teaching a left hander

[overthehill]

I have a friend who wants to learn a little about playing guitar,he's left-handed in everything he does .I too am naturally left-handed in everything but guitar which I play right-handed like probably 99% of the rest of the guitar world,I guess it's because I only had access to right-handed guitars when I started so it really didn't make any difference to me.I say that if you start out learning right-handed you will never know the difference but he says he he can't do it.Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Katastrophe]

I'm a lefty that learned to play righty... Here's a few advantages to learning righty.

1) a lefty's left hand is theoretically more dextrous than his right. Thus, learning chords and scales should be easier on a right handed guitar for a lefty.

2) There is a vastly bigger selection of right handed guitars vs. lefties.

3) Right handed guitars cost less, generally.

4) Learning righty will avoid the hassles of flipping a guitar over for lefty use (changing the nut, etc.)

If you've done it, and I've done it, then it's not impossible! Guitar playing is hard for a noobie, righty or lefty. It's just an obstacle that has to be overcome. I learned to play righty because I just figured that's how one plays the guitar... I don't think it was any more difficult for me than anyone else...

Hope this helps, and good luck!

[Cranium]

Just let him play left handed, they have a bunch of left handed guitar models now anyway, I think playing lefthanded is cool and I don't think its such a big deal to learn righthanded if your a lefty.

[tremoloman***]

Here's a website I use to print out chords for budding lefties you might find useful.

Free Lefty Guitar PDFs

[warren0728]

my son is a lefty but is learning guitar as a righty and isn't having any problems....might be because i play righty and all my guitars are righty.

BTW...have you ever seen a left-handed piano, or drum set or saxophone, etc.

ww

[JLefty]

Being left-handed, I learned that the strumming or pick hand (my left) is just as or more important to me than my fret hand.

Even though they are both vitally important, the strum hand for me controls my flow and rhythm.

I kind of equate it to being left-handed and asked to throw a baseball equally accurate and fast with your right hand. For me it just wouldn't work!