I'm probably getting WAY ahead of myself here, but my wee fella (turned 4 today!) loves bashing around on his toy guitars, and even mine occasionally when I help him. This may fizzle out and he might not have any interest in music, but I'd say the chances are that he'll play guitar at some point. I love the idea of holding onto guitars for my kids, or at the very least being happy to spend money on decent starter gear. Anyway, he's been favouring his left hand for writing, drawing, and smacking the snot out of his little brother for a while now, so he defo left handed.
My brother is also left handed and does a good bit of stand-in and session bass work, but he always comments about the lack of choice for left handed players. His main bass is a Mexican Jazz, which he's spent lots of money upgrading down the years but I know he'd like a few more decent basses if there was a good selection at decent prices. But for lefties, there isn't.
ANYWAY, to get to my point, I love guitar stuff. I love having multiple guitars and being able to buy sell, and do swaps. Left handers can't do this nearly as easily or cheaply. IF my son decides he wants to play, am I putting him at a disadvantage by getting him to play right-handed? At the moment he "plays" right handed becuase he knows what a guitar is supposed to look like hanging there, but will his ability be compromised playing a right handed guitar just becuase I want him to be able to aquire craploads of gear should be decide to play?
It's very quiet where I work today.
Noise, randomness, ballistic uncertainty.
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I suspect a 'true lefty' would be able to help you better tbh - a lefty who plays righty won't know if it's harder to buy lefty gear! (I suspect that it is)
EDIT: D'oh! Cos this is in Guitar and not Technique I thought you were talking about gear! As far as learning to play goes - I was best in my year at school, but then I practised more. I don't think it'll matter that much in the end if he wants it enough
All that I wan't to say is that Gary Moore was Left Handed. I saw him play a very small gig when he was 17 ( I was standing right in front of him) and I was stunned with the power of his fretting hand (not just the speed).
So maybe it is a good idea?
Also....there is the aspect of finding the guitar you want.
In an interview Gary was asked about playing a right handed guitar. He looked down at the guitar he was holding (the Peter Green Les Paul) and replied "We'll.....you don't see many left handed versions of these......"
One of my kids is now left handed. Should she ever express interest in the guitar I'd get her to learn right handed first. I advised my left handed brother in law to do exactly that. He started playing when he was 15 and never had trouble. So it doesn't seem physically or mentally to be a big obstacle. Knopfler and Gary Moore are two examples of lefties doing it the 'right' way, so I can't see it as a disadvantage.
I'm not fascist or fanatical about this. I'm just talking from the point of view of someone who even now has to 'make do' when it comes to gear. I usually liken being a left handed guitarist to being a vegatarian in a steak restaurant.
So on a practical and financial level it's easier being a righty.
Rant/ ramble over. Good luck!
I'm a left hander playing right handed. Tried left handed when I started at age about 14 but it felt all wrong, so right handed I went. Never found it to be any kind of handicap (though I'm generally a crap player). Even when I decided to get into classical and then finger picking, my "weaker" right hand didn't present any barrier to learning.
Same with golf, play that right handed too, again tried left handed at first and it just felt wrong.
But then again, IIRC Mark Knopfler's another leftie-who-plays-rightie...and he's not known for his "bull in a china shop" touch, is he?
All my guitars are bought from companies who don't charge extra for being a lefty or second hand (where left handers clean-up as resale isn't good) or made myself (it burns that Squier don't make a lefty Bass VI - but making one has been fun).
If your son wants to play, he'll decide how he wants to play.
I played ukeleles from about 4-5 and got my first guitar at 8 and instinctively put it left handed... the teacher and a class of 20 other guitarists wanted it the other way around as I would bash heads with their guitar when we were sat in a circle...
There's not a great selection in most shops ... except Lefties in Holiday Music (might still be owned by Steve Jolly who's a left hander).
I tend to buy certain brands with a good quality control reputation second hand from ebay (Ibanez, Tokai, MIJ Fender) or get USACG to spin me up parts so I can pretend I'm Tony Stark - I've also enjoyed the challenge of sourcing stuff or making do - lefty jazzmaster tremoloes don't seem to have been made but I can flip the plate if I chose...
Anyway, it's kinda out of your hands
Do we need to explain this in a sticky post somewhere? I really love the right-handers explaining how there's no need for left handed guitars... how would you know? Really know I mean.
I spent 2 years playing left handed, 2 years playing right handed upside down, 1 year playing right handed... I've earnestly tried a lot of different ways and do you want to know what I decided? I have no right to judge anyone elses preferences in playing the guitar, oh and for me I play left handed far better in all approaches except visualising the fretboard that was a lot easier on a right handed guitar for some reason... so I've had to adapt my playing for that.. I use my ears and fewer patterns to play.. win win!
There are right handers who play left handed... Hendrix - he's mildly ambidextrous but he wasn't predominantly left handed.. his Dad let him get on with that.
Guitar requires one hand to play rhythm and one hand to make pitches... if you stop to think about it... piano, drums (of which there are left handed kits - my brother has a kit signed by Little Stevens who played left handed), pretty much all woodwind instruments use the same motor skills with both hands... violin has scherzos but that's the closest you'll get to generating a rhythm with one hand and notes with the other..
There are left handed guitars get used to it, regardless of how you left handed spectators feel about it, left handed people enjoy using them.
I'm left handed, too. Righty for guitar, but lefty for everything else, from snooker and rugby to left footed in football. I write right handed mostly, though... I'm certain the only reason I'm right handed for guitar is because the first guitar I got was right handed.
Each to their own, ymmv etc, but guitar is more forward thinking than any other instrument.
I would have thought that for some styles using your dominant hand as the one making pitches is an advantage - Gary Moore would seem to be the perfect example of that. However, as a rightie, it does seem to be an odd thing that I expect my left hand to do some quite complicated shapes on the fretboard yet I can barely write my own name using it.
Hmmm.
:-?
It's possibly misguided to think left handers are only 10% of the populace... the stats saying left handers are more likely to die early are based on interviewing old people and asking them whether they're left handed or not... there's a reluctance to say they are left handed.. (like they'll say I started writing left handed but I stopped)..
A lot of stuttering is due to the corpus callosum recieving signals from the left and right hemisphere about what to say ... because a person's predominant side has been tampered with externally... punishment for left handedness so a young mind develops the right hand side equally and even when both sides are sending the same word to say next the callosum has to choose one and it can't.
There are degrees of left handedness - I do everything left handed except golf - I'm shit either way... I'm a good archer and I need a left handed bow for that.. other people prefer different grips for cricket.. my left handed roundhouse kick is strong but the right handed roundhouse kick has better technique (because my left leg is the standing foot) simple it is not.
The electric bass is the most forward thinking instrument - it has by far the most untapped potential it's range as rhythmic instrument and accessing purer high notes via harmonics means it's a range of frequencies from percussive to lead with stronger tones than the guitar (IMO) also anything above the 12th sounds like a bag-lady being mugged. mmdv ;0)