Any lefties that play rightie here regret goint that way?

[JayWalkingBlues]

Most of the time I'm happy with my choice to learn to play right handed. I do lack any ability to "shred", even after years of trying. Flatpicking is also weak for me...but oddly fingerstyle was pretty easy for me. Sometimes I wonder how it would have been if I learned guitar lefty. Anyone else in the same boat?

[jimmy bookout]

Well, this should be fun.

To get in front of this, here are some of the answers you'll get:

1. "I'm left handed and I've never regretted it (learning right handed), look at **** who was a lefty and played righty....he was pretty good!
2. Guitars are not left handed or right handed....it's a 2 handed instrument. Never seen a left handed piano (although they exist)....
3. "Left handed guitars are reversed engineered".
4. "Less selection of instruments" (which is the one argument that self absorbed right handed players actually got right)
4. And many other replies, which are all as silly as those listed above. My question to right handed players has always been:
WHY DO YOU CARE? SOMEONE PLAYING/BUYING A LEFT HANDED GUITAR HAS ZERO IMPACT ON YOU

Now, the sad and funny thing is that all of the above will be written by right handed guitar players, who, for some UNKNOWN reason, are shockingly mad/bothered/put out that folks have the bad taste to play differently FROM THEM.

So, I am a right handed person who plays left handed, because when I first picked up an ukulele 52 years ago, it felt more natural to have my dominant hand (right) doing the fretting. I reversed the strings and here I am.

My thought is that if you've learned right handed, stick with it.

Jimmy

[rct]

I am left handed and have always played right handed, it was what was in the house that I picked up and I just went with it.

In 1980, the two best things that ever happened in my life. I got married, and I began about two years of completely focusing on picking, because my right hand was holding me back after ten years of playing. Today I have stupid good attack and control, and just passed 35 years married. Musta been two good things to do!

rct

[gretchen55]

I am a lefty playing a righty guitar, and I too have found flatpicking to be much more challenging than fingerpicking, not sure why...but I don't regret the "choice" to play righty guitars. I tend to do lots of things right-handed, like cutting with scissors, mousing the computer, etc.

[fongie]

I'm a lefty.........I started of playing lefty and somehow switch to righty. Weird.
Though I do feel comfortable with right, I think I have no problem learning left again.

In saying that, I can do that with most things too. Like cutting something or eating with chop sticks, I can use both hands comfortably, playing tennis, squash etc, etc. Depends entirely on how I feel on the day or what my mind tells me.

[fongie]

........oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I read somewhere that the first guitar ever made was a Lefty. How true I'm not sure.

[Matters]

I'm left handed. When I started playing 18 years ago I just picked up a right hand guitar and started playing. It didn't feel strange in any way. I definitely don't regret the decision. In fact I never even think about it.

Matt

[jimmy bookout]

Originally Posted by Matters

I'm left handed. When I started playing 18 years ago I just picked up a right hand guitar and started playing. It didn't feel strange in any way. I definitely don't regret the decision. In fact I never even think about it.

Matt

That's exactly right. The "air guitar" test is the easiest and most direct way to determine how to play, regardless of "handness". If you pick up a guitar right handed and it feels "right", you're golden. And if you pick up a guitar left handed, well, then there's your answer. It's sad that there have been self appointed "experts" on this very forum that insist that guitars are not left handed or right handed, and that someone should be FORCED to play right handed. Thank goodness they didn't make Phil Mickelson do that....
(playing golf is a 2 handed sport, you know.)

Jimmy

PS. It's notable that I have offered, on numerous occasions, the opportunity to the "guitars aren't right or left handed" proponents, the chance to show me how well they can play my LEFT handed guitars (you know, guitars being neither left or right handed). Shockingly, NOT ONE of them has ever responded.

[SFCRetired]

I'm right handed and I play right handed and I still struggle.
Maybe I should have tried the lefty thing.

My nephew is a lefty who plays right handed. But being from a rural community he didn't have access to a lot of left handed things, like ball gloves, golf clubs, etc. so he does a lot of things right handed and because of being forced to do things right handed as a kid it's a non issue for him.

[Nate the Skate]

I play righty. I am ambidextrous, but my left hand is a tad more dexterous than my right. I am content playing righty. I've been doing so so for more than 30 years. My flatpicking isn't bad, but fingerstyle would have come more naturally to me if I had started playing lefty. I've just accepted "what is" at this point.

[00Buck]

When I was 16, I didn't know there was such a thing as a left handed guitar. Is there a left handed piano? Anyway, I'm in the "two handed instrument" school.

What's more playing right handed gives you lots more flexibility in buying and selling guitars - a common malady among players.

No regrets. I suspect that if I had learned on a left handed instrument, I'd probably still be a so-so player.

[devellis]

I'm lefty, play righty, never regretted it. With pretty much everything else, I have a strong left-hand preference. So, with a bow and arrow, rifle, throwing a ball, writing, drawing, racket sports, using a computer mouse, all left handed. I prefer right-handes scissors but use them left-handed. I prefer the righty scissors because I didn't encounter a left-handed pair until my preference was well established. But with guitar, the first time I picked one up, I held it the way a righty would. It just felt natural, and still does. The one other exception to the lefty preference that I can think of is bodhran (Irish frame drum). I felt more natural holding the drum and my left hand and the striket in my right, the way a righty would. But I didn't play than instrument very long.

[Methos1979]

Another lefty here that plays righty - and SO thankful that I do only because of the availability of right-handed guitars. Otherwise I couldn't care less.

I started play righty because that's how I played air guitar for years. It wasn't really air guitar - I used a tennis racquet - but the same concept, I guess.

When it came time to play a real guitar it seemed natural as it always seemed to me that the really hard part was what the left hand was doing anyway!

I will say that it has been VERY interested that so many people here have said they had a hard time with flatpicking but took to fingerstyle well. I'm the exact same way and I never put it together that the problem might have been some sort of weak hand/dominant hand thing.

[Gmountain]

When I decided to learn to play, a little over a year ago, I wasn't sure which way to go. Air guitar was always lefty, and I've been lefty all of my life- except for golf and swinging a bat.

A lot of people told me I would have more options if I learned right handed.

So I took the advice and went right handed. Now it feels natural in my hands, and I can flat pick pretty well. I do have right hand rhythm issues and that has been a struggle, but I'm getting there.

I stilll play air guitar left handed.

[Larry Pattis]

My former business partner in my shop "Local Music" is a lefty that insisted on playing lefty when he was growing up...and he not only regrets his early decision, but counsels strongly against this.

You don't see any lefty violins, if you know what I mean...