My guitar teacher is a lefty who plays guitar right handed. And he has a degree in classical guitar, so he definitely didn't shy away from finger picking. He says that sometimes he has trouble picking really fast (I mean incredibly fast, like in metal. He's fine 99% of the time). He also focuses a lot more on economy picking than I tend to. There are a few certain things I can pick using alternative picking which he has to use economy picking for. But when he teaches me the same line with economy picking it usually ends up being easier for me than alternate picking too. I just have to think about what my right hand is doing, and honestly that's not really something I work on as much as I should since it comes naturally most of the time. His left hand legato runs are incredibly fast, but he's so good it's hard to tell if the fact that he's left hand dominate has anything to do with it or if it's just the years of practice he's had. So I guess my point is that if you're lefty playing right handed it's still possible to be just as good as a righty if not better.

I actually wanted to learn left handed after I thought about it, even though I'm right handed. Mainly because I thought that maybe my right hand would be faster than my left. But on the other hand (no pun intended), when I first picked up guitar for the first time, right handed did feel more comfortable. And to this day I can hardly play an open chord on a left handed guitar. So after reading this thread I'm actually really glad I went with what felt right in the beginning.

_________________
Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccalairdmusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beckslaird
Instagram: http://instagram.com/beckslaird

Hahaha, I read the title, saw Nevin as author was and the 5 pages worth..

I have to agree with you nevin. My 6yr old niece wants me to re-string her guitar lefty and she is right handed would you believe... Go figure.

Needless to say, I refuse to do so. It's just not right when your instinct should be right handed

_________________

I've had this conversation with a friend of mine who has the exact same belief as Nevin. My thinking is that while it seems that fretting is more complex strumming and skipping strings while picking actually becomes more complex than fretting. Just one mans opinion.

Nevin is still stirring things up and he's left us!!

That's exactly why I switched to playing lefty. As a right-handed player, some things (barre chords, vibrato, hammer-ons) were actually easier for me. But my picking was terrible -- I had no speed, no accuracy, and forget about things like string skipping or tremolo picking.

I made the switch to a lefty guitar, and within a few weeks my picking hand was working better than it had after a few years of playing right-handed.

Again, some left-handed folks take to standard guitars with no trouble, but others (like myself) seem to have a rougher go of it. That's why I say do what feels comfortable right from the beginning -- it could save you a lot of frustration later on.

Joe Perry is lefty but plays righty...........WALK THIS WAY!!!!!