Any lefties that play righty

335clone

335clone

Living the dream
Just wondering about your experience learning to play. My youngest is showing interest, but he is a lefty. Actually, I think he (like many lefties) is probably closer to ambidextrous. When he was learning to play baseball when he was little, we tried throwing, catching and hitting from both sides, and he was only slightly better left handed than right. Since all my guitars are righties, I am encouraging him to learn to play right handed. Do you see a down side to this approach? I figured it would be easier in the long run, and he will have a much better selection of guitars over the years.

Opinions?
 
One of my best friends is left handed. He learned how to play right handed. It worked in his favor because his dominant hand is on the fretboard. The question is whether it feels natural to play right handed. It does for some, and it doesn't for others. So it's really up to the boy.
 
I'm left handed, and when I first picked up a guitar it felt better holding it left handed. I decided to learn right handed, though, because I figured I've have a much better selection of guitars to choose from, and I'd be able to play other people's guitars. I also figured that with my dominate hand doing the hard work, it would be easier.

Over the years, I've come to the conclusion that how your pick interfaces with the string is a very large component of your overall "tone" and that a lefty playing right handed will never master the extremely subtle nuances in that interaction.

Then again Waddy Wachtell is a lefty who plays right, and he's a monster player, so what do I know?
 
My brother is not really a guitar player, mostly a drummer, but he plays a little. He is left handed but plays right. He also does a bunch of stuff right handed though.
My oldest is left handed as well. I tried to get her going on a right handed guitar and she can't really do it. She even did a year on upright bass right handed at school but it just isn't natural. I always catch her playing air guitar and she does it left handed. I haven't bought her a guitar because she doesn't have any interest in it yet, but she is just starting to really get into music, so maybe soon.
 
You gotta use both hands so I don't think it matters.
I never knew a left handed guitar existed until I was an adult.

Plus, finding gear and selling gear would be a nightmare.
 
:helper:


I naturally gravitate to using my left hand for writing, painting, etc... I've learned how to do many things right handed because I came from a generation that tried to teach me how to do things "properly" (damn anti-left handed agenda :tongue: )

I'm pretty ambidextrous now, but things with expensive equipment like golf and guitar I ended up gravitating to right handed because the gear was easier to find. (I can still putt either way).

In retrospect, it actually makes more sense to me to use the hand with the best agility to be the fretting hand. The right hand can learn how to strum up and down easier than a weaker hand can learn to play bar chords.

Good Luck... We're all counting on you.
 
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Another lefty playing righty here. I would say have him check out one of each and see which one he thinks feels more natural.
 
Gary Blanchard said:
What kind of lefty? I might qualify.
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I am a lefty who plays lefty. Playing righty never felt right Totally_jammin_out .
 
Thanks all.
I agree that instinctively one would think the dominant hand should do the hard work. Feels really weird when I hold a guitar leftie, but that is what 45 years of muscle memory will do. Not sure there is a reason we play the way we do.

I will have him hold it both ways and see if he feels any difference or preference, but unless it is a MAJOR difference I will likely keep on the current path. Since he has no prior experience to relate to, I doubt if there will be any problems. And FWIW I have no anti-leftie bias, as the wife and daughter are also lefties, older son is a rightie. It just seems easier for him to mimic what I am doing, and of course the gear issue is a major one. I don't want to shell out for a left handed guitar when I'm not sure how far he will go, and the gear issue. I have plenty of RH instruments on hand.
 
I'm a lefty that plays righty. Felt natural to me and was very easy for me to make chord shapes and strum. It's funny stuff. I write left, bat left and right with equal ability, golf right, and use wrenches and screw drivers and other tools with either hand and at the same time. I can shoot hand guns with both hand equally well with one in each hand, but am a lefty with a long gun. I hope your son keeps developing his ability to use both hands, I've hand fun with it my entire life.
 
I'm a Lefty who plays righty, too. No downsides. Only positives - i.e.: more guitar choices.
 
335clone said:
Do you see a down side to this approach?
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He'll have to find other excuses to not let others play his guitars.

Jbird said:
He should learn to play both righty and lefty :embarrassed:

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MAB is actually a lefty. He said that picking with his weak hand is what made him work on his picking so much (that and the fact that the sound of constant picking really annoyed his sister.

IIRC Steve Morse and Mark Knopfler are also lefties.
 
Highernoon said:
He'll have to find other excuses to not let others play his guitars.


MAB is actually a lefty. He said that picking with his weak hand is what made him work on his picking so much (that and the fact that the sound of constant picking really annoyed his sister.

IIRC Steve Morse and Mark Knopfler are also lefties.
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As is Rik Emmett (Triumph).

I read an interview with Rik a long time ago where he said when he first started playing, he couldn't find a lefty guitar anywhere, so he said screw it and just started to learn on a righty guitar.
 
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