Any left handers playing guitar right handed?

tbm

Skarloey said:

and in the end he's just taken up...the bloody Saxophone!!!!!! 

Oh the humanity! There's no place for sax. Anywhere. Not even bakers street. I f*cking hate the sax.

xSkarloey

tbm said:

Skarloey said:

and in the end he's just taken up...the bloody Saxophone!!!!!! 

Oh the humanity! There's no place for sax. Anywhere. Not even bakers street. I f*cking hate the sax.

No, don't get me wrong. In every other respect I'm a happy man because I love the sax. Having someone else in the house interested in it allows me to go back to all my John Coltrane records and play them at high volume. The neighbour's dog loves it as well...

I do consider myself lucky that neither of my elder kids have said they want to try the recorder. Corporal punishment for parents, that is...

Bogwhoppit

mike257 said:

I'm another one - played right handed guitars because that's what I had access to, didn't occur to me to try it any other way.

I did, however have a revelation with drumming - started out the same, played righty and could hold a passable beat but frustrated the music teacher with my insistence on playing open handed.  

 

Ditto, I drum open handed with the kit set up right handed........People think I'm some kind of weird hippy jazz drummer from the 60s.

Ramirez

Lefty playing righty here.

Well, kind of lefty - I write with my left hand, kick a football with my right foot. Play pool left handed but throw things with my right.

When I first got an acoustic guitar a immediately held 'upside down' as a lefty, but soon learned to play it right handed - I figured that, as I hadn't learned anything up to that it point that it was was easier to learn righty from scratch than to faff with changing the strings around.

All of which means nothing, as I don't know how it affected - I don't have a clue whether or not I'd be a better pkayer for having learned left handed. In terms of gear available I'm glad I play right-handed though.

As above, I also drum open handed on a righty kit. Not very well, I have to say.

Fez

My dad was one of those who had his left hand tied behind his back to force him to write right handed when he really was left handed. So he never allowed me to be persuaded to write right handed which is perhaps a shame because I write right handed now but still would draw with left hand. I have always played guitar right handed but quite a lot of things I can do either way round.

I'm sure the lad will be fine but if he really wants to play left handed that sounds like an opportunity to do a lefty bitsa.

FelineGuitars

we make quite a few left handed guitars and even had our own sub-brand

EdGrip

I suppose different strokes would be for different folks - regardless of your righty or lefty inclinations, you might find playing guitar more natural with a right- or left-handed guitar. Most of us never bother to find out, because guitars are just the way they are and we pick them up and play them that way, and then don't want to have to re-learn all over again just to find out which orientation is best for us.

So for the simple reason that the vast majority of guitars are laid out a particular way, personally I'd advise any new starters to learn that way first. I would probably discourage a lefty from innocently assuming - from a non-guitarist perspective - that they would "need" a left-handed guitar. 

EDIT: Apologies if any bits of that came over as leftist.

EdGrip

(My own secret suspicion is that - based purely on idle "stands to reason" thinking rather than evidence - right-handed people might be better off with left-handed guitars. I find my strumming hand is patiently waiting for my fretting hand to be competent the majority of the time, but it might be even worse the other way round for all I know.)

seany65

I'm officially what's called a 'Righty'  and I play a 'Righty' guitar (although I call it 'Lefty' guitar, as the left hand is doing all the fretting, slides, bends and slurring etc.) and I've been wanting to try a 'Lefty' guitar to see if my right hnad is better at the bends, slides slurring and fretting etc. but had no excuse to buy a 'Lefty' guitar.

But recently, the index finger on my left hand, from the first knuckle, has been a little painful, like when you've done too much writing, and it's making holding most chords a little awkward, even more so when they are chords that require a bit of 'squishing' the fingers together near the nut, such as C+.

So I've decided to try and find a cheap 'Lefty' to try out for a month or two. Maybe the 'rest' this will give my left index ffinger will make it alrgith again, or perhaps show me that (officially) 'Lefty' is the way to go.

samzadgan

It would be interesting to see how he picks up the guitar himself.

Im lefthanded...but with certain sports im right handed and others lefthanded...mainly came down to watching and copying them rather than knowing which was the dominant hand.

For guitar I watched others play right handed and did the same

GavRichList

I'm a lefty playing right. Most lefties are pretty dexterous; I figured if both hands had to learn something, that it might as well be the convenient way round.

p90fool

I'm a lefty playing righty and over the years I've adapted my guitar skills to play lute, violin and cello. I would never have picked those instruments up if I'd started playing guitar the wrong way round, I would have been starting absolutely from scratch instead of getting passable sounds after just a few hours of dabbling.

Some of the best guitar players in the world have played left-handed, but what a pain in the arse it can be in a huge number of social and professional situations, particularly studio work.

As the classical world ably demonstrates, you will not stunt the development of a child by making them play an instrument right-handed. At the highest level both hands need to be equally skillful and it's the coordination between the two which is key, not one overtaking the other.

frankus

I've had a pretty interesting take on this recently in boxing, in Muay Thai and Boxing I've been told to be left or right handed - in Karate we train each side equally.

Seeing as getting a pad-holder to keep up with me and hold the pads properly is hard enough, I've opted to fight orthodox (right handed) - the advantage is my jabs and lead hand hooks are accurate, but I'm having to work on my stance to make sure my crosses are a finishing strike.

It's the first thing I've ever not been left handed at.

My boxing coach was trained as a southpaw and is right handed. He's swapped back after about 20 years...

Worst part of being a southpaw is smacking other guitarists headstocks on stage.  

MattFGBI

I always advise beginners to play right handed.

I know a lot of left handed players and the vast majority play right handed.

When you start you start from scratch. Might as well make life easy and pick up a right handed guitar.

GazLion

I'm left handed at writing, but right handed with the knife and folk. Left handed with turning a tap, but right handed with throwing a ball. Oh and play guitar right handed.

Hope that helps

hobbio

My daughter is a lefty but she plays violin right handed. You can get lefty violins but they're even rarer than left-handed screwdrivers and she's happy playing a proper one. 

guitars4you

If he was interested in the violin and went to a professional/registered teacher they would only teach the conventional way

My advise is to learn the conventional manner - both hands are ultimately required - dexterity is stronger in his left hand and that will, or should help, with his guitar playing - far bigger choice of guitars once he gets going

Here is a link from before with similar stories http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/92844/famous-southpaws-who-play-guitar-right-handed/p1

many can do both in other sports - Broad and Stokes both bowl right handed and bat left handed 

Evildurka

Wow necro thread! Since its resurrected however I'm a lefty and play right handed