Left handed 12 year old wants to learn guitar

[pauln]

Left hemisphere functionality more serial, sequenced, ordered processes (elements one at a time in order)
Right hemisphere functionality more spatial, geometric, wholistic (elements all at the same time, as one whole thing)

Left hemisphere sensory and motor functionality for the Right hand
Right hemisphere sensory and motor functionality for the Left hand

So , which do you think might be best for guitar?

- Left hand functionality more spatial, geometric, wholistic
- Right hand functionality more serial, sequenced, ordered processes

or

- Right hand functionality more spatial, geometric, wholistic
- Left hand functionality more serial, sequenced, ordered processes

The natural functionality for
Fingering - spatial, geometric, wholistic (left hand)
Picking - serial, sequenced, ordered (right hand)
makes sense to me because my fingering hand leads my picking hand; the left hand's fingering solution for what I want to hear includes the picking solution for the picking hand

However, I can see how one might prefer the fingering to be more sequential and the picking to be more spatial (like CG, reading with emphasis on memorization, and right hand form)

[Dennis D]

Maybe the answer is:

Hand him a right-handed guitar and tell him something like:
' Here - -this guitar doesn't know it's right-handed and doesn't know you're left-handed. '
' Each and every person setting out to learn to play one of these will start with one hand that's dominant, ahead of the other. The guitar doesn't care which hand it is. 'You will just have to learn to co-ordinate your two hands to make music.'

No feelings, no hemispheres, no greater inherent adversity to overcome, etc etc..... Just -

" Here it is and good luck "

MHO of course.....

[Phil59]

Try right handed first. Then switch if it doesn't work. I do almost everything left handed but play right handed. And many natural left handers can do various things right handed.

[charlieparker]

I have a 'troubled' nephew who is new to music and has a small keyboard. He is thinking about playing guitar (not necessarily jazz). I pulled out some of my stuff for him today - Les Paul and tube amp, flat top acoustic. I've offered to give him some lessons. He is left handed (I am right handed) and I don't know whether he should have a left handed guitar. My brother is left handed but has been playing guitar right handed since he started in the 60s. What do you folks think is best for a beginner? Thanks.

As a left hander, I would strongly advocate he learn left handed. I learned right handed but picking and rhythm have always been a struggle for me as a result.

There is a reason we play with the hands we do. Before I got a guitar, I would always strum with my left hand. It was just more natural.

[charlieparker]

Thanks to everyone for info and advice.
Owing to the fact that almost all instruments are not specifically handed and that most left handed people seem to use so called right handed instruments I am interested to know how left handed beginners feel a left handed instrument is the way to go. (some may not even know that a left hand guitar is available).
Ofcourse there are those that play a right handed guitar upside down with right hand stringing!!

As a left hander, you should definitely encourage him to get a left handed guitar. Any other approach is a big risk.

[Phil59]

As a left hander, you should definitely encourage him to get a left handed guitar. Any other approach is a big risk.

A big risk? Hardly. And how can you possibly know what the nephew can do?

[RJVB]

MHO of course.....

Could work, but a bit on the condition that he never saw/sees someone playing a lefty guitar...

When I taught myself harmonica in another life I was just as right-handed as I am nowadays, and for some reason I held it with the trebles to the left.

I can write left-handed but only in mirror script when my right hand is writing the same thing normally. I've never tried to train this to see if I'd end up being able to mirror-write left without that right hand. I suppose it would/should.

We also have a dominant eye. I can't recall for certain right now if it's by definition the one on our dominant side but what I do remember is that it is dependent on gaze direction. Maybe a left-handed player should spend a significant amount of time training the right hand while looking at it? Us "normal" players sure spend a lot of time looking at our non-dominant hand!

[Dennis D]

Could work, but a bit on the condition that he never saw/sees someone playing a lefty guitar...

When I taught myself harmonica in another life I was just as right-handed as I am nowadays, and for some reason I held it with the trebles to the left.

I can write left-handed but only in mirror script when my right hand is writing the same thing normally. I've never tried to train this to see if I'd end up being able to mirror-write left without that right hand. I suppose it would/should.

