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So my question to you left but righty players is why do you guys play right handed? Why not defy the world and make life harder by being a left guitarist? :mrgreen
 
Sammetal91 said:
So my question to you left but righty players is why do you guys play right handed? Why not defy the world and make life harder by being a left guitarist? :mrgreen
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Years into playing, I honestly asked myself that question. It seems totally backwards for modern guitar playing. Instead, I'm compensating by studying more two-hands techniques.
 
Guess for me playing right-handed was just because of what i saw. Started playing when i was 6 (now i'm 45). All i saw were right-handed players not that at that age i didn't know any different so picked up a right-handed guitar and started playing. At 14-15 i worked in a music store and can remember a couple of times when there left-handed guitars in the store taking them off the wall and trying to play them. Just could not do it, guess i was conditioned to playing right-handed.

There are quite a few famous players that are left-handed and play right-handed. Only one that springs into my mind right now due to him being one of my fav players is the late Gary Moore. Did not do him any harm.

What does get me are left-handed players that take a right-handed guitar flip it over (without changing the strings at all) and play so they do everything upside down.
There is a support player that i've seen with Clapton that does that but don't know his name. Now that must be making things difficult for yourself.
 
Well, it goes like this...

As a kid I was ambidextrous, my kindergarden teacher pushed me to write right handed, I started doing more things right handed due to pressure from the adults around me, and eventually I lost the ability to do most things left handed at all, accept basketball. Oh, and I steer my car lefty too, but that has more to do with the fact that we shift on the right side, on this side of the pond.

Weird huh?
 
I've actually heard of teachers encouraging right handed people to wrote left. I've also heard that teachers and people gave you dirty looks some time ago for writing left handed. Guess the left hand stigma of evil and clumsiness have started to wear off :D
 
Guitar-Tiz said:
Well, it goes like this...

As a kid I was ambidextrous, my kindergarden teacher pushed me to write right handed, I started doing more things right handed due to pressure from the adults around me...
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Same here.

Glad I play right handed... easier to buy "way too many" guitars! :D
 
dsl said:
Same here.

Glad I play right handed... easier to buy "way too many" guitars! :D
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Exact opposite here. I was/am fairly ambidexterous. My mom pushed me to do things left handed (she is pretty much an anti-establishment hippie :) )

I write and eat left handed. Pretty much everything else I seem to do right handed or both.
 
Guitar-Tiz said:
WOW! That seems unfair, anything for dyslexics, ADD, or colorblind? I wonder if my wife could get some money for her Masters? She's a lefty.
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Its probably still out there somewhere. One of the things i remember justifying the scholarship was that this world is basically right handed. :razz
I too, write and eat lefty but thats it.
 
Another confused bastard checking in! Left handed to the core, but I play guitar righty, bat a ball righty, and when I cut my steak I switch my fork to the right hand and the knife goes in my left.
 
I am left handed and played that way for a couple of years. I wanted a Gibson SG but could not find a decent left handed one anywhere within my budget, so I think if Jimi Hendrix can turn his strat
upside down I can do it with a SG. My problem was I kept turning the volume down while playing so I restrung it the way it was meant to be and learnt that way.
 
I'm right handed, but I remember having an instructor who was ambidextrous. He would start writing on the left side of the chalkboard with his left hand and then finish the right half with his right hand. He didn't skip a beat. It was freaky, and fun, to watch.

BTW, although I'm a righty I carry my guitar with my left hand. I was taught to do it that way in case the case ever opened. That way you could break the fall with your leg. I had a PRS with a case that opened the opposite way, and it felt very strange to carry the guitar in my right hand.

Terry.
 
dsl said:
Same here.

Glad I play right handed... easier to buy "way too many" guitars! :D
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As far as guitars being cheaper, that's true, but my handwriting is total crap. I can't help but wonder if I should have been encouraged to be a lefty, and if my handwriting would have been better, or even awesome if I had. I probably still would have been a righty guitarist though, cause my dad is a guitar player, and I only had righty guitars at my disposal. I've tried lefty guitars, just to see, and it just feels weird. I do know my left hand technique developed much faster than my right hand technique did, it still does. I can go crazy with hammer ons, and pull off, because when I first started playing I couldn't keep up with my right hand at all.
 
This totally brought back memories...

My brother, god bless him, was born with some difficulties and epilepsy. Basically he never grew mentally past the 12 -13 year old stage. What was interesting is he was completely 100% ambidextrous. Could write with both hands at the same time and you could not tell the difference. Could throw, catch, bat, etc equally with either hand. Was a trivia genius too with a photographic memory. You could ask him what Babe Ruths batting avg was in 1930 and he would give you a month by month avg. Was amazing. I miss him...

Now I know I could play the neck with my right hand but rhythm with the left? Not a chance! So I don't see how your lefties play right. ~tip of the hat~
 
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For me standard guitar seems to be for lefties i.e. most of the hard work is happening in the left hand. I dunno, I'm pretty ambidextrous with some things, handwriting not one of them. I shoot pistol and rifle either way depending on position and I'm good. Much better than I ever have been on guitar...:lol
 
cobbler said:
This totally brought back memories...

My brother, god bless him, was born with some difficulties and epilepsy. Basically he never grew mentally past the 12 -13 year old stage. What was interesting is he was completely 100% ambidextrous. Could write with both hands at the same time and you could not tell the difference. Could throw, catch, bat, etc equally with either hand. Was a trivia genius too with a photographic memory. You could ask him what Babe Ruths batting avg was in 1930 and he would give you a month by month avg. Was amazing. I miss him...

Now I know I could play the neck with my right hand but rhythm with the left? Not a chance! So I don't see how your lefties play right. ~tip of the hat~
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Interesting... did he have autism? Is it possible he was a savant of some kind? Condolences btw...
 
Gasp100 said:
Interesting... did he have autism? Is it possible he was a savant of some kind? Condolences btw...
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No autism but definetly savant like. Similar in a lot of ways to the rainman character in the movie. Was very interesting to say the least.
 
cobbler said:
So I don't see how your lefties play right. ~tip of the hat~
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Didn't know any better when my mom started me on lessons at age 7. Was in a small town and the music store didn't carry much (if any) in the way of lefty guitars, so I learned to play righty even though I do everything else left handed.

I often wonder if I'd be more proficient then I am if I had started off playing lefty.
 
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