Comments on guitars

This is the full list of comments people made about problems with learning to play guitar and other instruments left-handed

air guitars didn’t require handedness, but it was easy to copy the rock stars and play right-handed, and this stuck when I progressed to real instruments.

Couldn’t restring the thing.

Dad is adamant that his teachers will not know left-handed, so he should accommodate right. Also, he can use ANYONE’s guitar if he learns Right.

Didn’t know after a while that there were left handed guitars

Didn’t play a guitar but played a brass instrument and had to play it right handed.

Edward’s teacher said Edward could play whichever way he preferred and explained that if he found moving his left arm up and down the strings easier then he would be comfortable playing right-handedly. Edward is comfortable with this and is progressing well with no sign of difficulties so we’re happy for him to continue in this way.

First my parents had me learn basic guitar right handed. Once I showed them I was serious (I was about 12) they bought me the Gibson cherry wood bass I wanted and had it made into a left handed guitar.

gave up – too hard

getting a left handed guitar was more expensive

i am a big Jimi Hendrix fan and had a go at playing the guitar upside down never could understand how he made it look so easy.

I can’t afford to buy a lefty guitar so I tried with my right and just gave up

I don’t actually play guitar, but when I air guitar I strum left handed…

I don’t play. I tried to learn but the teacher said to me “I am not prepared to teach you” and this was the end of a rock star

I find it more comfortable to play right handed because my left hand fingers are more dexterous for fretting and playing chords! I never did understand this question! This is the natural way for a left-hander to play the guitar. It’s right handers that are doing it wrong!

I find the more complicated hand movements to be on the fret side, which is my left hand.

I forget, I keep picking them up both ways.

I had played the fiddle before I played guitar and I was taught to play that right handed.That’s why my mom bought me a right handed guitar.

I have a son who is also left-handed and wanted to play guitar. We considered it easier for him to learn the right-handed way as there are not many left-handed instructional books available at the local music store and the likely availability of a music teacher that could teach left-handed.

I have played over 20 different instruments RH

I have played the guitar Left Handed for 42 years. It’s really a challenge if you don’t have the money of Sir Paul McCartney. I could write a book on the trials and tribulations of being a left handed musician!

i just got a guitar and my friend had to change the strings for me

I know many left handed musicians, and only one plays guitar the left handed way

I naturally hold a guitar backwards, but since the guitar was made for right-handers, I learned that way.

I now teach and make sure my lefthanded students learn lefthanded. I play lefthanded to some degree but not as well as right handed.

I play a right-handed guitar, but have not restrung it. This probably makes it harder to play most chords, but I will be able to pick up and play anyone’s righty guitar in a way that I would not if I learned restrung.

I play the clarinet so I do it normally.

I played a right-handed guitar upside down for a year before being told that it was incorrect. I wasn’t bad that way, either.

I played right handed – in a line as a left hander you aren’t very popular – again I think ignorance led me to learn the right handed way

i probably could have played left but didn’t know that I could

I was told I would play the guitar better right handed because my left hand was my strong hand and could play the frets better.

i would like to point out that left handed guitars normally cost anything from 50 pound more then right handed.

In my music class there were 4 leftys and a guy named Noah got the guitar that was strung backwards. Now I take lessons and play right but if I’m bored I turn the guitar over and play kind of like a lefty would. my brother told me it would be awesome if I was playing a solo right and flip the guitar over and finish the solo left. So I’m trying to teach myself that.

it just seemed more natural

It was a violin.

It was easier to follow the books right handed instructions, although it did give options for lefties

its easier than turning it round but can be hard.

Its the accepted way, and it doesn’t matter, as both hands have to do the same amount of work! Also, quality and variety of left handed guitars is an issue, as is never being able to play anyone else’s guitar.

I’ve played the violin since I was 7. I knew left handed ones were extremely rare to find so I stuck to a right handed one. Because I was so used to fingering with my left hand it just seemed natural to use the right handed guitar, I still have difficulty sometimes with my pick.

Learned the violin in the 2nd grade. Was told there were no lefty violins.

My left handed son plays guitar R. handed, simply because there are no or very expensive accommodations for Lefty’s.My eldest son is a L. handed drummer, and his drum kit has been modified. My other son simply learned to drum R. handed.

My parents never discouraged my left-handedness or made me feel bad about it. They actually made me feel quite special, since I turned out to be their only lefty kid. My father liked to tease, and he joked that it was a shame I couldn’t become a boxer, since lefties were (or are?) thought to have an advantage.

My uncle has a left hand guitar workshop so he makes guitars especially for left handers

Never knew there was a choice.

no left handed instruments provided

Nothing set up for lefties so I swapped to trumpet.

Oh my God! This is such a problem for me. I want to play guitar so bad but I find instructions so difficult to follow. I couldn’t afford an instructor so I would download the chord tabs and video instructions to learn to play. Almost always I found myself frustrated because I have to hold the guitar different than the instructor and then the string seem upside down that way. It is twice as difficult for me to learn and so now I have to find a left handed instructor. Also, when I searched online for a left handed guitar, I found them very expensive. When I asked the store owner about restringing my guitar, he told me that it was so time consuming to do something like that and that I was better off learning to play right handed! I just want to feel comfortable playing the guitar and able to follow instructions without having to compromise my left-handedness.

ok, it’s not actually guitar but the upright bass, which is made with the sound post off centre so the larger strings are receiving more support, to restring a bass would collapse the body, I could have a custom made but that may cost $5000 at the VERY least

Play trumpet rt-handed, drums a mixture of left-& rt handed.

Played viola RH – not given choice

Quit shortly after starting lessons. Feels awkward to use right hand to strum.

Shop suggested it was easier for left handers to play this way

Taught myself right-handed on a right-handed guitar, currently trying to teach myself left-handed on it (upside down)… go Hendrix!!

Teacher could not teach the lefthanded way.

That way I can pick up someone else’s guitar and play it

the raised pick guard on the guitar was blocking me from stringing it left handed although my friends who strung it for me offered to do it left handed

the school had one left handed guitar and four left handed kids in the same class… so we all had to share it

the teacher told me that there weren’t any left handed guitars avaliable.. so I was forced to play right handed

There was one left-handed guitar available, but since I tried it both ways and both seemed as easy as the other I picked the right-handed option because I knew it would make things easier.

There was very limited equipment that was usually given to the kids who were right handed.

We have a bass guitar at home and the shoulder strap only fits for right-handed playing.

Well, I play the violin. But you still have the frettings and all. And I didn’t have a choice to play Right-handed, but I also didn’t want to play left-handed so I would fit in better.

when I was 10 I got an electric guitar [my first ever guitar] but the body was shaped so it’d fit nicely against me, so holding it the other way wasn’t very comfortable so I learned to play right handed, but a few years ago I picked up my brothers acoustic and could play that fine left handed, as well as right handed ..

When I was at school they initially would not provide left handed recorder- until my mother stormed in there!

when I was young, my teacher made me learn that way because it was easier for her.

You just couldn’t get guitars with left handed actions at sensible prices