Hi all!
The board is great! I've been poking around for hours now and reading some very helpful information. I figured the best way to get some help is to tell you a bit about myself.
I'm a 25 year old male from New York City, and I've wanted to learn the guitar for quite some time. I think to start I see myself doing some singer/songwriter type acoustic stuff. I've wanted to pick up a guitar for a long while, but school always got in the way. I finally finished up law school and I'm thinking now is the perfect time to get myself into it. I havent decided yet how to learn (classes, personal teacher, DVDs, etc) but I figured a good place to start is with purchasing a guitar.
About me physically: I am not a tall guy, to say the least. I am 5 foot 3 inches tall, and as it goes with being short, I do not have very long arms, nor incredibly big hands (not THAT small though either, I suppose!). I am a lefty, for everything. But, I do play the drums and I use my right hand for the high-hat (I play with a righty-configuration -- and I do not play "open style"). So, I'm not really sure if I NEED a lefty-guitar.
I never even picked up a guitar, strange as that may sound. I did pick up my niece's toy guitar recently, and realized I'm a tad more comfortable strumming with my left than with my right.
Musically: I've played the drums for a while now, just not so much in the last few years. I also played the trumpet once upon a time -- and I probably cant anymore, but at one time was able to read music.
Overall I am looking for a decent starter that wont set me back too much monetarily, but wont hinder performance or sound quality either. I am looking for acoustic, thinking left-handed, and I'm not sure if I should be aiming for a 3/4 size due to my body dimensions.
Any ideas/suggestions?
Thanks so much everyone! The forum is great, looking forward to being an active member!!
Carmine
If you think about it, why aren't right handed people playing the guitar left handed? Logically, that would place the dominant hand on the neck, allowing it to do the "hard" work.
For most folks, it's the dominant hand that can be counted on to handle the rhythm chores. There are many left handed people (and ambidextrous folks, too) that play right handed. The best test I can recommend is to pick up something guitar-like or to simply start playing air guitar. Don't even give yourself time to think about it. Then see which hand is handling which duties. If your left hand is doing the strumming, then chances are you want to go that way with a real guitar. If your right hand is doing the strumming, might as well go right handed.
As for which guitar, I'll let everyone else pitch in. But you might want to pay attention to the guitar body shape. You might be better with a "folk" style guitar, that is, a guitar that's closer in shape to a classical rather than the big dreadnaught size that most people start out with simply because they make more in this style than any others.
I hope this helps. Welcome to Guitar Noise, by the way. Don't think twice about posting any kind of question you can think of. This community is great at helping folks out. I wish you a wonderful life-long adventure with the guitar.
Looking forward to seeing you on the boards.
Peace
have you considered learning righty?
I'm left handed and learned right handed. there are a huge number of guitar options available for right handed players.
if you have a good sense of rhythm with your right hand from playing drums, then you are already ahead of the game imo.
in the beginning, your left hand will bear the majority of the burden as you learn scales, chords, build finger strength, dexterity, etc.
the downside is that your "weak" hand will need to learn picking, finger picking etc.
i've never regretted it
edit-------
David posted while i was typing this
do what David says :wink:
#4491....
Thanks for the quick replies!
I really think I need to just walk into a guitar shop and pick one up and see how it goes. I was thinking the same thing, wouldnt I be better suited to play righty and have my dominant hand do more of the finger-strength tasks? But like I said, I picked up that little toy guitar and felt a little more awkward with the strumming motion with my right hand. To be fair, strumming with my left hand didnt feel immensely natural either -- again, really never picked up a guitar before so save for some air guitar (in the shower?) I really have no lithmus test on what "natural strumming" should feel like anyway.
I found that weird because of my rhythm keeping abilities with my right hand while drumming.
I'm really excited to get started on this long-awaited hobby!
edit-------
David posted while i was typing this
do what David says :wink:
Do what you feel works. If I had started younger in life, then I probably would have played right handed. If it's only "a little more awkward" and if you're also feeling the left handed way is strange, it couldn't hurt to try going right handed. Do you have a friend that will spot you a guitar just so you can test things out until you have more of an idea?
