I am looking at learning to play the guitar, now I had quite a few lessons about 11 years ago, the only problem back then was that I was the only left handed player in the group.

It was quite difficult being the only left handed player in the group and eventually I stopped, now was this just down to the tutor and his (bad) tuition or is it a common problem for left handed players….?

weirdo

Cheers!

I'm cack-handed. It's easier to learn from a righty – what you're doing is a mirror image of what they are so it's easier to copy.

I had a couple of proper lessons to learn the very basics and now I just learn tabs of what i'm interested in. That probably explains why I'm not very good, mind

or is it a common problem for left handed players….?

This guy seemed to manage. 😉

I took a couple of one on one lessons from a rightie when I first started out (20 years ago!!!) – and even now, you just stand opposite whomever you're playing with and pretend you're looking in a mirror. It's actually pretty easy, once you've got your head around it.

But I'd recommend going for some one to one lessons to start off with – don't bother woth group stuff, as the teacher will only get confused when it comes to you. You learn to look at tab in the same way, too.

good luck!

I'm left-handed, as is my son, but we both play guitar like a "normal" people. 8)

Maybe you should try it. When both hands are required to do something I'd don't see the need to be left-handed about it, or do you drive some weird lefty car too? 😆

Just learn it right-handed. When did you last see a left-handed violin, piano or saxophone? On a right-handed guitar the left hand has the harder job, so maybe what we think of as right-handed is actually easier for lefties!

Paul Macartney is a lefty too, though I think he plays ambidextrously IIRC?

Kurt cobain was also sinister!

I wouldn't waste your time. Life's too short to learn to play guitar at the best of times, but you south paws apparently live on average 9 years less than right handed people.

Find a more productive use of your limited time with us.

Which hand's your 'rhythm' in? Which hand's your 'strumming' hand? You see where this is going…

Shibboleth – What a crock ! 🙂

Ourkidsam – lefty

Shouldn't all left handed people have been corrected at school?

I believe that they can be cured of their affliction by tying their left hand behind their back and making them do everything right handed. In time, they will come to see the error of their old ways and that it's much easier to do things the proper way instead in some odd, different way.

Shouldn't all left handed people have been corrected at school?

I was, and not that long ago…

@NickC – Sorry – perhaps a rather tasteless post on my part then!

How long ago?

Hope you're better now, by the way! 😆

Some people can learn right handed; others can't. Handedness comes in degrees. It's not binary. Have any of you right-handed types tried to play a left handed one? It ain't easy!

your choices are learn to play right handed- I couldn't get the co-ordination & rythm. Or learn to play a right handed guitar upside down, or a left handed guitar the right way up.

I dont see any actual problem – there are plenty of lefty guitars (apparently I own most of them according to my other half!), and theres no difference in the way a left handed or right handed person learns.

The other guitarist and bass player in my band are both r/h'd and it doesnt actually stop me doing anything…

What was the question..??!

I think getting the right teacher for you is the key initially.

I'm a lefty, never stopped me or what I could or could not play.

I'm very happy only to have a minimal choice of left handed guitars, otherwise I'd be broke

Plum

Shibboleth = AdamG = complete ****

Oh dear, Angela's on the blob again. 🙄

tosser = 6 letters

And you are still a tosser! At least I get 3 weeks off!

JulianA s'ok i knew you were taking the piss.

70's primary School, Mrs Edwards was her name…Toothless old harridan of doom… English Teacher who knew what was best left me in tears for months thinking I was stupid or something.

thankfully, that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore…

FoxyChick/Angela = The kind of woman who carries a rape alarm purely to boost her own ego.

Oh dear…

Angela = naughty step
Adam = bottom of the garden

and don't think about coming back into the living room until you both remember how to behave yourselves!

She started it! 😉

I suspect she's sexually frustrated. It would make perfect sense…

now now, pot/kettle! back down the garden wit ya and no more eating worms!

I'm left handed, so I would like to learn left handed, it doesn't feel naturally right to to learn it 'right handed'…..

@NickC

Glad you got my drift!

Not sure if my sister (who's left handed and went to primary school in the 70s) had the same thing – will ask her sometime (if we ever speak again – but that's another story). It would be interesting to find out. She is as mad as a box of frogs, though… Could be the left-handedness! 😆

I played squash with a left-handed mate – his left-handedness made it much harder… for ME. Git. That serve from the right of the court into the back left corner that used to win me loads of points was easy for him to return. Git. Great bloke though!

On a similar vein, we discussed some time ago forcing left hookers to do things right handed on a stammering thread – my aunt has a bad stammer as a result of being forced to right with her right hand at school.

So if you're left handed, you should think very hard before trying to play right handed. You might learn to play virtuoso guitar, but you'll sing like Gareth Gates.

Apparently, most polar bears are left handed, so it might be worth asking this question on a polar bear forum.

Heard that about Polar Bears but never had the nerve or opportunity to check!

Just had a thought – cats seem to be south-paws. (Observation based on our two (now one, but that's life)) Can't be all bad then…

Anyone else observed this?

I seem to remember that the makers of Arthur's catfood really struggled to find a left-handed cat to replace the original Arthur after he died.

He had to eat catfood out of a tin with his paw… Incidently, they ripped his teeth out so he would eat like that!

Not that I'm arsed, I frickin hate cats.

Jesus H Christ visiting a Hindu temple in Neasden… 😯

All this because someone asked a perfectly innocent question about playing the guitar!

That's Charles and Di 2.1, not Jesus.

A greater proportion of Geniuses are left handed than in general society. Shibboleth is obviously right-handed (I think it's the blisters that give it away).

Very perceptive padded brain Elf. Although my goal is ambidextrocity.

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

Paul Macartney is a lefty too, though I think he plays ambidextrously IIRC?

I could be wrong here, but I believe he's actually right-handed. He just naturally plays guitar left-handed.

northen cats are right handed and cats from the isle of dogs are ambidextrous. that is all.

oh good luck with the guitar, you could always play a right handed guitar upside down, never stopped the wonderful Elizabeth Cotton!! (and she was a damn fine guitarist!)

i am left handed and play right handed, as per Gary Moore. (i don't play like Gary Moore unfortunately, i am crap)

i would get an open minded tutor and try a lh and a rh guitar and see how you get on.

i have tried playing left handed recently but it feels totally wierd, but if i am brutally honest i would probably have been better off starting lefthanded.