Left handed, playing guitar right handed.

ROC1977

I'm a lefty who got a right handed guitar as a Xmas present from my girlfriend. She didn't stop to think...

Anyway, I'm happy she didn't. I'm only playing 3 months but so far haven't had a problem with it. And in fact find it easier to move around the neck.

Do you think I'll find it harder when I advance to songs with a lot of picking. Or will it be just something I'll get used to.

Any other lefty's playing right handed. What advantages/disadvantages do you find?

seanybiker

im a lefty. I just turn the strings upside down on a right handed guitar and away i go.

-=al=-

im right handed and play guitar left handed, I wouldnt change it for anything, once its comfortable and feels natural its fine for you, i cant even hold a right handed guitar peoperly, just feels to weird

Malice

ROC1977 wrote: »

Any other lefty's playing right handed. What advantages/disadvantages do you find?

I'm left-handed and I play the guitar right-handed as well. As for advantages, for a start you'll have a greater variety of instruments to choose from when you go to buy more (you can never have just one ). I can't really think of any disadvantages.

Both of my parents are guitar players and when I started playing the guitar I used my mother's old acoustic. It was strung for a right-handed player but I didn't realise there was a difference until my father showed me his leftie guitar which obviously was strung differently. Only after that did I notice that the likes of Paul McCartney, Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix held their guitars differently .

ROC1977

When I was 9 I had lessons for about a year. I can't even remember if it was a left or right hand guitar. But I didn't pick one up again for 22 years. And when I did, it was right handed and felt comfortable. So here I am now.
At first I found getting a good rhythm strumming. But after a bit of practice I've improved a lot.

Gaspode

Just stick to whats comfortable, there's no 'right' or 'wrong'.
The big advantage with playing right handed is you have a huge choice of guitars to buy compared to us poor lefties.

NoQuarter

If its any consolation (im a right handed player playing right handed obviously) but the feeling when i start playing was alien too so if it feels uncomfortable at first thats because it is for everyone and not just because your hands are switched, id be fairly confident if i had have tried to play the other way around it would have been the same!.....maybe

oirishman

Check out elizabeth Cotton...she plays a right handed guitar UPSIDE down.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=elizabeth+cotton&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=jwjKSdv6GozLjAfF_NHPAw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

Blackhorse Slim

ROC1977 wrote: »

I'm a lefty who got a right handed guitar as a Xmas present from my girlfriend. She didn't stop to think...

Anyway, I'm happy she didn't. I'm only playing 3 months but so far haven't had a problem with it. And in fact find it easier to move around the neck.

Do you think I'll find it harder when I advance to songs with a lot of picking. Or will it be just something I'll get used to.

Any other lefty's playing right handed. What advantages/disadvantages do you find?

Are you playing right-handed, as in picking/strumming with your right and fretting with your left, or just playing a right-handed guitar left-handed, ie upside down?

Hendrix played right-handed guitars upside down and strung for left-handed playing, and Albert King played a right-handed guitar upside down without re-stringing.

But best of all, Dave Kilminster is a leftie who played left-handed, then got injured in a karting accident and had to relearn how to play right-handed. :eek:

That, my friends, is dedication.

Malice

oirishman wrote: »

Check out elizabeth Cotton...she plays a right handed guitar UPSIDE down.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=elizabeth+cotton&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=jwjKSdv6GozLjAfF_NHPAw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

That's quite impressive. Not many people get to have a playing style named after themselves!

Blackhorse Slim wrote:

But best of all, Dave Kilminster is a leftie who played left-handed, then got injured in a karting accident and had to relearn how to play right-handed.

Isn't one of those guitar virtuoso types able to play a special double-necked guitar by doing hammer-ons and pull-offs with both hands at the same time on different necks? I seem to remember a video on Youtube, I must look for it .

Blackhorse Slim

malice_ wrote: »

Isn't one of those guitar virtuoso types able to play a special double-necked guitar by doing hammer-ons and pull-offs with both hands at the same time on different necks? I seem to remember a video on Youtube, I must look for it .

He can do all that, but when I saw him he was playing with Roger Waters, so there was none of that fancy stuff! Just some great, expressive blues-rock.

Danboy

I'm left handed too (for writing with a pen) and play classical guitar like a right handed player and it's as natural as a poo.
I play pool/snooker with left hand but that's all, everything else I'm right handed...

spoonbadger

oirishman wrote: »

Check out elizabeth Cotton...she plays a right handed guitar UPSIDE down.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=elizabeth+cotton&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=jwjKSdv6GozLjAfF_NHPAw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

A little known guy called jimi did that too .

Mark knopfler is a lefty playing right, and so am i!. If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me .

It'll make life a lot easier for you too, when you're buying guitars, and when trying to learn songs. And dont think of it as meaning you'll have a weak strumming hand, think of it as having a strong fretting hand .

fasty

I'm left handed and play a right handed guitar. While I get that some people might instinctively hold the guitar the "wrong" way making them think they need a left handed one and from there just get used to it, I just don't really understand it myself.

I find I use both hands as much when playing from fingering chords with my left to picking or strumming with my right.

Can you buy left handed pianos for example?