Peace
Carmine
I think you should be getting a full size guitar. KT tunstall is around 5 ft tall and she looks fine with a big old Gretsch. Infact she looks more than fine :wink:
Another lefty here. I'm a few weeks ahead of starting guitar. I decided to learn right handed partly for the much greater selection of instruments and partly because I play bass right handed. I think finger picking might have been a bit easier left handed but I think I made the right decision. Now in two weeks my 9 year old daughter, also a lefty is going to start learning guitar right handed.
As for a guitar, I took a chance and ordered an Acoustic-Electric TGX from guitarimports.com out of Utah. I wasn't sure what I'd get but as it turned out I got way more guitar for $200 than I could have gotten anywhere else. Of course I'm 100 miles from the nearest music store, kind of limits the options.
As for size of the guitar I would agree with trying out a folk size guitar, they are quite popular in the singer/songwriter genre that you mentioned. The main thing that you should check out besides the sound of the guitar is how it sits in your lap when you are sitting and playing. If you know anyone that plays you should ask them to go with you, most guitar players love to check out guitars.
Carmine. Its Paul from wa state. I play left handed guitar. I hope you have fun learning guitar. When you look for a guitar, if you have small hands try and find one that is short scale. Its easier to reach your fingers to make chords. Look for one with good action, low action, although with no buzzes on the frets. One that has good binding around the body and neck, outer binding seals the guitar. Yamaha makes great guitars. I bought one from guitar center for around three fifty. As for lessons. They have free lessons on the website called "You Tube". Learn your basic major and minor chords. Then the songs you like you can type in the websites search engine. Ive learned more in the last year on you tube lessons than I have in the last twenty. Then also when you play with another musician ask them to teach you songs and scales and chords. Before you knoq it, if you put in some time, youll be playing like Ann Wilson from the band Heart. That woman is a great guitarists. Im from Boston so I felt like I should give you a reply. When ever I dont root for the Boston Red Sox, Im rooting for the NY Yanks. See ya. Paul.
Everyone,
Thanks so much for the replies. I think I'm going to go to the guitar center in NYC this weekend and take some time trying some guitars out. I dont mind spending a few bucks to make sure I'm happy and using a good instrument.
I think I'll go full-size, and I'm going to just give some display models a go and see if i feel more comfortable lefty or righty.
I found a pretty good deal for a 10-session beginner course in Manhattan, I'm thinking of doing that as a starting off point!
Really excited!!
I'll let you all know how the purchase goes
Thanks again!!
Hi, Carmine. Welcome to the board. I won't try to tell you whether or not you should play left-handed, but I'm a lefty and really wish I'd have learned to play right-handed instead. There's a MUCH bigger selection of right-handed guitars, and even when you can find a lefty model, it's often more expensive than its right-handed counterpart. Having said that, when I picked up my first left-handed guitar the salesman tried to talk me into buying a righty and i ignored him and went with what felt most comfortable. So go with what feels good, and good luck.
Dan
Hello
Another lefty player here. I struggled with the decision whether to learn to play lefty or right initially. I decided to play lefty as that was most comfortable and "natural" for me. I have had no problem finding suitable lefty guitars (acoustic or electric) but there are certainly more righty models available everywhere. I take solace in the fact that I have less temptation to buy a new guitar when I visit a guitar shop :D
I have no regrets going lefty. The main downside for me is the inability to borrow friend's guitars (and vice versa).
I'm sure I could have learned to play righty but I wonder if the awkwardness of it may have prompted me to give up or would have hindered my progress. I've often heard the argument that playing righty would give us leftys an advantage of putting our dominant hand on the fretboard - if that were true, you'd see a lot of rightys learning to play left-handed.
While I hate to see lefthanders encouraged to play the other way, it is an individual decision. The more important decision you have made is to learn to play in the first place. Good luck whatever you decide and remember that either decision doesn't have to be permanent.
l
"The details of my life are quite inconsequential." - Dr. Evil
im a left hander, and i always considered the left hand does more work and more fine motor skills to learn than the right hand if you play "right handed" - so it always felt more comfortable for me play right handed.
but there are many varying degrees of left and right handidness, so obviously you must do what feels comfortable to you, let us know which way you go.
and enjoy that guitar :D
"I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at it while I'm playing it because I'm not very good at playing it."
Noel Gallagher (who took the words right out of my mouth)