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Post subject: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 3:11 pm
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My daughter is turning eight next week! :P She is a lefty.

She has been taking piano lessons since she was four and shows a lot of curiosity toward my guitars. My question: If she decides to start on guitar - should she learn right-handed regardless or should she get lessons using a lefty guitar?

I am familiar with the big names like Hendrix and Cobain... but when I Googled famous left-handed guitarists with my daughter (who wanted to see,) I was astonished to see how many famous musicians are lefties but I never knew because they are famous for playing right-handed guitar!

Does it just boil down to whether I want her to have the great selection of instruments to choose from by having her learn right-handed? Or do lefties really bond to the instrument better if they have and learn on a lefty guitar?

If she were to join orchestra in middle school, will she have the option to play a stringed instrument left-handed? Or will she be required to play right-handed to fit into the ensemble without poking her neighbors eye out with a bow? :mrgreen: That might also play into the decision!

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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 3:21 pm
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It may be more difficult to learn playing right-handed. On the other hand, she will have a greater choice of guitars to play and an easier time finding them.

Tough choice.

You could take her to a music store and see which feels more 'natural'. Don't automatically assume it'll be the lefty. I'm a lefty when writing, but almost everything else is more natural right-handed for me. There is no way that playing left-handed is more natural for me either.

I don't believe that one will make her a better player than the other, in the end, that's up to her.

cheers!

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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 3:43 pm
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I am not a lefty but,my friend and guitar player in bands I have been in is, and when he was young did not own a guitar so he used other friends, and they were all right hand players. He learned guitar with the High 1st E string on the top and the low E 6th string on the bottom, yes upside down and he turned out to be an amazing player and can always borrow someones guitar wherever he is and play. Since then he has picked up the mandolin with G D A E tuning and he is a natural as it is kind of what he is used to E B G D A E, just saying. But he does get weird looks from other guitar players that don't know he is playing a right hand guitar upside down when they are trying to figure out what the chords is he is playing. She could try that route
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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 3:51 pm
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I am a lefty and play right handed, for one reason, selection. There are just not enough options for me, I would feel boxed in. I learned to play golf right handed for the same reason.

As far as the guitar goes, I may have had to take a little longer to get some technique down, but you just keep at it until the muscles build up.

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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 9:22 pm
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I am left handed and was taught to play right handed. I recall that at first it was difficult, but it turned out that being able to use my dominate hand on the fingerboard turned out to make learning easier for me. As omar59 stated the left hand guitar selection is poor. Truth be told it's a right hand world.
Kenny V


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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 6:35 am
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I'm a lefty and play right handed too. Some of us are actually ambidextrous but just favor the left hand. I would suggest just handing her a guitar and see how she naturally holds it. I do most things left handed but throw right handed and can use tools either handed almost equally as well. It's a tough call, but forcing her to go one way or the other would be counterproductive.

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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 4:04 pm
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Tiger J wrote:
My daughter is turning eight next week! :P She is a lefty.

She has been taking piano lessons since she was four and shows a lot of curiosity toward my guitars. My question: If she decides to start on guitar - should she learn right-handed regardless or should she get lessons using a lefty guitar?

I am familiar with the big names like Hendrix and Cobain... but when I Googled famous left-handed guitarists with my daughter (who wanted to see,) I was astonished to see how many famous musicians are lefties but I never knew because they are famous for playing right-handed guitar!

Does it just boil down to whether I want her to have the great selection of instruments to choose from by having her learn right-handed? Or do lefties really bond to the instrument better if they have and learn on a lefty guitar?

If she were to join orchestra in middle school, will she have the option to play a stringed instrument left-handed? Or will she be required to play right-handed to fit into the ensemble without poking her neighbors eye out with a bow? :mrgreen: That might also play into the decision!



I have to agree with the general consensus in that I'd let her try both and see which she prefers. Like other's here, I'm a lefty who plays righty...when I was only 4, my father bought my first guitar for me and I was never given the choice. Dad got the guitar as an unclaimed repair from a local luthier at the time and that was the guitar he the guy had for cheap (which incidentally I still have...a mid 60's Gianninni 3/4 scale classical). I've often wondered how it would have affected my playing style had I of been allowed to choose.

As far as middle school orchestra goes, that's a tough call. I suspect it would depend largely on the individual instructor. When I was around your daughter's age, I also played cello...elementary school orchestra and yea...again I'm pretty sure I was forced to play right handed. I don't really remember the specifics...I remember the cello was a rental, but I have no memory of ever being given the option of playing lefty. Don't remember ever seeing a single person in orchestra who played left handed back in those days. That said, that was also 40 odd years ago and a great deal has changed with education over the years. My advice there would be to simply ask...and if they say "righty only", personally I'd get into a bit of a snit over it. Obviously this is just a personal perspective, however I think it's wrong to force kids to play in a manor that's not comfortable or natural to them.

I think the whole lefty/righty thing is kind of interesting for musicians. I know that with my drum kit, I can play either way...I tend to keep the drum kit setup for righty though so other drummers can use it when they come over for jams/practice (in my 30+ years of playing, I've only ran into -1- left handed drummer). Keyboards however are a totally different matter for me...even though I've done light keyboard work over the years, I still find that I have this subconscious thing...I tend to try and do "chords" with my right hand and lead work with my left. I always feel like I'm playing keys backwards, LOL!


Anyways, yea...I'd let your daughter decide what feels natural to her.


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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 8:54 pm
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Joel, happy birthday to your future guitarist. Playing keyboards for almost 4 years is major. You might just have a real musician on your hands lol.
Guitar selection only matters if it is guitar or no guitar. Try left handed first if that is her dominant position. The picking hand and bowing hand, important to be comfortable doing those.

