Guitar for my kid - any lefty guitarists here?

[a1ex2001]

Ask her to play air guitar then you will know if she goes naturally left or right handed as a guitar player. I never realised until I started playing guitar at 25 that I play air guitar left handed and now even though I play real guitar right handed I still play air guitar left handed.

 

[godinman]

I'd go with a right handed guitar, in the future she may end up buying a lot of guitars and they don't do as many left handed models, if she's somewhere and someone says 'hey play that song' and hand her a guitar she wouldnt be able to play it.

My daughter is similarly subnormal and she plays around with my right handed guitar fine, although she's only 3 so it would sound crap either way.

 

[godinman]

Ask her to play air guitar then you will know if she goes naturally left or right handed as a guitar player. I never realised until I started playing guitar at 25 that I play air guitar left handed and now even though I play real guitar right handed I still play air guitar left handed.

I think your anecdotal evidence contradicts itself somewhat

 

[Mesai]

I’m left handed and play guitar left handed. My dad was right handed and had several guitars but I could never get comfortable with them when I was learning.

It will depend on how left handed she is. Some people can get away with doing it the other way especially when learning from scratch, but I found it more natural to form a rhythm and coordinate doing it with my natural disposition.

Get her a basic Stratocaster-style guitar to start; great guitar to learn on and cost effective. Rocksmith 2014 on PC is also fun to learn from and can be encouraging as it guides you through a song (save this for later, let her learn some cords and get comfortable first).

 

[Mesai]

I'd go with a right handed guitar, in the future she may end up buying a lot of guitars and they don't do as many left handed models, if she's somewhere and someone says 'hey play that song' and hand her a guitar she wouldnt be able to play it.

My daughter is similarly subnormal and she plays around with my right handed guitar fine, although she's only 3 so it would sound crap either way.

I find it pretty easy to get a variety of high end left handed guitars. You also have the option to swap pickups and pots so it’s really not a major issue in my opinion.

 

[builder22]

Ask her to play air guitar then you will know if she goes naturally left or right handed as a guitar player. I never realised until I started playing guitar at 25 that I play air guitar left handed and now even though I play real guitar right handed I still play air guitar left handed.

This doesn’t seem like the best test, going by your results anyway

 

[a1ex2001]

This doesn’t seem like the best test, going by your results anyway

I often wander if I would be a better guitar player if I had learned left handed I am after all amazing at the air guitar!

 

[a1ex2001]

I think your anecdotal evidence contradicts itself somewhat

You can learn to do anything the wrong handed, loads of right handed cricket players bat left handed as there is a perception it makes the game easier. I’d like to be able to go back and play guitar left handed and see how I got on!

 

[a1ex2001]

I find it pretty easy to get a variety of high end left handed guitars. You also have the option to swap pickups and pots so it’s really not a major issue in my opinion.

Second hand market is much more limited for lefties simply due to volume sold but you are right most mainstream stuff is available in left handed these days.

 

[Mesai]

Second hand market is much more limited for lefties simply due to volume sold but you are right most mainstream stuff is available in left handed these days.

Good point, definitely a numbers game when it comes to the 2nd hand market and there is a lot of value to be had there. Guess it comes down to how serious the person gets with it and what their financial situation is like.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

@d_brennen

Another left/right story.
At 4 my nephew was quite a decent drummer taught by his Dad but they wanted him to have proper lessons so I took him to the best drum tutor in Stoke who I knew quite well.
He said "How old is he?" "4" "Sorry Dave I don't take anybody on younger than eight"
So I asked Ron if he would just listen to him and give him words of encouragement, so we swopped the kit to a leftie and Ryan played for him.
Ron said "I'll take him on"
About 3 months later Ron said he'd swopped the kit round to a right handed because it would be better for the future and Ryan was really good right handed.
About 3 months later Ron said he had changed back to left handed because even though Ryan was brilliant he thought Ryan could be way better and he was correct, Ryan went on to get his Grade 8 at 8 years old.
He also picked the guitar up at 11 but went straight onto a right handed one and after a few months was teaching me how to play classic rock songs properly, he also took up keyboards and is better than me.
At 20 he is now playing in my band but it would have been great to get him out front playing keyboards/guitar while I drop onto the kit but being left handed I can't adapt

 

[Andrew_McP]

even though I play real guitar right handed I still play air guitar left handed.

