left handed

Sorry that I dont have your answer but just wanted to say welcome to GN!!

Jim

Dave

I am left handed so i will try to asnwer your question as best i can.

Yes there are differences! First of all the guitar is built totally back to frint, like looking in a mirror. So if you go and hold a right handed guitar, the strings will be the wrong way up, with the bass string nearest the floor...

Look up some old pictures of Hendrix playing his white Fender Strat - he has it strung for a left handed person - but the guitar is upside down (look at the tuners!).

So you must buy a guitar specially for a lefty.

As for tabs, I find them easy to read and I don't see how being left or right handed makes a difference. The only thing that sometimes confused me where chord boxes in books, i have to imagine a mirror image of these.

I can't speak for Spanish Guitar, but the principles are the same.

Good luck

Matt

Dave

I am also a lefty and there are a number of us here on Guitar Noise. There are a number of decent left-handed guitars available nowadays but you may have better luck using the internet rather than your local shop (but some guitar shops do carry left-handed guitars and it is certainly worth investigating).
I can't speak for Spanish guitar specifically, but a left-handed guitar is preferable to re-stringing a right-handed guitar. Other than that you are in good company and will do fine. :D
Good luck!

Hey, I am a rightie so I have nothing to add here but for you lefties I added left handed chord, fretboard, and scale charts to my pages awhile ago. If you want you can download them.

but guyz the problem is that......
i have bought a guitar ,
actually i didn't know at that time that
there cud b a guitar specifically for lefties.

as i have that now,
so is there any way i can continue with that.

ciao

dave

If you already have the guitar, you can restring it, reversing the order of the strings, and turn the guitar upside-down and use the left hand to strum and the right hand to fret. This is what people did before the invention of left-handed guitars.
If you're a beginner, don't worry, putting on new strings isn't nearly as hard as it looks

Well the intonation would be off, unless it's a flat saddle.

You know you have the option of learning right handed.

Which hand should be dominant when playing guitar? I don't know, they both have to work pretty hard.

If you can swing it, you will be able to pick up a guitar just about anywhere and play, and you'll have a greater selection when you walk into a store.

I can only imagine the frustration from my visits to David's house, where I would keep picking up guitars only to say "who built this thing upside down?"

You know you have the option of learning right handed.

Which hand should be dominant when playing guitar? I don't know, they both have to work pretty hard.

Yeah, this has always baffled me. I can vaguely remember back in the distant past when I first picked up a guitar, and I'm pretty sure both my hands were useless and had to be trained.

I've never come across a left-handed clarinet, or a left-handed piano.

Anyone got an explanation as to why you wouldn't just learn 'the guitar', the same way up as everyone else, whether you're left or right handed?

Correct if I'm wrong, but didn't both Buddy Holly and Jimi Hendrix play left handed on regular guitars?

Jimi (lefty) played a fender strat upside down and restrung, Holly played righty, also a fender strat.

I'm a lefty and I think if you can swing it playing as a righty, your choices only increase. I, however, could not do that and therefore play left and love it. I hate going into guitar shops, however. :)

Also, for a bit more of "blow your mind", Albert King played lefty, but DIDN'T restring his guitar. whoa...

You know you have the option of learning right handed.

Which hand should be dominant when playing guitar? I don't know, they both have to work pretty hard.

Yeah, this has always baffled me. I can vaguely remember back in the distant past when I first picked up a guitar, and I'm pretty sure both my hands were useless and had to be trained.

I've never come across a left-handed clarinet, or a left-handed piano.

Anyone got an explanation as to why you wouldn't just learn 'the guitar', the same way up as everyone else, whether you're left or right handed?
I'll bet that you can remember when you first picked that guitar up how you held it. And I'll bet it was in the right handed position. The first time I picked one up my friend said, no! your holding it backwards and upside down. It felt perfectly natural to me. I have a friend that plays guitar righthanded but writes lefthanded. There are also many other things he does righthanded. I can't even brush my teeth with my right hand. My theory is that there are many people who claim to be lefthanded but they are really ambidextrous and have no problem learning righthanded. Those of us that are really lefthanded have no choice. As for the clarinet, I imagine if I picked one up, someone that knew how to play would tell me I've got my hands in the wrong position. And for the piano, you don't have to hold it. While I was typing this I thought about how I would hold a Violin, guess what, I'd put it under my right cheek.
Having said all this, my advise is that if you can learn righthanded, you'll have some advantages. If your like me that isn't an option and you'll need a lefthanded guitar.

I started playing "air guitar" left-handed as this always felt natural to me; I didn't even know I had it "backwards". I write & eat with my left hand but throw with my right. I probably could have learned to play guitar right-handed but I'm glad I went lefty as that feels more natural to me for strumming & holding the guitar.
I've heard stories of kids being forced to use their right hands in previous generations due to religious superstitions. Thankfully that is no longer the case (I hope!).
The more of us lefties who choose to play lefty, the more lefthanded guitars their will be.
As for pianos, both hands are essentially performing the same actions so it shouldn't matter. Like Tim, I'd hold a violin under my right cheek as well.
The one advantage to learning righty is that you'd have a larger universe of guitars to choose from and access.

For you righty's - try holding the guitar like a lefty and see what you can do. It will probably feel even more awkward than when you were a right-handed beginner.

I'm a lefty playing righty. The only thing I do right handed is guitar. I took up guitar about 6 months ago at the age of 46. However way back when I was about 10 years old in grade school we had ukelele lessons for about a month. For a stupid spring program for the parents. There were no lefty ukes so I had to play righty. So 36 years later I pick up a guitar and righty definately feels more natural. But lefty don"t feel to bad either when I flip my guitar upside down. I want to go into a store and try out some left handed guitars just to see if chords are any easier. I am glad I play right just for the simple fact that I don't have to pay an extra $100 or more for a guitar just because it's for leftys.