Do you play guitar left-handed?

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

As of now, the breakdown is Righties 17, Lefties 7. I would've expected to see far more right-handed players, but I think the title of the thread is attracting proportionately more lefties.

- Keith

 

[LiquidWizard]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

You know, I think the wise man might be right, and that us "right-handed" players may have it backwards. We should be fretting with our dominant hand, as that's where the most precision & dexerity is needed. Learning to fret with our left hands is unnatural at first; we don't do anything else that complex with our weak hand.

In my opinion dexterity is needed more in the right hand. More precisely, the picking hand. All of your rhythm comes from your picking hand and IMO most of your picking hand movements are executed to a degree in your everyday mundane motions like writing and the like. Finger dexterity is developed when you start playing and therefore not relevant to whether you're fretting with your dominant hand.

I play right-handed and my dominant hand is my right one, so my situation is quite common.

P.S. There are famous examples of both cases, though. Mark Knopfler is left-handed but plays right. Tony Iommi tried to play right-handed but I guess that didn't work out for him.

P.P.S. There are also ambidextrous people. But writing with your both hands and fretting with your both hands is a whole different word IMO.

Just my 2 cents

edit: Dare I mention Dick Dale and his upside down strings. How's that for some chord work

 

[Philcguitars]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

Liguid Wizzard,

Your observation is interesting, but...

I have NO rhythm in my RIGHT HAND. All my wrist control, direction and speed is in my Left hand. My dexterity is in my RIGHT. I use my right hand fingers to run across the fretboard in complex patterns. I and I say 'I' would not have the same control in my left hand after years of holding pens, tools etc with it. If I wanted to use a hammer accurately I'd use my left hand, because of the flick of wrist for example. If I used my right hand I'd smash the fingers holding the nail.

I blame the piano. I played for years before picking up a guitar. In GENERAL terms I played my chord shapes in my left and soloed in my right hand.

I don't know. It would seem that so far we don't have a distinctive pattern of why or why not left or right.

 

[Ciborg]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

I am a lefty to but I learned to play right handed

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

Well, I play righty, just like I write but I seriously suspect that I'm an ambidextrous.
I can't write well left handed (haven't tried much though) but in basketball it always came more natural for me to shoot with my left. Similarly I use my left with equal ease to perform other tasks normally done with the dominant hand.

Playing the guitar unfortunately isn't one of them and just today I kinda regretted it.
I saw a kick-@ss Yamaha AES (LP-clone) that was lefty and I REALLY wanted to try it out...

 

[FAC]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

edit: Dare I mention Dick Dale and his upside down strings. How's that for some chord work

As someone who plays left handed, I often wondered if it would have been better to play with the strings strung right handed...that way, I could at least pick up and play most guitars that are out there. I've been doing it long enough that I can strum the typical chords on a right handed/strung guitar, but that breaks down with any complicated single note work...but if I did this, then I could not play the few left handed guitars that are in the stores! Lose-lose?

 

[Animal]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

Whatever direction you play air-guitar, that's the "natural" direction your guitar playing coordination is.

As a lefty, even playing right handed air-guitar feels terrible. Feels like all my guitar soul is stripped away from me when having to play the other way round. When I play in a left-handed arrangement everything clicks together.

When I first started out, I had to make the decision whether I was going to pursue left or right handed playing. It came down to either being comfortable and learning faster with playing left-handed with all the disadvantages of using left-handed guitars or making a miserable attempt at playing right-handed and giving up pursuing guitar and music forever. I'm glad I took the lefty option.

The left hand fretting strength argument is bogus. If it were true, then all rightys should be playing left handed guitars. I don't think any right handed players are missing out on anything. Also developing picking is just as, if not, even more important than fretting. You're going to want to use your main hand for that. I remember first starting out and being able to fly across the fretboard way before I was able to pick accurately.

 

[Metalblaze]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

I find trickier to develop the picking hand too. I haven't learned yet to use a pick for fast leads, only for rhythm. When it comes to leads I hold the pick in my hand and use the 3 fingers like say Knopfler. I feel that I control the sound way easier that way. With a pick my fast leads suck but with fingers are very fluid.. This is a reason why I tend to use a little more high output pickups, as they send a stronger signal with less picking strength.