We also have a dominant eye. I can't recall for certain right now if it's by definition the one on our dominant side but what I do remember is that it is dependent on gaze direction. Maybe a left-handed player should spend a significant amount of time training the right hand while looking at it? Us "normal" players sure spend a lot of time looking at our non-dominant hand!

To me, it still gets down to what does a LH beginner have to overcome on a RH guitar that a RH beginner doesn't also have to overcome on a RH guitar ? Answer - to me, not much if anything. Or put another way, if a RH beginner on RH guitar fails after six months, he just failed, didn't get it, that's it. But if a LH fails, and doesn't get it, there are built-in excuses - -dual hemispheres, possibile dominant eye, etc etc.
Aren't we all struggling early on to co-ordinate our hands, regardless of which hand or which eye dominates ?

[pauln]

I was born ambidextrous (e.g., passed the pencil from hand to hand depending on which side of the paper I was drawing on) but seemed to be going lefty (tied my shoes lefty, ate and drank lefty). Starting school I wrote righty (as was the custom then to enforce that).

Generally, I don't think it matters which way you orient the instrument and learn to play. The idea for a beginner to try both ways to feel which is better may be a bad idea because a beginner does not have an informed basis (doesn't know what it is supposed to feel like). All instruments feel awkward and clumsy when you start off. Next practice, try flipping your guitar over and seeing what it is like to reverse the hands' functions. In spite of playing for decades, knowing all about how to play, having developed strength and coordination, etc., you will realize immediately all that is for nothing... just like your first day on the instrument. It is a humbling experience that reveals how much of how you play came from learning and practice, not the orientation of the instrument.

However there is the thing with left handed guitarists playing standard right handed orientation - a suspiciously long list of famous outstanding guitarists that played so. Perhaps after reaching some level the attempt at improvisation itself enjoys some slight advantage when a lefty plays righty. Maybe the hemispheres develop a difference in connection when playing righty as a lefty, that ultimately sounds a little different and appeals to our ear.

More practical is that lesson books, teachers, videos, graphics, other guitarists, etc. are most likely going to play righty.

[RJVB]

But if a LH fails, and doesn't get it, there are built-in excuses - -dual hemispheres, possibile dominant eye, etc etc.

I'd say s/he just had an additional handicap, and could try to get a 2nd chance on a lefty instrument...

I just remember that coerced me gently to favour my RH, e.g. by not giving the thing I was trying to get if I used my left hand for reaching. I guess we'll never know if that had a real effect

[Litterick]

It does matter. Right-handed people, and the ambidextrous, do not understand what being left-handed is like. They cannot experience left-handedness (or left-sidedness), so they should not be telling left-handed people what is best for them.

[Dennis D]

It does matter. Right-handed people, and the ambidextrous, do not understand what being left-handed is like. They cannot experience left-handedness (or left-sidedness), so they should not be telling left-handed people what is best for them.

The OP asked for recommendations, which I tried to offer and stated as my opinion. I don't tell people what's best for them, unless they ask.

But I'll ask another way - what are these obstacles that are unique to LH beginners, that a RH beginner doesn't face ?

[pauln]

Maybe things are different
above or below equator, or
difficulties in distinguishing
horizontal / vertical playing
'cause being upside down?

[Lionelsax]

I know two guys, one for real and another one on the net, both are right-handed but had an accident and lost a couple of fingers on the left-hand, they are now left handed when they play the guitar or the bass.
The one I really know or knew (I hope he's fine) can play the bass and the guitar without reversing the strings, he also can play the double bass like a right-handed, he's only got a little part of his index, ring and pinky stayed in place.
It's not a good example because they could play before their accident.
On the other hand, if they could, others can do it.

[mikeSF]

I'm lefty who plays right and honestly, my fretting hand is the stronger of the two by a long shot. This is not a detractor but an advantage.

[Litterick]

The OP asked for recommendations, which I tried to offer and stated as my opinion. I don't tell people what's best for them, unless they ask.

But I'll ask another way - what are these obstacles that are unique to LH beginners, that a RH beginner doesn't face ?

I was not referring to your comment, or any other specifically. I found your remark about 'built-in excuses - -dual hemispheres, possibile dominant eye, etc etc' to be callous and thoughtless, but I passed it by.