Now you come to mention it... interesting point, and I'm the same. I'm not sure why that should be though. How come our brains instinctively see the complicated left hand work (for a right hander) as something we want to delegate to our weaker hand?

I guess the obvious 'action' when watching someone play is with the strumming hand, so that registers as the 'doing' hand. The instinctive brain's not clever enough to see all the considerable faffing about up the fretboard. But why aren't there left handed pianos? What's special about the guitar?

Brains. Complicated stuff. Maybe the only rational way to do it is buy one of each and see which one she gets comfortable with. If she goes left handed, selling the right hander at a small loss would be easy and save a lifetime of wondering. And if she chooses right, then... well, they look nice on a wall. And if she chooses neither... don't come crying to me about your two useless guitars.

 

[Ceryndrion]

buy a left, buy a right, learn to play at the same time, and kid can mirror your movements?

 

[69Dude]

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[69Dude]

If the aim is to play pop music and strum along then it wouldn't matter that much. If the aim is to become technically great then get a left handed guitar.

The most difficult part of advanced playing is in picking technique, the twitch rotational movements (like turning a key) of picking and the difficult to control economy picking, like Eric Johnsons descending 4's/5's or Yngwies ascending patterns.
I can play both ways as I had cts and learned the reverse way in order to let injuries heal but the weaker hand just cant provide that picking control without transferring the movements to the forearm (like MAB when he does ambi).

 

[SexyGreyFox]

even though I play real guitar right handed I still play air guitar left handed.

About 10 years ago 4 local lads who I had played with in different bands formed a Status Quo tribute band and their first gig was packed out with mainly musicians showing respect.
Halfway through we decided to hit the floor and pick up the many blow up guitars lying on the floor for our entertainment so we could headbang along with them.
The following day the video was uploaded and the first thing that hit me were 3 left handed guitarists playing the blow up guitars right handed.

 

[a1ex2001]

About 10 years ago 4 local lads who I had played with in different bands formed a Status Quo tribute band and their first gig was packed out with mainly musicians showing respect.
Halfway through we decided to hit the floor and pick up the many blow up guitars lying on the floor for our entertainment so we could headbang along with them.
The following day the video was uploaded and the first thing that hit me were 3 left handed guitarists playing the blow up guitars right handed.

At least I no longer think my left handed air guitar playing is weird!

 

[SexyGreyFox]

At least I no longer think my left handed air guitar playing is weird!

Oh, it's definitely weird

 

[builder22]

Were they not just right handed inflatable guitars?
Like, it would be awkward to hold them left handed

I’m no convinced the fretting hand is doing a harder job to the picking hand btw...the picking hand’s got to keep time....it’s the one making the sound really...more likely to tire out, also you’ve got to be accurate to pick the correct string and only that string, not much room for error....with the fretting hand you can be a bit off but still be on the right fret

 

[Andrew_McP]

I’m no convinced the fretting hand is doing a harder job to the picking hand btw

I used to fingerpick 99% of the time, which I found a lot easier than using a plectrum (apart from for basic strumming, obviously). But in the last 18 months or so I've struggled hard to overcome my plectphobia and have come on a long way. But accurate picking with one 'finger', so to speak, is a challenge, and may well be where playing left handed would have suited me better. Or maybe I'm just looking for excuses for why my hybrid picking is still so lousy.

I still feel the bulk of the workload's hard to place easily on either hand though. When fingerpicking something fairly complicated it's the fretting hand which always gives me the headache, not the picking hand. But who knows though, maybe my struggle with the fretboard would be a little less struggly if I was playing left handed? Seems counterintuitive, but...

But I'll never know. But this thread has made me think that that best course of action is definitely to have identical left hand and right hand guitars to test. Anything else is just guesswork.