Lefty Pickers

[OldCowboy]

I play in conventional right-handed fashion, but it wasn't my idea. Started out as a young'n on my father's mandolin holding it lefty (though it was right-handed) and it felt natural and comfortable that way. Once I got to learning guitar, outside influences pressured me into the righty approach and I stayed that way. Do any of you left-handed folks have a story about your beginning playing experience? Do any of you right-handed pickers recall being forced to change?

[JuanCarlosVejar]

I play in conventional right-handed fashion, but it wasn't my idea. Started out as a young'n on my father's mandolin holding it lefty (though it was right-handed) and it felt natural and comfortable that way. Once I got to learning guitar, outside influences pressured me into the righty approach and I stayed that way. Do any of you left-handed folks have a story about your beginning playing experience? Do any of you right-handed pickers recall being forced to change?

 

OC,

 

I grabbed a cousin's guitar left handed and played his right guitar upside down...After I realized it was upside down I tried playing it right handed but found out very quickly I had 0 rhythm in the picking had.So after that everything was playing guitars upside down until I got a classical which I then restrung and started learning songs

 

 

 

 

JC

[scriv58]

it never felt right to hold a guitar right handed so i've always played left handed and that is that

has always been bittersweet to enter a guitar shop and feel as though i am dying of thirst in the middle of the ocean but such is life

[58 Relic]

I'm left handed but I play right handed guitars , when I started that's the only type that was in the shop . After fifty years of playing I don't know any different . I find the extra strength in my left hand helpful

[Buc McMaster]

Played lefty from the get go. Found an old Stella in the closet that belong to a younger brother about two days before I departed for Lackland AFB. After tech school I fell in with some hippies from New York that played and, being a GI, it was easy to get credit at the local music store. Bought a righty SG because of the double cut away body, flipped the strings and.....here I am today, with a genuine left handed guitar. No one has ever asked to borrow my guitar.

[scriv58]

the good thing is no one borrows my guitars

the bad thing is i can't play anyone else's guitars

thanks for the southpaw houston tip buc

[the other side]

I have a great nephew who wanted to learn to play. His grandma (my sister) said he was right handed. I bought him an f335 Yamaha tobacco sunburst

( $ 100.00 USD ) at GC. I received a short video of him with the guitar. Dam if he wasn't a lefty! I gave it a few months, as he's in another state. He came back for a visit not long ago, and I'll be darn, he brought his guitar.

I went ahead and restrung it lefty. He picked it up and said, " this feels better uncle ! " I'll be darn if his left hand was natural for strumming and right hand on the chords. I forgot to mention, he is 14 yrs old. I was hoping he would try right handed in the time lapse.

Oh well, at least it'll give him more reason to stick with it . Time will tell.

 

By the way Buc, beautiful Perch for the good looking bird! They definately compliment each other.

[dhanners623]

Taught myself to play on my older brother's Stella, which he left behind when he went off to college. Got a book at the library with chord diagrams and was playing awhile before I realized I had things backwards and upside down.

 

If I had it to do over, I'd probably do it the same way. When you're learning to play guitar, both halves of the brain are learning new things, so it probably doesn't really matter which way you learn. You might as do what feels most "natural." Holding the guitar left-handed felt natural. As for the guitar, it doesn't care which way it is held.

 

A couple of the best guitarists I know (including a flatpicker who has been a judge at Winfield) are lefties but learned to play right-handed. They do everything left-handed but play guitar. I've always wondered if that helped them.

 

Oddly enough, of the guitarists I've met while living in Kuwait, several have been lefties and play left-handed. Some change the strings around and some don't. I don't believe the incidence of left-handedness is any greater in the Arab world than anywhere else, but there seems to be more lefty guitarists. I'm wondering if that has to do with the dearth of guitar teachers, and people teaching themselves to play. I suspect guitar teachers (out of their own self-interest) tell a lot of lefties that if they try playing left-handed, they'll be screwed.

[OldCowboy]

I give guitar lessons occasionally - usually to beginners because I've discovered that intermediate to advanced players and I usually tend to sit around swapping tunes and licks for a couple hours and then they pay me for a 30 minute lesson and the whole thing feels wrong to me from both sides. The tough thing, for me, about working with people who haven't ever played is reminding myself just how overwhelming it can be for them and how many new mental and physical skills they have to cultivate. My humility/patience exercise is to go somewhere with an available left-handed guitar and try to play the thing for a half hour or so. It's amazing what that does for my levels of patience and understanding. On another note, I've had good luck teaching beginning leftys by sitting directly across from them - if their guitar is strung left-handed, the 'mirror image' effect seems to help a lot.

[gfa]

I play in conventional right-handed fashion, but it wasn't my idea. Started out as a young'n on my father's mandolin holding it lefty (though it was right-handed) and it felt natural and comfortable that way. Once I got to learning guitar, outside influences pressured me into the righty approach and I stayed that way. Do any of you left-handed folks have a story about your beginning playing experience? Do any of you right-handed pickers recall being forced to change?

 

I know a lefty (adult, 40s) who decided to learn guitar. She tried playing righty for a while, made very little progress, switched to playing lefty on a lefty guitar and is doing much better.

[OldCowboy]

I know a lefty (adult, 40s) who decided to learn guitar. She tried playing righty for a while, made very little progress, switched to playing lefty on a lefty guitar and is doing much better.

Sounds good to me. By that age, I wouldn't expect anyone to deny their natural approach. Nor would I arbitrarily try to make a kid change. They got to me when I was pretty young, but at my current age they'd have a real struggle if they tried.

[Lefty Guy]

Always played lefty....just didn't feel right the other way, especially for strumming.

Never had a big problem finding guitars I really wanted but lack of instant supply probably saved me making many mistaken purchases!

[Lars68]

I have played tennis since my early teens. I now teach once in a while. I'm right handed, but only to experience what it is like for a beginner to hit the ball, I try playing using my left arm instead. It is extremely difficult, which is a good reminder...

 

Lars