I am left handed but my guitar skills took off when I started plating right handed.
My left hand has way more developed dexterity so I re-learned fingerings 100 times faster. Nowadays even the chords that I never play takes me 15 seconds at normal song speed to pick up.

My right strumming/picking hand is just fine for rhythm never had an issue with that. What I found hard to teach my right hand was the various picking techniques. I can do many variations but still sloppy.

It all comes down to the power-slide. Before you ever start playing you should do one full throttle and see what hand goes up at the end. That is your fretting hand.

'In agreement with the concept of there being no left handed orchestras or keyboards.

And Emmet Chapman's "Stick" requires fretting and tapping, both hands doing something difficult/independent.

In this opinion, guitar and all its associated gear is to some extent an indulgent, silly , self-aggrandizing instrument family (how many types of cello are there) and therefore the vast variety of flavours, vs for example, the trombone.

Admittedly however, this picker believes guitar/bass/fretted stuff en generale is Heaven's own family of instruments, so objective opinion is not easily given.

BTW, why is there not a family of left-handed amps and pedals? Market opportunity!

nobody should make stupid posts about crap like this that no one can help. Its like saying why should people have blue eyes.

I think it led to an interesting conversation. Being mainly a guitar forum, I thought it was interesting to hear peoples thoughts and experiences.

If you don't like the thread that's fine, but there is not need to say it is a stupid post.

I've seen this type of discussion on various guitar message boards before, and I always try to put my two cents in, since I think I have sort of a unique perspective.

I am left-handed, and do just about everything left-handed, including writing, throwing, tennis, golf, you name it.

When I started playing guitar several years ago, however, I bought a standard right handed guitar. I did this at the suggestion of the guy who sold me my first electric, who said I'd have a better selection of instruments to choose from and who argued that "the freting hand does all the hard work, anyway."

After about three years of struggling with my right-handed guitar, I became increasingly frustrated with my playing. Sure, I probably had an easier time fretting notes and chords, and vibrato came pretty easily to me. But just about everything I played, even simple chord struming, sounded sloppy to my ears. I had absolutely NO picking speed, and any kind arpeggios or string skipping proved to be extremely difficult.

I finally decided to have my guitar re-strung for a lefty, and it was incredible how much my playing improved within a short abount of time. My strumming and picking got better almost instantly, and within about six months I had my fretting hand back to where it had been when I played righty. I've played a left-handed guitar ever since, and have no regrets.

I think the key to this discussion is understanding that there seem to be degrees of left-handedness. Some people (like myself) use their left hands for just about everything, while others seem to be a bit more ambidexterous. My uncle, for example, writes and throws left-handed, but he golfs and bats right-handed.

It's true that there are plently of left-handed folks who seem to play guitar right-handed without too much trouble. I would argue that in most cases, these people are probably a little more ambidexterous and less "pure" Southpaws. For those other people who are more strongly left-handed...they may find that the difficulties they experience with strumming and picking (and, let's face it: the strumming hand controls just about all of the rhythmic aspects of your playing -- if you can't keep a good rhythm, you're screwed!) could outweigh any advantages they may experience with fretting and legato technique.

As for the argument that there are no left-handed pianos or violins...perhaps there should be! Just think of how many would-be left-handed violin players there might be out there who gave up the instrument in frustration because it just seemed too uncomfortable to play. Who knows, the world may have missed out on hearing the next Paganinni because he or she had the the unfortunate luck to have been born left-handed.

If I were to give advice to a fellow left-hander who's picking up guitar for the first time, it would be this: go to the music store, try out some left-handed AND some right-handed guitars, and buy whichever one seems most comfortable for YOU. Almost all of the most popular guitar types have left-handed versions (although it would be nice if Fender made at least ONE lefty guitar with a humbucker, but I digress...), and I think it's worth it to choose an instrument which will most easily facilitate the playing experience and help bring out your full potential.