 

[millsart]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

At the music store I worked at we probably sold 95% right handed guitars. It was a rare thing to even have many left handed models in stock. Now that may itself explain why we didn't sell many though LOL.

I'd have to think overall the number is at least 75% right handed players though if not more ?

As such, it would make sense for a manf, not to offer as many lefty choices, fair or not.

I think its no different than a color choice, if lets say purple sells much much slower than black, your going to offer way more black guitars

 

[Jocelyn]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

My childhood buudy is left handed but plays right handed... but funny thing he still cant stoop playing his AIR guitar lefty. hmm maybe thats why he can play better than me cause he has all his dexterity on his left hand. However I do Pluck better than him...

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

I am actually right handed, so I know what you mean. But because of circumstances beyond my control, I'm compelled to play left handed or not at all. Of course, this makes me even more pssed off regarding the guitar selection for lefties, because I had no choice in the matter. I would agree with an earlier post to suggest beginners should learn right handed, regardless of their handedness.

Sounds like you and I are relatively close in the same boat. Back in 2000, I had to have my left hand index finger amputated from a work related accident. So I've had to reteach myself all over again and it's been quite the bumpy road.


I'd have to somewhat agree that it's better to have your dominant hand picking. After switching to lefty, it didn't take long for my right hand to assume the role of the fret hand, but I've spent countless hours on picking exercises w/ my left hand it's no where near where I'd like it to be. That could have something to do w/ the nerve damage to, but after 7+ years, it doesn't bother me like it use to.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

I have found that even though my left hand isn't my dominant hand, I am pretty decent at picking with it. I agree that in general it's a good idea to have the dominant hand pluck the strings since it does require a great deal of control and precision. I have tried playing right-handed, and I've found that I have just as much pick control in my left hand as I do in my right. That said, my left hand sucks ass at fretting.

Maybe it's simply because I have years of playing left-handed under my belt and it seems easier, but I have never experienced picking/articulation problems I haven't been able to overcome, even when I was starting out.

 

[Juanhanglo]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

Dangly, that was my point exactly! the right hand NEEDS the dexterity to capture all the nuances of playing. I may as well have a hook sometimes. (where's the pirate smiley when you need it) though, think of the possibilities!
guess i gotta go back to the woodshed......

while we are on the topic, how many of you are ambi?

I write lefty naturally, but can write righty in sync or mirror image.
swing a hammer righty
i fight like a righty
throw righty
eat righty
heck i even sleep righty!

a righty trapped in a lefties body?

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

Right hand:
- write
- play golf
- play hockey
- throw
- swing a bat
- use a mouse

Left hand:
- play guitar
- swing a bat (not as good as right, but not bad)
- shooting (archery and laser tag )
- [CENSORED]

 

[danglybanger]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

what. you don't use both for that

 

[Metalblaze]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

The only job that my left hand does is fretting. All the rest are done with the right hand. But I can drink something or flick the light switch with my left hand :arms: (huge success for me) LOL. So you can say that my left hand is my guitar hand.

 

[pinto79]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

I play lefty, but my dominant hand is right. I share that trait with Jimi Hendrix (as well as a couple other people here I see).

You also have your strings on upside down... weirdo...

I play righty.

 

[kherman]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

I'm a lefty who plays righty.

but, I did pick up an lefty Agile last summer to plunk around on while my left broken wrist was healing.
I still putz around with it once in a while.

Still feels totally alien though.
Your mind knows exactly what to do.
But, heck if I can get the hands to do it.
Totally feel like a noob when playing it.

 

[donahue]

Re: Do you play guitar left-handed?

In my opinion dexterity is needed more in the right hand. More precisely, the picking hand. All of your rhythm comes from your picking hand and IMO most of your picking hand movements are executed to a degree in your everyday mundane motions like writing and the like. Finger dexterity is developed when you start playing and therefore not relevant to whether you're fretting with your dominant hand.

I

I agree 110%. Picking is similiar to writing, so you would have more pick control right off the bat with your dominant hand, and learning to fret, well thats learning to play guitar.