https://www.reddit.com/r/southpaws/comments/1hayxop/anyone_playing_right_handed_guitar/
created by nonvul on 10/12/2024 at 10:36 UTC
38 upvotes, 27 top-level comments (showing 25)
I am left-handed in all parts of everyday life except playing guitar.
I started learning guitar 20 years ago and I’ve always preferred right-handed guitars because my left hand is way faster and more precise in switching chords and playing melodies.
I just can’t wrap my head around using left-handed guitars. Is there anyone here who feels like left-handed guitars should be for right-handed people?
Comment by hardy_and_free at 10/12/2024 at 14:53 UTC
16 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I do. My parents didn't bother getting me a lefty guitar so I adapted. I also mouse with my right hand.
Comment by Geoff9821 at 10/12/2024 at 14:04 UTC
7 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Well I tried finger style guitar first, and my right hand couldn’t make sense of it, so I switched and now I’m so happy I play left handed. Selection is good nowadays too.
In my opinion, if we ever are gonna have hope of even more left handed options and variety, more left handed people actually need to play left handed, but it’s a personal choice.
I’ve always said this, there is a reason why right handed people play the guitar that way, it’s not a coincidence. Fretting hand is sorta harder at the start but your picking hand is so much more important that it overshadows the even slight “advantage” of fretting with your dominant hand.
Comment by I_am_Bob at 10/12/2024 at 15:50 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I learned guitar right handed just because that was the guitar I has access too. But as you say, to me it seemed natural to have my left hand as my fretting hand since it requires more dexterity. But I imagine if you learn the other way that would seem natural too.
Comment by x7leafcloverx at 10/12/2024 at 17:54 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
As someone who is currently getting back into playing/learning guitar, I've always felt way more comfortable on a left handed guitar. It just doesn't feel even remotely natural using a righty guitar, and I've been in a band over twenty years (as a singer) so I've always had access to right handed instruments and they just don't feel right.
Comment by [deleted] at 10/12/2024 at 19:45 UTC
5 upvotes, 2 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by theZirbs at 10/12/2024 at 12:56 UTC
6 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This is how I learned to play, and I'm happy with my choice. I lose picking dexterity while gaining fingering dexterity, which to me, is a good tradeoff. That, and I have a wider choice of instruments. Much respect and love to those who do use left-handed guitars, though it does provide us with an interesting tradeoff as lefties.
Comment by 12thshadow at 10/12/2024 at 11:22 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I can play a righty guitar like a left, so the low e would be on the bottom.
Some chords really suck inverted but I make do...
When I play the correct shapes on an inverted guitar I usually start with: "and now for some prog-jazz..."
Comment by ArcticSnowMonkey at 10/12/2024 at 13:55 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
If i play air guitar I play left but actual guitar I play right. I think it’s because growing up there were only ever right handed ones lying around. Same story for a computer mouse.
Comment by pete728415 at 10/12/2024 at 16:07 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Both my kids play right-handed, and I play bass right-handed.
Comment by TryingToBeHere at 10/12/2024 at 17:29 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I write and eat left handed but play guitar and throw right handed...
Comment by projecktzero at 10/12/2024 at 20:20 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
When I did play guitar, I played a right-handed guitar. My left hand is more dexterous, so doing solos makes more sense to me.
Comment by Damnation77 at 11/12/2024 at 13:40 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Sometimes you just learn to adapt. Instruments and computer I can use right handed. Power tools, no. Bowling and pool I can play both ways, but I'm crap at it anyway.
Comment by SweetPeter41 at 10/12/2024 at 15:55 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
My step dad was a right handed guitar player. As well as all of my friends who also played the guitar, all righties. I would try my best to chord using a right handed guitar upside down. It was impossible for me. So I would practice travis picking one string at a time. One string turned to 2 and then 3 and so on. But what really sucked before the days of internet. Was transcribing right handed finger placement to left handed finger placement from chord books. however the advantage for beginners who are left handed is that we can sit directly across from a right handed player and it's a mirror image. To watch someone who knows chords and being able to mirror that is a good starting point. And one more thing I gotta add is when a right handed guitar is strung upside down for a left handed player. The bottom bridge or nut or whatever the little slanted bar at the bottom is called will always make the guitar not sound right. So when I hear right anyone say, "just string it upside down" I get that left handed frustration that can only be appreciated by those who have to go through the bullshit of having the gift of being left handed in a world that caters to right handed sheep.
Comment by redvelvetdreams at 10/12/2024 at 20:40 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I do. I taught myself with videos and so I just learned the way the instructor taught. I agree with others that your more dexterous left hand makes sense to be used on the fret board, but I have also never tried it the other way around.
Comment by ImagineIfBaconDied at 10/12/2024 at 21:18 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I don’t play guitar anymore but I grew up playing with it on right handed guitars. I do have a left handed accoustic and I never really could play that well on it. I fret far better on my left hand than my right hand
Comment by Opie045 at 10/12/2024 at 23:48 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Guitar, baseball swing, golf - the system made me!!!
Comment by Ok-Association-1483 at 10/12/2024 at 23:51 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I was told to just play rightie by a surprisingly wise guitar center employee. And as a keyboard player, I realized that the handedness doesn’t really matter with musical instruments. Is there any reason why the dominant hand must be fretting or picking? Not really, it just kinda comes down to what you have and learning it from there
Comment by johndre at 11/12/2024 at 01:06 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I play guitar, disc golf, and golf right handed. I switch-hit in baseball. I haven't tried but I suspect I could switch-hit for tennis too. My 3yo is a southpaw too and he naturally tries to play guitar left-handed, so when he is a little older I'll either get him a left handed guitar or restring a right handed guitar for him.
Comment by AgentCooper86 at 11/12/2024 at 07:13 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I’ve played righty for 24 years, always struggled with alternate picking speed though. Been making an extra effort this year to address it. When I flip the guitar over my left hand can pick faster than my right which is irritating, but relearning the fretting competence would probably take a year or two.
Comment by lilbabyhoneyy at 11/12/2024 at 09:13 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I've always played right handed
Comment by Gibson125T at 11/12/2024 at 14:04 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I come from a very musical family. So the house always had instruments around. So i learned on right handed guitars because that's what was around. Never really even though much of it when I was younger. As an adult my brain can't grasp the idea that your supposed to WANT your non dominant hand on the neck. But I guess that's how it was supposed to be. Idk.
Funny thing.. I inherited my grandfather's1963 gibson es-125t that my grandmother got him brand new for his birthday or Christmas... it's a right handed guitar.. and he was the only left handed person in the family that anyone knew of. He even said he didn't know of any before him. (Though.... the times may have somewhat dictated that with how common it used to be to force lefties to be righties)
So a left handed guitar player inherited a right handed guitar from another left handed guitar player. (Left handed guitar player obviously meaning someone who plays guitar AND is left handed.. not someone who plays left handed)
Comment by OpiumPhrogg at 11/12/2024 at 18:21 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I took guitar lessons as a teenager one summer while visiting my dad. We discussed how I should play the guitar as I am left handed. The takeaway was basically, my left hand is more dexterous so I should try using that on the fret board and then just train my right hand to do the string picking. Seemed to work out just fine for me.
Comment by ExpedientDemise at 11/12/2024 at 23:18 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Yes.
Comment by Sick_and_destroyed at 12/12/2024 at 15:56 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I tried but it was impossible. And anyway there’s so much right handed guitarists, at least I have something special haha.
Comment by [deleted] at 29/12/2024 at 12:42 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
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