The other day I bought a cheapie guitar on a whim, thinking to acquire a new hobby. However, I am now completely befuddled, before even attempting to play a single chord. This guitar is apparently from a different dimension from me. Whenever I try to pick it up, my brain says confidently, “Aha, the neck goes in the right hand.” “No, no,” I reply, “Look at the thing, stupid; I’m supposed to hold the neck in my left hand and strum with the right.” So I pick it up that way, and every fiber of my being cries out, “Wrong! Wrong! This does not compute! This feels totally backward and unnatural!”
I’ve tried stringing the thing in reverse, but that doesn’t seem to help either; the bridge is canted so that when the strings are arranged the other way around, the low E string strikes the neck of the guitar when plucked. So that’s no good.
I’m not ready to give up so soon, but I’m somewhat puzzled about what strategy I should employ here. I’ve looked at a couple lefty guitars, and they seem somewhat pricey, but I suppose I could invest in a Christmas gift for myself if that would be the easiest way to learn. But I am wondering if I would be further handicapping myself by going that route, since I would imagine that most all guitar tutorials will tend to favor right handed playing. Should I instead bite the bullet and try to learn to play right handed, even though it seems to cut against the grain of my instincts? I tend to doubt that I could ever manage to teach myself to play a righty guitar upside down Hendrix-style.
Well, the way I see it, you have three choices. You can learn to play with your right hand, you can buy a lefty guitar, or you can be cool like Jimi and play the guitar upside-down. I’ve gotta vote for number 3.
What Jimi actually did was take a right-handed guitar, flip it over, and restring it. He didn’t actually play upside-down. So you’ve already tried it his way, Terrifel. Albert Collins and a few other players did actually play upside-down guitars.
Learning to play left-handed shouldn’t cause you any problems with tutorials, you just reverse the hands as they refer to them. That should become easy pretty fast. I would think that trying to learn to reverse all the hand positions they should you would be a lot harder. So I’d suggest a lefty guitar.
Right-handed player here. Don’t go the Hendrix route; young kids can do that stuff; most adults can’t (just like learning a language with no accent - for some reason the kids’ minds are more flexible; go figure).
I would go to a place like Musician’s Friend - I did a search here for “guitar left hand” and got a bunch of results. I didn’t scan them, but you should and see if there is anything in your price range…
If you see stuff you like, do research with your local dealers to see if they have them - only buy something you’ve tried live, if you can…
I also Googled “Guitar Left Hand” and got dozens of hits worth checking out…
Beyond that, I would recommend searching the SDMB for threads on guitar - there are a bunch in Cafe Society and maybe one or two in IMHO about getting started that apply to any new guitar player…
Almost every musical instrument is asymmetrical. However, it doesn’t put lefties at a disadvantage. In fact, string instruments require at least, if not greater, dexterity from the left hand. You’re right, that left-handed guitars are obivously in a minority, which means higher costs and also less variety. Go right-handed - your hands will learn which way around that is soon enough.
I agree with GorillaMan. Just learn to play in standard position. It will make life easier for you, and I’m sure you’ll get over the backwards feeling quickly. You’ll be using your dominant hand for the more complex task, which seems more logical than the traditional arrangement. And you’ll be able to play someone else’s guitar should you ever want to–say, at a party, or just checking out a friend’s instrument.
Some of the best guitar players around are lefties playing in right-handed position–Robert Fripp, for example.
You can get cheap enough left-handed guitars. Even a lefty Stratocaster is under $500 (for a Mexican). Dick Dale and Albert King are prominent upside down players, but just grab a lefty and learn the right way.
My son is a lefty, too. I advised him to learn to play his guitar in standard fashion, but it felt “too weird” to him, so he flips the thing over and plays it upside down. I have no idea how he manages, but he does really well at it…I think it’s just a matter of adjusting the way you read music (or whatever guitar readers read), as long as you have the flexibility to do it.
Good luck!
Best,
karol
Left-handed guy here that plays guitar (and banjo, and mandolin, and bass, and appalachian dulcimer) right handed. I started teaching myself at 20 years old and never bothered trying a real left-handed guitar. So I’m not really sure if it would’ve been easier that way, but I think it would be easier, in fact, I always wondered why stringed instruments are set-up for the predominantly right hand population to be more dexterious with their less dexterious hand. Seemed antithetical to me.
One other way to think of it is, that if you’re looking at making this a life time hobby, left handed guitars aren’t as common and you could be limiting yourself to some great guitars and also accessibility in just picking up a random guitar and doing a little jam. There’s also the extra learning curve for reading tab and chords and realizing that they’re all backwards as well.
