut feelings... give it some time... if you're not happy after awhile... go the other way... and if you sprout some additional arms in the meantime... cross that bridge when you get to it... or maybe go underneath that bridge 'monkey-bars' style or or or................................................ ................. Good Luck!
__________________
Indeed, there is something in the current DC/NY culture that equates a lack of unthinking boosterism with a lack of patriotism. As if not being drunk on the latest Dow gains is somehow un-American. - Arianna Huffington May 11, 2009
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#6
10-25-2005, 12:25 PM
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Quote:
HOWEVER, you will encounter considerable frustration, angst and futility when you: search for left-handed instruments to try and/or buy, try to decipher instructional books designed from a right-handed perspective, desire to play your friend's guitars, wish to have them try YOUR guitar, try to find a variety left-handed thumbpicks... and so on. Having played left-handed guitar for over 25 years, I can honestly say one would be better off learning to play backwards...that is, right-handed... if one can overcome the natural desire to hold a guitar with your dominant rhythm hand over the soundhole. The vast array of available guitars for the right-handed world makes it a more desirable choice for those just beginning. Oh, and don't believe the illogical statement often told to lefties by well-meaning right-handed teachers, "it's better that your dominant hand is doing the fretboard fingering anyway"...for obviously if that was indeed the case, all righties would be playing left-handed. 
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#7
10-25-2005, 01:01 PM
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I am a left-hander learning to play right-handed. I've been through the lefty-righty decision all my life and if you go lefty, you always limit your selection and usually increase the price of what you buy. Also, you can't use other people's stuff. Since playing guitar requires both hands I didn't see any advantage learning one way or the other.
Is there a reason "regular" guitars use the dominant hand over the sound hole? Is picking/strumming considered harder than fretting? Lew
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#8
10-25-2005, 01:10 PM
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Hi Jo x...
Another lefty who plays right handed. I also play keyboard right handed. Learned accordian, trombone and trumpet right handed as well. Glad I learned right handed. All the dexterity for complex fingerings is needed in the left hand.
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Baby #1.1 Baby #1.2 Baby #02 Baby #03 Baby #04 Baby #05 Larry's songs... …Just because you've argued someone into silence doesn't mean you have convinced them…
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#9
10-25-2005, 01:12 PM
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Quote:
For the record, I learned classical right hand technique, and I'm a lefty as I stated in my earlier post. I can't even write my name with my right hand ledgibly, although I bet that if I worked at it I could eventually learn to. I think the same thing applies here. So, I guess I'll get off the fence here and say I'd recommend learning 'right-handed'. Good luck!
__________________
Paul 2020 ?? 2016 Gibson 1958 Reissue True Historic
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#10
10-25-2005, 01:14 PM
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Quote:
perhaps the reason most righties play 'right-handed' (whatever the h e dubble puck sticks that means since we play with two hands) is simply because that's the way they were shown to play... how on earth does anyone know whether or not most righties would generally be better off if they started out playing 'left-handed' ? perhaps things aren't as obvious as they seem... perhaps they are....
__________________
Indeed, there is something in the current DC/NY culture that equates a lack of unthinking boosterism with a lack of patriotism. As if not being drunk on the latest Dow gains is somehow un-American. - Arianna Huffington May 11, 2009
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#11
10-25-2005, 01:19 PM
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Lefty playing Lefty here ..... who "started trying" to play Righty !!
Of course, the fretting hand was better when I tried "righty" but in the end .... IMHO I believe that the dominant hand is better for strumming or fingerpicking!!! It doesn't matter if you are limiting your guitars available. How many can you own? You can get them made for you, when you need them !!!! It's easy for the righties to say play righty BUT they would never go for us lefties telling them to play lefty !!!! And if you are getting lessons from a righty, you will be a mirror image from them !! Go lefty !!!!!
__________________
I'm a Lefty ... Playing Lefty guitars !!! 2001 Epiphone Casino 2012 Voyage Air VA-OM04 2011 Gibson Les Paul Honeyburst 60's Tribute w/P90's 2005 Gibson J160-E 2001 314ce LTD
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#12
10-25-2005, 02:19 PM
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Yet another lefty here playing a right-handed guitar. I second the notion that if you've never played before that it probably won't make much difference learning to play right-handed. Unless all you ever do is strum 5- and 6-string chords, you'll end up needing to be quite dexterious (is that a word?) with both hands anyway.
Now if I could just find a left-handed piano, I could really rock on two instruments!
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#13
10-25-2005, 07:09 PM
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Another one of the few lefties playing lefty.
I agree with those that said the dominant hand has the most control and contains the rythm. I would also say it depends on the persons natural righthanded or lefthandedness, its easy to say both hands perform equally difficult tasks but its not that simple for everyone. When I decided to play, I desperately wanted to start right away but I just couldn't get used to the righthanded configuration no matter how many times I tried..every time I was passed a guitar, my brain kept telling me the way it felt most comfortable and after a while of that and unsuccessful attempts to change that, I ordered my first lefty and went through the agonizing 3 month wait for my first to be built. I've bought and sold very little, actually only the first two I originally bought were traded in and since my collection has been pretty much complete. I don't think i've suffered a lack of great instruments in the least because I knew I had the interest in the instrument to seek them out from the start. For some lefties they can make the change with no or little adjustment..for some thats simply not the case. I may not have the in store selection a righty would have but in all honestly I set out to elimate that issue by buying the finest I could afford and there certainly isn't any local shops that have anything that could tempt me to move anything I had in favor of something else. I wouldn't change anything if I was starting out again because it wasn't a matter of thinking I should play lefty because that was my natural hand..It was a matter of needing to because I never would have had the interest or come this far if I hadn't.
__________________
Derek 14fret 0 12fret 000
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#14
10-26-2005, 03:40 AM
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Thanks for your help everyone. Man, I'm terrible at making decisions! That would be one of the reasons I called myself Scatterbrain! I think I'll go for a right handed guitar and at least then there's the option of changing it if it doesn't work out. It's odd because, although I'm left handed, there is more movement in my right hand - I can move my fingers with more ease. And there's more rhythm in my left hand. I know that suggests I should go left handed. That and I've been noticing which hand I perform most tasks with and it's left all the time apart from using a mouse and blowing my nose! But I think, I hope, with practise, I could alter that. And, like so many of you have said, it's no one handed thing. I'm going to the guitar shop again on Saturday - hopefully to buy something.
Just thought of another question: Quote:
You know, I'm still not decided! ... Maybe I should grow more arms - then hopefully one pair will be able to play right handed successfully! x
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#15
10-26-2005, 04:08 AM
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Quote:
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There are still so many beautiful things to be said in C major... Sergei Prokofiev
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