Why did you start playing lefthanded?

[Picker1]

I would think that picking up a guitar for the first time it would, most likely, be a right-handed guitar. I assume you didn't know which hand would be more difficult. So, why go lefty?

[Rosewood99]

Isn't that something you are born with?

[Picker1]

Originally Posted by Rosewood99

Isn't that something you are born with?

You're born left-handed but you're not born playing guitar

[pagedr]

Originally Posted by Picker1

You're born left-handed but you're not born playing guitar

Yeah, but everyone has a dominant hand. It's like asking why someone started writing with their left hand, or brushing their teeth with their left hand. It's what was comfortable due to the hand dominance they were born with.

[ScottSD]

Born Lefty, play righty. My take on this is that after many years of existing in a world optimized for right handed people you kind of get used to it. When it came time to learn guitar it didn't seem like a big deal. Maybe if they'd had more of those green handled scissors in my elementary school I'd be strictly left handed

Scott

[Picker1]

Originally Posted by pagedr

Yeah, but everyone has a dominant hand. It's like asking why someone started writing with their left hand, or brushing their teeth with their left hand. It's what was comfortable due to the hand dominance they were born with.

True, but almost every other musical instrument doesn't allow the option to play lefthanded. You just have to learn how to play like everyone else. I am lefthanded and play right-handed. I didn't even consider a lefthanded guitar

[sinistral]

I started to learn how to play the guitar when I was 9 or 10, in the early 1970s. I’m pretty sure that I was too young to be influenced by musicians like Paul McCartney or Jimi Hendrix. My first guitar was a Yamaha nylon-string classical, and as far as I can recall it was always restrung lefty for me to play. Not sure whose idea that was—not mine and unlikely my parents. I assume that it was a teacher’s recommendation. So I have no real idea why I started playing left-handed.

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by Picker1

I would think that picking up a guitar for the first time it would, most likely, be a right-handed guitar. I assume you didn't know which hand would be more difficult. So, why go lefty?

Because it's the way that a person pictures themselves doing it.

Period. The end.

I had a couple come in with their son, who did not yet play, and they said their son is lefty and they'd want a left handed guitar for him....

I saw what was coming so I got out a sheet of paper and started writing with my left hand, because that's what I do. They made mention of 'Oh, so you're a lefty'.....

I then picked up a guitar and started playing righty, because that's what I do.

I then told them their son will determine what side he'll play from. I asked him to play 'air guitar' for me, and he played righty.

Case closed.

It's not rocket science.

Regards,
Howard Emerson

[jrb715]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

Because it's the way that a person pictures themselves doing it.

Period. The end.

I had a couple come in with their son, who did not yet play, and they said their son is lefty and they'd want a left handed guitar for him....

I saw what was coming so I got out a sheet of paper and started writing with my left hand, because that's what I do. They made mention of 'Oh, so you're a lefty'.....

I then picked up a guitar and started playing righty, because that's what I do.

I then told them their son will determine what side he'll play from. I asked him to play 'air guitar' for me, and he played righty.

Case closed.

It's not rocket science.

Regards,
Howard Emerson

This is certainly how it went with my son--not with guitar but with baseball and golf. The first time he picked up a plastic bat when he was 4 he started swinging left handed and at 7 he carried this over to golf. And continued, very successfully, to swing left handed through high school with baseball and of course to the present with golf. He's very right handed in all other things--including guitar.

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by jrb715

This is certainly how it went with my son--not with guitar but with baseball and golf. The first time he picked up a plastic bat when he was 4 he started swinging left handed and at 7 he carried this over to golf. And continued, very successfully, to swing left handed through high school with baseball and of course to the present with golf. He's very right handed in all other things--including guitar.

It’s amazing, ain’t it?? I have taught lefty & righty players, dyslexic righty players who learned more easily in front of a mirror, and a righty who had to switch after blowing the tips off his left hand in a science experiment.

I taught myself how to write right handed so I can do crossword puzzles while I eat breakfast. I can NOT hold a spoon with my right hand!

Best,
Howard Emerson

[Stratcat77]

I'm a lefty who plays right-hand guitars. I actually think if you are a flat picker, left hand coordination might be more important? If you are using your right hand to fingerpick maybe that's where you need more coordination, but for how I play it seems like the left hand on the fretboard may be the one that requires more strength and dexterity?

[spartan]

I am left-handed and I play left-handed. In hindsight, I wish I learned to play right-handed so I wasn’t so limited in the guitars I could experience but I started playing as a kid and I don’t even remember thinking it was something to consider. It was never recommended to me. You see guys like Hendrix, McCartney, Iommi, etc and it never seemed weird or something to question.
That all being said, it has always irked me how right handed people - who the entire world is catered to - casually say things like “why didn’t you just learn righty?” I ask them every time in response why they never learned to do anything left handed and the lack of self-awareness becomes evident in their faces every time lol

[William2]

When I started learning the guitar, my right hand just worked better on the fretboard. So, they switched my strings, and I learned left-handed. This has always bothered me, however. At one point, I replaced the guitar with the recorder. I was able to play this instrument in the proper left hand / right hand positions. There is however an accomplished recorder player who reverses the proper hand position (left hand on top/ right hand underneath) on the recorder and is very impressive. I've never seen anyone in the recorder world comment on his reversed hand position. Maybe It was just laziness. I got more accomplished with the right hand on the fretboard in less time. I suppose one advantage to having a left-hand player is that if you are playing duos, you can more easily look at your partner.

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by spartan

I am left-handed and I play left-handed. In hindsight, I wish I learned to play right-handed so I wasn’t so limited in the guitars I could experience but I started playing as a kid and I don’t even remember thinking it was something to consider. It was never recommended to me. You see guys like Hendrix, McCartney, Iommi, etc and it never seemed weird or something to question.
That all being said, it has always irked me how right handed people - who the entire world is catered to - casually say things like “why didn’t you just learn righty?” I ask them every time in response why they never learned to do anything left handed and the lack of self-awareness becomes evident in their faces every time lol

They ask stupid questions like that because they don’t know any better, sort of ‘righty privilege’. Yes, it’s obnoxious.

Ignore them. I do believe, by the way, that if you’d been advised about limited choices by being lefty, it still would not have swayed you.

Best,
Howard Emerson

[Russ C]

When I was teaching I came across left handed beginners who hadn’t developed any significant guitar habits or expectations yet so I raised the question/option of playing right handed for the usual benefits. Some seemed to be comfortable enough either way and others really felt awkward trying play right handed. People are different.