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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 3:25 pm
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I'm a lefty, and play lefty. I have tried a few time to play righty, but it always feels uncomfortable. When I first started playing I flipped righty guitars over and played upside down, I can still play a little that way and it amazes my friends.
Let her try both ways and see what she is more comfortable with.

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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 8:02 pm
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Kenny V wrote:
I am left handed and was taught to play right handed. I recall that at first it was difficult, but it turned out that being able to use my dominate hand on the fingerboard turned out to make learning easier for me. As omar59 stated the left hand guitar selection is poor. Truth be told it's a right hand world.
Kenny V


I read somewhere once that us righties are playing wrong - that the dominant hand should actually be the one to fret with. So maybe a lefty using a righthanded guitar is more correct than us using it.


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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:34 pm
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All the lefties I know that learned to play right handed were all VERY glad they did, between having their dominate hand on the fretboard and the SIGNIFICANTLY better availability of guitars.

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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 6:15 am
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Upon learning the guitar from "square one", the best advice this lefty ever received was to learn to play righty. I was told that it would "jump start" my playing as all my natural precision is in my left hand. Further, that I'd encounter infinitely more opportunities to play right handed guitars over the course of my playing. This advice has served me incredibly well to this day.

FWIW, playing guitar is the ONLY thing I do right handedly to this day.

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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 7:16 am
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01GT eibach wrote:
All the lefties I know that learned to play right handed were all VERY glad they did, between having their dominate hand on the fretboard and the SIGNIFICANTLY better availability of guitars.

fenderfan wrote:
I read somewhere once that us righties are playing wrong - that the dominant hand should actually be the one to fret with. So maybe a lefty using a righthanded guitar is more correct than us using it.

Martian wrote:
Upon learning the guitar from "square one", the best advice this lefty ever received was to learn to play righty. I was told that it would "jump start" my playing as all my natural precision is in my left hand. Further, that I'd encounter infinitely more opportunities to play right handed guitars over the course of my playing. This advice has served me incredibly well to this day.

FWIW, playing guitar is the ONLY thing I do right handedly to this day.



While I do agree regarding a better selection of instruments (at least regarding electric guitars), with the whole issue of the dominant hand - I've had people try to tell me this before (including my grandmother) and as a lefty, I just don't buy it. I obviously can't speak for all lefties, however I can't help but feel that this is very likely a rationalization more than anything...an after-the-fact excuse as a way to accept the situation, or with situations like Martian's case, an excuse for a mis-guided instructor to force students to play right handed. At the end of the day, a right handed person CAN learn to write left handed, just as a left handed person can learn to play guitar right handed. Is there an advantage to it? Consider this.....

While I understand the psychology behind this rationalization, if this were actually true then I have to believe that stringed instruments as a whole...guitars, violins, cellos, banjos, mandolins, etc., would have evolved differently than they have. As this concerns guitars, or more specifically electric guitars, this concept really became understood with Jimi Hendrix...his tendency to use a right handed Strat strung backwards certainly raised awareness for us lefties. However, lefties and stringed instruments both existed LONG before Hendrix was ever born. With the proliferation of right handed players over the course of several centuries, -if- this concept were true...the idea of having the dominant hand on the fretboard...then logic would suggest that such instruments would have been designed from the start for right handed fingering/fretting.....or at least someone would have corrected this over the long course and history of this thing we call music.

While this is probably a bit subjective, I think that one of the reasons instruments have been designed the way they have is that playing an instrument like this goes beyond what the dominant hand is simply doing. Whether you play guitar, violin, bass, etc., you do (99.9% of the time) use both hands and with many of these instruments (guitar, banjo, cello/bass, etc) you hold the instrument against your body in some fashion. Some might argue that in this way, the instrument becomes an extension of your being...and this would include whether you're a lefty or a righty and hence would suggest a natural tendency towards a dominant position.

With that in mind, I would also argue that when given a choice, a lot of left handed people DO choose to play a left handed instrument. -If- this rationalization had any weight, one would think that lefties would typically prefer to play right handed instruments...but when given a choice without being pushed in one direction or the other, that's not always or even typically the case. When given a free choice, a lot of lefties choose left handed instruments, simply because it feels more natural.

One would also think that if this concept had ANY merit, we'd see A LOT more right handed people playing left handed instruments. There may be a few out there, but I have yet to meet one. Like use lefties, right handed people tend to play right handed instruments for a reason...since many of the instruments discussed can be setup to play either way, I doubt it's simply a matter of the availability of the instrument.

Just something to think about.


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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 4:22 pm
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I'm another lefty who plays right-handed. It actually makes more sense to me, as well. You do the majority of your coordination work (the fret board) with your left hand, anyway. The right hand is just either picking, strumming, or plucking. Besides, at least to me, there's something rather odd about left handed instruments. It's like looking at a reverse image in a mirror or something like that. :P

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Post subject: Re: lefty or righty for a new lefty student???
Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:42 am
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I feel a little late to the party, but I'd still like to chime in. I'm left-handed and learned to play right-handed.

When I was about 10 or 11, my parents got me an accoustic guitar which they proceeded to sting up for a left-handed player. My dad, who was a right-handed guitar player, tried invain to teach me some stuff. Well, with his long work hour schedule and my being left-handed, the guitar kind of just sat on a wall looking cool.

Fast forward about two years. My counsin is learning how to play, my best friend was learning how to play and I was tired not playing. In utter frusration, I grabbed my dad's right-handed strung guitar and opened up a basic Beatle's song book (you all know the one I'm talking about). By the end of the day, I learned how to play, "Across the Universe."

I've been a right-handed player for over 30 years and I haven't looked back. People are always very surprised when they find out I'm left-handed.

I hope this tale helps.


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