Lefties playing right-handed guitars?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gitfiddler
  • Start date Start date
G

Gitfiddler

Well-known member
Hello lefties. I saw a comment in a thread recently where Psychodave stated he is left handed and plays a right-handed guitar. Me too (and MAB). I have often thought about picking up a left-handed guitar and trying to play left handed just to see what would happen. Will I become a master blues player? Will my right hand do things my left hand can't do? Will I bypass ruts and tendencies I have developed over the years? Or will my brain ultimately keep me on the path I'm on now?

Have any of you done this?
 
I'm a lefty and am so glad I never picked up a lefty guitar. It's your left hand landing all the chords and running scales and legato runs and such. I have always felt it's to our advantage as lefties playing right handed guitar.
 
I never had any issue fretting. Picking has always been my trouble spot. I worked through it and actually feel my left hand helps a lot since it’s easier to get those out of nowhere notes (legato hammer one and pull offs). Early on I played lefty and was told to change to make my life easier. I’ve never regretted it.
 
And the selection of Lefty guitars is pathetic.

And it looks fucking weird.
 
A friend of mine is a lefty who plays an un-restrung right-handed guitar (high E on top). It's a trip watching him play. He's damn-good too! Was a guitar teacher in New York.
 
Last edited:
I'm a lefty, play right. Mostly it was an accessibility thing at the beginning but I found that having my most dexterous hand on the fret board made more sense. I don't feel my picking has suffered much, but I mostly play metal rhythms and like Psychodave said, I'll lean on my left hand abilities to compensate for lack of lead-style picking finesse.

I've argued the "Virtues" of playing with dominant hand on the fret board but usually it doesn't go over well.
 
psychodave said:
I never had any issue fretting. Picking has always been my trouble spot. I worked through it and actually feel my left hand helps a lot since it’s easier to get those out of nowhere notes (legato hammer one and pull offs). Early on I played lefty and was told to change to make my life easier. I’ve never regretted it.
Click to expand...
This video was me 10 years ago but it shows a lefty can play right handed and is still able to alternate pick too. I've never regretted going with a right handed guitar and have never considered switching. It feels perfectly natural to this lefty.

 
Fret-Shredder said:
This video was me 10 years ago but it shows a lefty can play right handed and is still able to alternate pick too. I've never regretted going with a right handed guitar and have never considered switching. It feels perfectly natural to this lefty.

Click to expand...

Awesome. I feel like I can keep up with this on a good day.

but at the same time I feel like I have had to work SO MUCH HARDER on the picking hand than my right handed friends.

And my fretting hand comes back way quicker than my picking hand after a break.

Things like pick slanting are something I have to pay tons of attention to. The PG 'key turning' technique is something I work on daily. It negates the pick slanting debacle for me entirely.
 
I’ll tell you what the hardest thing for me has been.

Right handed strength doing gallops in long songs - it’s taken years to develop enough strength to last through an entire song with something that’s demanding. I tried to compensate for my hand strength by using my arm and honestly it was a sloppy mess that usually leaned me towards tapping the licks if they were solos, or improvising if they were rhythm parts.

That was decades ago though. Now I I really lean on Zakk wylde, Gus G, and Paul Gilbert for my technique instructional videos. I leaned on Marty Friedman early on for bends because having the extra strength in your dominant fretting hand it really was important for me to control my bends to match the style of those NOT left handed. Marty has a lot of experience in expression.
 
Wish someone had told me to just play a right handed guitar when I started, would have made life a lot easier. These days I have all the guitars I want/need so I guess doesn’t matter now.
 
I'm in the same boat, and have often wondered about this as well. I do some pretty weird/challenging rhythm things with my picking hand that others have an extremely hard time with, but I've also really struggled with clean and smooth leads due to the picking side.
 
There was a TGP poll not that long ago and it was like 20% or 25% or something that are lefties that play righty. Way higher than I thought. I'm one too, we are not that uncommon.

I always say everyone is born right-handed. Only the gifted overcome it.
 
I'm a lefty playing right-handed. I can play well enough in my own style, but there are things I just can't play.
Things everybody seem to be able to do.........I can't!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top