A Question for Guitar Experts

^ By all means, go ahead ... I just think that left handed people who are beginning to play the guitar should consider the possibility of playing right handed. In the end, both options are valid.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: I'm left handed and I play the guitar right handed. So my advice: Learn it the right way. If you think about it, when you're playing the guitar right handedly, the left hand does the complex stuff anyway.

Yes, so am I. My teacher insisted (30 years ago) that i can play with right hand. I said no it is impossible. He said yes it is possible try it for a while and see. It took only 1 week to get used to right hand playing. Anybody can do it

 ^ I began noticing this more several years ago: when it comes to playing single notes at an increased velocity, it is the coordination between the left fretting hand and the right picking hand that is so vital.  This is what most guitarists (especially non-folk players) will have to practice and understand as they progress.  I can play fast via technique, tricks and common knowledge, and my left hand is quite nimble (heck I've been at it for 30 years).  But ask me to simply pick each note individually at a high rate of speed, and I'll be hard-pressed to cleanly and convincingly do it, cleanly and in rhythmic time.

Left/Right coordination is everything when it comes to the sort of runs you hear DiMeola, Rhoads, or Yngwie doing and for me is one of the most challenging, sometimes insurmountable, obstacles on the guitar.

It's bloody hard, guys, all of it. 

himtroy wrote: Yeah plus the statement that the fretting hand is harder is pretty false.  Fretting will be what gives you problems till you get better, but eventually you'll realise that getting the picking on speed with all the fretting is really the harder of the two.  After all, its one picking vs five fretting fingers

Five fretting fingers?
Damn, last time I checked, I and pretty much most other guitarists only had 4
I guess you can sorta count the thumb, especially if you have massive hands like Hendrix did.
As for me, I play 7 string guitars and 5 string basses, which makes getting the thumb over the top of the neck a fair bit harder, so I never really use that technique anymore.

Instead of buying a new guitar, just go Jimi Hendrix on it's ass.

He played a right handed guitar left handed.

Petrovsk Mizinski wrote: himtroy wrote: Yeah plus the statement that the fretting hand is harder is pretty false.  Fretting will be what gives you problems till you get better, but eventually you'll realise that getting the picking on speed with all the fretting is really the harder of the two.  After all, its one picking vs five fretting fingers Five fretting fingers? Damn, last time I checked, I and pretty much most other guitarists only had 4 I guess you can sorta count the thumb, especially if you have massive hands like Hendrix did. As for me, I play 7 string guitars and 5 string basses, which makes getting the thumb over the top of the neck a fair bit harder, so I never really use that technique anymore.

Yeah, do whatever Hendrix did.  Seemed to server him reasonably well,.

thellama73 wrote: AmericanProgster wrote: Well I'm always up for a challenge. Besides I never thought it would be easy anyway. Now let me say (since I accidently deleted a post where I explained why I play left handed) I am a righty. But I have a deformed ring finger on my right hand. So after a while of trying to play with my right hand and failing quite well! I decided to try left handed guitars. The result, while I don't really know how to play, was better. Its more comfortable to hold, to "play" and its now an instinct to pick with my right hand. I mean its pretty akward now for me to hold a right handed guitar. Look I understand what you guys are getting at, but I had my go playing right handed and it just doesn't work. Playing left handed now comes naturally and I don't plan on changing that (especially since I would effectively have to play with only 3 fingers, because of that deformed ring finger, if I played right handed) So I'm going to play left handed and I'm not going to play in a position that so foreign to me just because it would be the "easier" thing to do.   Hey I wouldn't call it that much of a burden, at least not yet. I've been fortunate enough to find a great left handed bass and electric guitar. But the only thing that becomes a burden is paying almost twice the price to get the same exact guitar, just because its left handed. Oi! Wait, I'm confused. You say you play left handed because of your right ring finger, and you go on to say that it's easier to pick with your right hand. Unless that's a typo, then you should be fine with a standard guitar. Right handed guitarists (with a few exceptions) pick with their right hand and fret with the left hand. If this is the case, I'm having trouble understanding what your problem is. It should be easier to pick with a messed up finger than to fret with one.

Unless you like fingerpicking, the ring finger of the right hand has little or no interaction with a right-handed guitar.  Even if fingerpicking is your style, I would think it much more beneficial to fingerpick with 3 fingers and fret with your good hand.


Edited by NJCat_11 - March 18 2010 at 23:18