Lefty but play righty?

kipstryker

kipstryker

Inspired
Just reading the my first guitar thread and how one guy didn't Start to learn as the teacher had no left hookers and another lefty learnt right handed.

I'm left handed but play right as the shop my dad took me to when I got my first guitar aged around 13 or 14 had no left handers. The salesman said the left hand does all the work so I went with it and learnt right handed.
30 years on I don't regret that particularly but was thinking how different my journey would have been if they had had a lefty in stock that day.

Would I have been a better or different player. I've always had to work hard on my picking and funky type rhythms. On the other hand I always found legato and vibrato very natural.

Any of you guys the same as me how do you think you may have benefited or struggled?

Would you swap if you went back in time now and had the option?

Any righty boys who play lefty even?

And how do the natural right handers feel about effectively being forced into playing left as a kid and whether or not you would have stuck with it?
 
Im also lefty, but play right handed. I think its an advantage to the legato technique, but my alternate picking sucks. but to me legato sounds better anyways, so i dont regret it. Its also easier to buy guitars or play someone elses guitar.
 
There are quite a few of us! Mark Knopfler, Gary Moore, and Paul Simon spring to mind. My experience with strengths and weaknesses regarding technique is very similar to yours. I also wonder whether being left handed contributes to a preference for melody - right brain vs left brain etc. Lots of interesting reading around regarding all these subjects.
 
I am a lefty playing righty.

I think our chords and fretboard movement are easier, but as you say, picking hand coordination is harder.

Not picking with your dominant hand requires more work.
 
I am a lefty playing right hand as well.
The only downside I feel I have is really fast down stroke picking (like James Hetfield). I was never able to play accurately faster than 180 bpm.
But on the other hand I never had problems on the fretboard with my left hand.
 
I'm a lefty playing righty. My right hand/picking technique has always been a real struggle. I do feel at a distinct disadvantage, and always have done.
 
Never expected so many in such a small sample in such a short time.
Dunno about you guys but often right handed players are a bit gob smacked when I tell them. It's not like we were Jeff Healey or something.
As mentioned the availability of left hookers in the stores is one reason why I don't believe I would do things differently given the chance. And it's not important of course but I also happen to think that playing lefty looks.....a bit odd.

So any right handed lefty players in the house?
 
Add another to the pile! And my experiences are the same - left hand action comes easy, fancy picking - not so much! :)
 
Well it's obvious then....we need a dedicated section of the forum to discuss and consider those matters our correctly orientated brethren have little understanding.
We are a rare but valuable breed, like bass players with a sense of humour and drummers that can dress themselves :D
 
There are really no rules. I kind of gave up in the early days to find lefty guitars and just learned to play on a normal guitar -- works fine.
 
Guilty as well. When I first wanted to get a guitar and learn to play, IF you could find a lefty, they were a bit more money than their right handed counterparts. So I just decided that I'd learn to play right handed. Thinking back on it, it's kind of a weird decision to make. But I was young and just wanted desperately to learn to play, so that's what I did. I too struggle a bit with alternate picking at times, but never considered that it had anything to do with the fact that I'm a natural lefty. Interesting... In the past, I've picked up lefty guitars and tried to play them, but nope. Lol Not happening. The weird thing is that if I'm "air guitaring" a part for some reason, I do it left handed. Can't explain it. It is what it is. Lol There are things I do right handed that I can't do left handed at all either. Bowling, shooting, playing pool, throwing a frisbee...but I throw a baseball/football left handed. Look like a 6 year old girl if I try to do it right handed. Lol I'm all kinds of mixed up I guess. :/
 
my lefty friends who do play "regular" guitars tell me it's the best choice they ever made. they can play any "regular" guitar if they sit-in, and there are more options available for buying a guitar. some of them play it like a right-hander would, and some play them upside down, so right hand is fretting hand.
 
Totally left handed and footed except if I pick up a cricket bat or golf club. Or for my friends in the US a baseball bat. My brain wanted to play guitar left though. I was so determined however to play that I fought it until it wasn't an issue.
Now another weird bunch are those that have the strings upside down. Saw Ufo the other week. Paul Raymond playing left handed with the strings upside down. Never noticed before but it was a small venue and I was close up. Couldn't get my head round that but remembered a nipper I taught years ago who did the same. Teaching him was not easy.
 
I think it depends per individual but for me the left hand is strong with rhythms so I need to compensate for that (I play open-ended with drums so I could hit the hi-hat with my left hand with a normal setup drum system. So in some cases the left side has more strength with rhythm patterns. But as with anything else you could train either hand.
 
One more here.

I started playing on my father's guitar, and i never even think about left or right.
I need both hands after all.
 
Very interesting and informative thread. Statistically, round 10% of us are left-handed. Even more, like 30% are "cross-dominant" (see Wikipedia), they change hands for different tasks. I've noticed from the posts above that this matches a few descriptions there.

So are you all left-handed or can some of you say you're both-handed or cross-dominant or mixed-handed?
 
don_joe said:
Very interesting and informative thread. Statistically, round 10% of us are left-handed. Even more, like 30% are "cross-dominant" (see Wikipedia), they change hands for different tasks. I've noticed from the posts above that this matches a few descriptions there.

So are you all left-handed or can some of you say you're both-handed or cross-dominant or mixed-handed?
Click to expand...

As I mentioned above a couple of things I automatically do right handed but these are two handed things like hitting a golf ball, but a single handed task 100% left and my instinct was to play left. That felt correct. I can't remember at what stage it no longer felt unnatural but certainly now picking up a lefty guitar feels completely wrong. So I have obviously rewired myself to accept being what once felt wrong. I imagine that only took a few months tbh. It was too long ago.
 
i am a lefty - and initally learned right handed as a youngster because my dad and brother each had right handed guitars in the house.

However when I realised that Hendrix, McCartney et al were lefty I changed (probably 1 year in!). I restrung the Spanish guitar and started relearning. Golly - it was difficult at first because the brain had formed the muscle memory required for playing right handed. Equally I had to transpose chord boxes in real time.

However within a few months I was playing naturally as a left-handed. That was the mid Eighties and I am still definitely left handed when it comes to guitars. Funnily the chord boxes switched naturally in my head, tab was no bother anyway.

I am a very average player and even though I am in my 30th year of playing it is lack of time to play rather than than switching to left-handed that hinders me However have always enjoyed more complex finger picking as a challenge - and perhaps my switch has helped here.

I had heard that physiologically left handed people (in the main) tend to be naturally more ambidextrous (so for example I am naturally a right handed golfer and criketer, left handed tennis player and more left-sided football (soccer) player (although reasonably adept on both feet). I am sure there are plenty of right handed readers saying they are too...so excuse if this proves to be cod science.

Finally the question of equipment - this is the biggest downside to being left handed. Your choice is so poor compared to right handed players. While there might be 10% of us in the population, I would be surprised if most shops stock any near 3% of guitars as left-hookers.

All the best
Gilesy
 
don_joe said:
Very interesting and informative thread. Statistically, round 10% of us are left-handed. Even more, like 30% are "cross-dominant" (see Wikipedia), they change hands for different tasks. I've noticed from the posts above that this matches a few descriptions there.

So are you all left-handed or can some of you say you're both-handed or cross-dominant or mixed-handed?
Click to expand...

Yes I would say i qualify as that. I do lots of tasks right handed, such as use a knife and fork, or operate a computer mouse. I am right footed too. I don't play any sports but if I did, tennis would be left handed, and cricket would be right handed for batting, but left handed for bowling.
 
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