And by the way, the awkward feeling of how you situate the guitar will diminish with habit and time. Once you start working on barre chords you’ll get a whole new awkward feeling.
Oh, one other thing. Don’t just switch guitar strings to change it from a right-handed to a left-handed guitar. Take it to a shop and let them do it as it can and most likely will warp the neck of the guitar if the proper adjustments (to the truss rod) aren’t made. The neck is built to handle the tensions made by the different gauges of strings and is a bit precise (even switching from a light to a medium gauge of guitar string can do it.)
I’m exactly like StPauler - I’m a lefty who plays a ton of instruments (mandolin, guitar, bass, banjo and drums) right handed.
You will learn quicker with the chords shapes in your dominant hand, and what you’ll be doing with the right hand in the first six months to a year of playing is child’s play compared to the chording.
The idea with the backwards fingering I believe stems from the classical guitar (lute/mandolin/what have you) - where the right hand patterns and technique are much more complex than they are in more traditional folk and modern rhythm techniques. The theory is that in that case, you’re working the harder parts in the dominant hand.
My advice as a teacher and long time player: Learn righty. It will be easier, and by the time you’re ready to go beyond rudimentary right hand stuff, you’ll have a firmer grasp of the basics of playing and can devote more time to it without getting frustrated.
Plus as a lefty, it’s a bitch finding instruments that you love, and the odds of walking into a jam and picking up a spare guitar are much lower - there just aren’t that many lefties playing in any average jam.
P.S. StPauler Seeing as how we play similar stuff (it sounds like) and we’re in the same general area (upper Midwest), why don’t you pop into my Name My Band contest thread - I’d love to hear your thoughts. Anybody else is welcome as well, of course!
Another vote for learning to play as a right hander. I’m a lefty, and when I got my first guitar, I did exactly as you did, i.e., turn it over and tried to play it.
But when I started taking lessons, I found it an advantage to play right-handed. I’m such a left-hander that forming chords was pretty easy. I can do some rudimentary picking with my right hand, but mostly I prefer strumming chords, so this arrangement works for me.
I’m puzzling about this one, now…but it certainly predates anything resembling a modern guitar, and goes back to much older instruments such as zithers. Hmmmm…
Well, don’t take it as gospel - it’s a vague recollection of some music history class back in college, that I also remember discussing with with my mentor after learning it. Mostly cause I was a left-hander playing righty, and it didn’t make sense to me.
And I’m pretty sure that you’re right, many earlier instruments had significant disparity as well, but I think it kind of ossified around the emergence of the early classical guitar. Pieces by composers such as Carulli, Sor, Tarrega, Albeniz (and bunch of others that escape me at the moment) required a much more disclipined right hand. In fact, most of these composers did much of their work writing Studies, and these scores have very specific right hand notation that requires considerable technique to pull off.
Again, mostly a recollection, but it jibes with my general knowledge as well.
Terrifel- I have exchanged emails with you regarding shipping the Guitar, but I need an address to ship it to. Please help me out and send me an address. I’m willing to forgo the shipping charges and send it to you on my dime. I figure that if God sent Jesus to die for the the world’s sins, I can at least send a guitar to somewhere in the continental US, being Christmas time and all.
Wonko The Sane- I will get that info out to you, pronto. Sorry to make you repost like that; I got a bit distracted over the holidays, and my correspondence has suffered as a result. Once again, thanks muchly for the extremely generous offer. You rock, man.
Looks like the OP is taken care of but I’ll still pipe in.
I’m a righty. I play a right-handed guitar bought from this shop about three blocks north of me. They are a reputable and nice bunch, if you can get over the heavy-duty Messianic Judaism (Jews for Jesus). But over the interwebs, this probably doesn’t come through as strong as a store visit. I got a neck set-up, some hardware replaced, and restring there a few months ago and they informed me that they were doing extremely well on the internet – it is kind of odd cause the store is in a pretty shady area but carries a beautiful inventory. They also contract with several local custom guitar makers. They gave my name to a guy who tried to hire me for a gig (as a sitar player) who had just had built a lefty dual-necked 6/12 string Gibson SG knockoff similar to this famous monstrosity. I can’t imagine what it cost.
Then again, my cousin, a lefty, is a wonderful right-handed guitar player. I would follow the advice of most of the leftys on this thread and just learn to play on a right-handed instrument. I mean, isn’t the thing about left-handed people supposed to be that many distribute brain function over both lobes and therefore can pick up many of these tasks easier?