The guy who told you that was just trying to sell you something. It's your picking hand that will make you stand apart from the rest and controls how notes come acrosss to the listener (soft, hard, harmonics,muted,etc...)
Take Leslie West of Mountain for example.
or any guitar player who has hit the "bigtime" really. I would say you need to use both hands 50/50 to stand out from the norm.

Here's a perfect example of a player with a great picking hand, he demos extremely rare guitars, here's one for you that you guys may like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FfhKBdDzqY

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Beantown1965

I'm lefty and do almost everything lefty except play guitar (and other stringed instruments) and shoot a gun (actually I can pretty much shoot lefty and righty but righty's better being right eye dominant).... both of which I do righty (oh, I'm right hand dominant fighting/boxing too)

I attribute this to being the only lefty in my immediate family therefore growing up around things made for righties. So like throwing, eating, swinging a bat is a comfort thing and it feels right because it's natural. As for guitars and guns, both of which my family has had since before I was born, I just picked them up at a young age and probably assumed it was right and it grew comfortable for me although they do kinda feel more natural holding them righty lol

I guess I just got lucky... but that's my two cents on the subject (including my theory of how I came to be ambidextrous)

I have a rather unique situation myself, I am right-handed but when I was very young I could only close my right eye without the other eye closing when I was aiming toy guys or bb guns. I eventually learned to close both eyes one at a time but being like this for many years made me do things on what is considered the wrong side. Still til today I much prefer to shoot a gun or bow and arrow the way a lefty would and I box south-paw (which really messes up a right-handed opponent). I would not consider myself to be truly ambidextrous because I can't write with my left hand although I do think it had a lot to do with how I play the guitar.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Beantown1965

Jimi Hendrix took a young Ernie Isley under his wing while he played with Ernie's famous older brothers.Ernie started of playing right handed but claims that shortly after Jimi died he came to him in a lucid dream and told him to learn to play left handed,Ernie says that's why he's comfortable playing both ways today.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Why not...the Fender Lounge is full of stupid posts.

I'm left handed and play right handed never had a problem with it. I'm pretty much ambidextrous though. Think about it, most people don't play left handed because only an estimated 7-10% of the population is left handed. For those that are completely left handed, it's almost impossible to play right handed. I can't play guitar left handed. I doesn't feel natural. I do most other things except throw left handed. I use tools left and right handed, I can only write left handed, but can draw and paint left and right handed.

The Nun's couldn't beat the left handiness out of me and couldn't scare it out of me by calling it "the devils hand" either LOL. Lefties pay more for their guitars and there is usually less of a selection unless they flip them over and set the guitar up to play correctly. So what's the problem?

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

I started out playing an upside down guitar with hthe big E at the bottom ...i perfected a technique to read tabs etc ....then i bought a lefty guitar and had to unlearn my chord positions etc ......

i love being a lefty ,all my rhythem is in the left hand ....developed from years of masturbation

btw Iommi after the accident did try to play right handed and made an attempt too but reverted to left handed...

Exactly! I have no problem paying more for left-handed guitars. I understand that there is less of a demand so I'm willing to pay a premium to get the exact product that I want (and honestly, the lack of selection is probaby a blessing in disguise, since I'm less likely to blow a ton of money in a GAS attack).

What does kind of bother me is when people say that no one should play left-handed guitars, or that I'm somehow incorrect in playing left-handed. What does it matter? I don't tell anyone else how to play. I can honestly say that if there were no lefty guitars, I probably would've given up the instrument in frustration a long time ago (or have been forced keep buying righty guitars and flipping them upside-down).

Interesting. I actually believe that if you lived on another planet and someone brought a guitar and presented it to you and left without leaving any instructions different people would do all sorts of different things to it. A good example is the bass player Andy McClusky from the band Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD). He is right handed but was given a left handed bass guitar and learned to play it from scratch. As a result, he plays right handed with the strings "upside down" (i.e., with the lowest-pitched string on the bottom and the highest-pitched one on top), counter to normal practice.