[Litterick]

Maybe things are different
above or below equator, or
difficulties in distinguishing
horizontal / vertical playing
'cause being upside down?

The late Professor Michael Corballis, of the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland, wrote an excellent essay, Left Brain, Right Brain: Facts and Fantasies, on matters relevant to our discussion.

Stanley Coren, a Canadian psychologist, wrote The Left-Hander Syndrome: The Causes and Consequences of Left-Handedness, which dispels many of the myths about the left-handed.

[Dennis D]

I was not referring to your comment, or any other specifically. I found your remark about 'built-in excuses - -dual hemispheres, possibile dominant eye, etc etc' to be callous and thoughtless, but I passed it by.

I believe my remarks are only callous if the ' hemispheres, dominant whatever, etc ', posed as LH specific challenges are true......Until there's evidence, they aren't and anecdotes aren't evidence.
I have posed that question several times in this thread - ( LH specific challenges vs RH ) w/ no specific answers so far. I've also stated my opinion that there aren't any LH specific challenges, again mho.
I see you've offered some reading suggestions, so thx I'll check them out.

[Dave70]

I'm a lefty who learned to play righty with no problems with picking ,strumming or rhythm whatsoever. I'd recommend to try a "right handed" guitar first if possible.

[dixiehwy25]

The method book I'm using recommends that if you have zero time or near zero time on the guitar, play it right handed even if you're a lefty. The author says life will be much easier for you in the guitar world. I think it makes a lot of sense. If you're starting from scratch it's unlikely you'll ever feel the difference.

Just so you know, I'm right handed. However, when I played baseball or softball back in school I threw with my right but batted left. I just started out on the left side of the plate when I was little. Nobody ever told me I HAD to bat with my right.

So if one doesn't know any different...

[Litterick]

The method book I'm using recommends that if you have zero time or near zero time on the guitar, play it right handed even if you're a lefty. The author says life will be much easier for you in the guitar world. I think it makes a lot of sense. If you're starting from scratch it's unlikely you'll ever feel the difference.

Just so you know, I'm right handed. However, when I played baseball or softball back in school I threw with my right but batted left. I just started out on the left side of the plate when I was little. Nobody ever told me I HAD to bat with my right.

So if one doesn't know any different...

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong."
H. L. Mencken

[bluenote61]

The method book I'm using recommends that if you have zero time or near zero time on the guitar, play it right handed even if you're a lefty. The author says life will be much easier for you in the guitar world. I think it makes a lot of sense. If you're starting from scratch it's unlikely you'll ever feel the difference.

That are two typical statements by right-handed people, first from that book author and second from the poster.
Right-handed people have no clue about lefties.

Like Litterick stated above, be careful with simple statements on complex questions.

[RJVB]

Right-handed people have no clue about lefties.

One doesn't need hands at all to realise we live in a right-handed world.

One also doesn't (or shouldn't) need to be a biologist to realise that psychologists are, to put it a bit unkindly, the ultimate black-box-peepers. Being one of the former who's worked a lot with the latter I have my IMHO well-founded ideas about that background required for making ditto claims about how the brain works or doesn't work.

[charlieparker]

There is a lot of misinformation in this thread by people who are right handed and haven't really looked int this subject very deeply.

As a left hander who plays right handed because of similar advice it has a detrimental effect on my playing.

Before I got a guitar, I always strummed with my left hand. Also, writing develops a lot of the fine motor skills beneficial for picking.

I have always struggled with rhythm and intricate and fast picking. And contrary to popular opinion in most guitar styles the picking hand is more important. The exceptions are if you play in a very legato style.

There are people who can succeed who are left handed playing as a righty but many won't and those who do succeed are most likely ambidextrous and would have succeeded playing a left handed instrument.

There are numerous anecdotes on the web about this phenomenon and not just for guitar players. It is a common issue for violin and cello players, too. And expression and bow control is a common problem for those who play right handed.

[charlieparker]

A big risk? Hardly. And how can you possibly know what the nephew can do?

It's a big risk because many left handers just can't play right handed well including myself. Just because you were able to doesn't mean the nephew can. Maybe he can and maybe he can't but the odds are much more likely he can successfully play a left handed instrument.