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At least the better future is here! None of that horse manure around anymore
Op, what did you decide?
My feedback thread is here.
He shreds van halen style like nobodies business . Plus if you play right handed you have an epic choice of new & second hand guitars . It’s gotta be done
What's just wrong? Telling left-handed kids to play a right-handed instrument? No, that's just sensible and practical and better for them in the long run. The "just wrong" thing is calling a backwards guitar "left handed" and the other sort "right-handed". They are nothing, repeat nothing of the kind.
Left-handed writing? Of course. Left-handed scissors? Of course, and shops should be required to sell them if they sell the other sort. Left-handed golf clubs? Naturally. Left-handed piano, guitar, saxophone? Don't be ridiculous.
The sad thing about a guitar is that it is physically possible to hold it backwards, and because of that some people do. And that leaves them forever paying more money for a poorer selection of instruments, and all for no benefit whatsoever. Both hands have difficult tasks on a guitar, neither one is dominant or "harder", they are just different.
(I write as a left-eyed right-hander. I write with my right hand, use an axe, a cricket bat, a golf club or a shovel "left-handed" (which isn't really left-handed, it's just other way about - both hands do work) and use a telescope or a camera with my left eye. Note that this last is a serious disadvantage for a wildlife photographer as you can't use one eye to shoot with and the other eye to watch the context. But nobody makes left-eyed cameras so I just have to deal with it.)
point being: getting children who write lefty to try righty guitars isn’t necessarily a bad idea.
Left-handedness has degrees, like many other things. Some left-handers can learn to play right-handed perfectly well. Some can't, because the two hand functions are very different, and forcing a truly left-handed player to play right-handed because you think that playing left-handed is "backwards" or "wrong" is as bad as forcing them to write right-handed.
Some people are right-handed, some people are left-handed. Neither is "right", even though the language is deliberately prejudiced.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
1. This convention comes from classical guitar which has complicated finger picking
2. The strumming hand has to work unconsciously while you focus on what your fretting hand is doing
I'm a left handed person who plays right handed guitar. I would say to try and teach a lefty on a right handed guitar first and if they struggle with it then flip it around, like what Paul McCartney did
2: Makes no sense. The fretting hand also has to work unconsciously while you focus on a tricky bit of picking. Each is equal to the other.
3: Has some merit. On the other hand (so to speak) the fretting hand produces the actual notes, it is entirely responsible for correct pitch (especially note bending and slide and fretless playing, where this becomes critical) and for anyone who hammers on, pulls off, and slides into notes (which in some genres is a huge part of playing) the fretting hand produces the notes too. As for timbre and dynamics, the fretting hand has a lot to do with those too. So all up, point (3) works out to be a wash.
As a righty, I’ve tried playing left-handed and the same (well, opposite) thing happens to me - if I try to strum with my left hand, I hit the strings very hard - I worry I’m going to break them, the angle’s all wrong, there’s no dexterity to it.
I would liken it to braking with your left foot (don’t try it in traffic if you’ve never tried it before!) With my right foot, I can apply varying pressure for a smooth slowing of the vehicle. With my left foot, it’s like I’ve hit a tree and stopped dead.
edit: tablature, which is the most common form of guitar notation, in most cases shows only the fretting hand. The other hand is taken for granted
There are some logical advantages to learning right handed (for want of a better description), but they don't outweigh different people being wired differently.
I play guitar right handed as it feels more natural (I've never actually had opportunity to play a left handed guitar, but tuning an acoustic to open G, flipping it over and strumming some barre chords feels really wrong). Whether this is social conditioning, and I'm just used to seeing guitars that way round, I have no idea (I suspect not, as most of the time when I see a guitar, it's from the front and so "backwards" anyway).
I do kayak left handed - I've been using a right handed paddle for ages, and I've never felt comfortable as a kayaker. I recently had a chance to try a left handed paddle, and it was a game changer. I bought a LH paddle second hand recently, and the guy I bought it from is, oddly, right handed - he just prefers a left handed kayak paddle.
Ultimately, there are many, many people who are a combination of left and right handed, depending on the activity, and a lot of the time, people possibly use their right hand because so much stuff is designed that way (scissors, for example - some scissors are agonising to use with your left hand as they are shaped for a right hand thumb; tape measures are upside down if you use them "left handed").
If you can, give your kids the opportunity to try both and see which is most natural.
Guitar playing was the first time that I was faced with a left-right decision. It was a conscious decision to play right handed, knowing that it would cause my body to develop asymmetrically, because I knew that it would give a wider choice of instruments. I also thought that being dexterous with my left hand (pun intended) would be advantageous. @Tannin I don’t think that guitarists do equal work with both hands. Legato is an example.