In need of some advice

You might want to take your daughter to a music store and let her try a left handed guitar. If it's natural for her to play left handed, I would think she'd be more interested in learning.

Denny

Welcome to GN

I am a natural lefty that learned to play right handed, i literally do everything else left handed.

my only regret is that i feel my right hand does not seem to be as quick to pick up on what i am trying to do
(strumming, picking)
however i learned to fret notes and many difficult chords much faster than other right handed friends who learned at the same time i did.
my feeling about this is that people should learn whichever way seems natural to them. Because the guitar requires both hands to work together it is a toss up as to which way would benefit her imo.

i also think that if she can try it both ways before she is too far along maybe she can get a feel for what seems natural to her.

I hope David Hodge sees this thread and comments, because he is a well respected teacher and also happens to be left handed.

It's a good question and I'm as interested as you are to see the range of opinion that will be expressed.

As a teacher, I always let the student make the final decision, especially after they've had some experience trying it right handed. Some left handed students want to learn right handed for various reasons and it soon becomes natural. Others, like your daughter, realise that left handed is the only way that will ever feel natural for them. And I understand that completely, as I can't imagine ever feeling comfortable playing the opposite way.

It does mean relearning the finger movements and hand positions. But that's all, everything else is just knowledge and it's simply a matter of regarding everything as a mirror image of what's she's learned until it becomes the natural way. And she is still a relative beginner so it wouldn't be such a big task to change over.

Advantages of playing right handed include having chord diagrams and tablature always written for right handed people, but I'm sure some left handers here will agree that it's not a problem as it's what you're used to.
Another advantage is the range of right handed guitars at the price you want far outnumbers left handeds
And yet another is that left handers miss out a lot on sharing and learning from guitar playing friends, the majority of whom are right handed and won't be able to play her guitar if they happen to drop by (without a guitar). So it's always good to have a right handed guitar around too.

In conclusion, I'd say that despite the advantages above, if she expresses a natural preference to learn left handed, I feel that outweighs all of them and I'd go with that.

Hi all

This topic is very relevant to me at the moment and something i have recently been discussing with my teacher.

I'm left handed, playing about 6 months and have been curious as to what my ability would be if I tried to play right handed.
My reasons are that as Fretsource says, the majority of people are right handed and you can't play their guitar if for whatever reason you have'nt your own with you: The second reason is pure vanity (I'll be honest) in that I've always thought guitarists playing left handed looked awkward.

Having said that I don't see those reasons as the be all and end all and am prepared to stick playing left handed as right handed doesn't feel natural at all. As for tablature and chord diagrams, you get used to changing them around. My teacher has offered the opinion that I could change to playing right handed if I really wanted and that in time I would get used to it. But to be honest I'm happy to stick to left handed (as I said I was just curious).

I feel that if i was to play right handed and no matter how much progress I made and accomplished I became I would always wonder if I could have been that bit better sticking to my natural instinct of playing lefty.

I think it's really matter of personal opinion but my two cent would be to stick to what feels natural. Being lefty didn't do Jimi any harm :D
Then again I'm sure there is plenty of leftys out there playing right handed. I know Aerosmith's Joe Perry is one anyway :D

Thank you to everyone for their thoughts and ideas! It is very helpful for me to hear from other lefty guitar players, since I am neither and I'm trying to guide my daughter in all of this! Our local Guitar Center is out of stock on short scale left-handed guitars right now, but I will take her to try some out and see if she notices a significant difference. She wasn't able to do much with a full-size guitar.

Please keep the insight coming! :D

I'm a left hander who had the advantage of teachers who forced me to eat and write right handed. So I picked up the guitar right handed. My brother is also a lefty who plays right, he writes and eats left handed. But he started on violin before picking up bass.

Another lefty who I play with just flips my guitar over and playes it that way. Playing right never seemed natural to him and he did have to use right handers guitars on loan so that's how he learned.

Hi Ladyjane,

Mark Knopfler is lefty. Some time ago I was reading an interview in which he comments the advantages of play right-handed. I don't remember where I read it but I found this book in which the interview seems be included:

http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Knopfler-Guitar-Styles-1/dp/0793570255

The biggest disadvantage I've heard of playing "the wrong way" is that doing robust rhythms requires a decent amount of large muscle endurance and lefties who are playing righties might, and I stress might, be a little less able to keep up with the demands of a longer playing session.

However, unless your doing something like a swing jazz big band, gypsy jazz, western or bluegrass or similar acoustic genres, the chances of actually playing that way in this age of electrified instruments is pretty darn slim.

For my students i encourage them to go to a guitar store and try holding a couple of guitars each way, and deciding which way feels most natural to them.

You might want to take your daughter to a music store and let her try a left handed guitar. If it's natural for her to play left handed, I would think she'd be more interested in learning.

Denny

Big reason to stay righty right there. If the store has a left handed guitar you can try one. Left handed guitars can be hard to come by and they cost more. My son is a lefty. He plays bass right handed and shoots a rifle right handed. Personally I can't see where one hand is more important than the other when playing guitar. They both have a difficult job to do. He is glad he learned righty because he can go into a music store and play most of the guitars. He can find the model he wants and not have to worry if it comes left handed, let alone the fact it will be $50 more. I mean, if lefty feels better by all means, I'm just saying ... if all else is equal, there are advantages to play righty.

Sounds like a young Fripp, you got there. He's left handed and plays right handed.