Fact! Left handed guitar players rock! Don’t believe me? Well here are 9 of the best reasons why you should stick to your southpaw roots!
1. Keep Your Hands Off!
Consider this scenario. You’re at band practice and your hyperactive drummer wants a shot of your brand-spanking-new guitar. You agree and he proceeds to crank the amp to 11 and thrashes around the room like a demented hamster on speed. Whilst doing this his dumb-ass manages to cream your headstock into the wall after getting entangled in cables. You exchange words and you leave the band with a broken axe and possibly a criminal record.
Now consider this scenario as a lefty. You’re at band practice and your hyper-active drummer wants a shot of your brand-spanking new guitar. “I do beg your pardon kind sir, but this instrument happens to be of the left handed variety and as such you would not be able to produce fine music with your right-handed mindset”. Disaster averted, band saved, jail-time avoided! Huzaaah!
Obviously that’s an extreme example, but being a lefty has certainly saved my grubby mates from getting their dirty paws on my pride and joy over the years!
2. Perfect Band Symmetry
Let’s consider aesthetics for a second as nothing looks more pleasing to the eye than symmetry. If your band is a standard vocals, drummer, bassist, guitarist setup and your guitarist/bassist is a left handed player you have perfect stage symmetry. It just looks good people!
Also contemplate this. Whilst on stage any interaction will look infinitely better between guitarists and bassists. If two right handers decide to stand adjacent to each other for an epic solo play-off they’re just playing on top of each other, generally in each other’s spaces. With a right and left hander you can stand back-to-back out of each other’s way in full rock-god stance…awesome sauce! Statistically speaking a band with a left handed guitarist in it is 3% more likely to attract attention, because looks are almost everything these days, and left handed guitarists look unique.
3. A Good Investment
If you are lucky enough to snag a rare guitar and manage to keep it in mint condition its value is only going to increase over time. The same could be said for a right-hander but when you consider how much rarer left handed guitars are you can actually view your guitar as a nice investment. For example Ibanez have recently produced an incredibly small, limited run of left handed JEMs and who knows if they will ever manufacture these again? What is a hobby for you now could be a nice little retirement fund for you further down the line when your fingers are too arthritic to make sense of a fretboard any longer.
4. eBay Competition
If you opt to buy second-hand from an auction website such as eBay you are going to have far less competition when bidding. In fact chances are you may be the ONLY person bidding and that can result in an absolute steal of a deal. A lot of the time a good left handed guitar can be had for significantly less than its righty equivalent.
5. Straightforward Tuition
Sitting opposite from your guitar tutor he/she will effectively ‘mirror’ you, making it very easy to copy what he/she is showing you. Personally I have never taken professional lessons but I would imagine taking them from a right handed tutor as a left handed player would have its advantages.
Likewise if you are a left handed guitar player considering a career as a guitar teacher the same benefit is implied.
6. In Store Condition
Roughly seven to ten percent of the world population is left handed and who knows how many of those are left handed guitar players. Also consider that many lefties will source their guitars online knowing that their local stores will most likely stock only a small number of left handed guitars. This should mean that any left handed guitar you do find in store should have had very minimal play (if any at all) and should be in mint condition. Just go take a peep at the righties, I would bet that a significant number of those guitars had some decent fret-wear, grime in the fretboard, possibly a small ding or two etc..
7. Hey…You Play Guitar…Play Me Something…Now!
I have been at several parties where the host has had a guitar sitting in the corner and when they realise that I can play they get the entire party cheering me on to play something mind-blowing for them. This is something I genuinely hate with a passion, it’s akin to strolling up to a comedian in the street and requesting them to tell you a joke. Fortunately the good old “oh I can’t, i’m left handed ” excuse saves my drunken ass from having to indulge their drunken asses.
8. Studies Show Left Handed Advantages!
If you visit a guitar website and ask the community if you should play lefty, the general reply will be something along the lines of ”oh, play right handed so that your dominant hand will be able to perform the complex fretting easier “. However, a recent study for the National Institute of Sports and Physical Education in Paris found that left handed people have faster eye-hand coordination with their right hand than even right-handers do. So taking this into account wouldn’t it be logical to suggest that a lefty playing left handed guitar would not only have their dominant left hand performing complex picking motions with no effort, they would also have better co-ordination in their fretting hand than their righty counterparts?
9. Don’t Believe The Hype
Don’t let the normies sway you from walking the left handed guitar route, if playing lefty feels correct to you then dive in. Do not fall for the horror stories and just enjoy learning this fantastic instrument. There are PLENTY of excellent left handed guitars available and they are made easily available via the internet usually for more or less the same price as their righty counterparts. This is 2010 not 1990 and I gotta tell you, being a left handed guitar player is such a non-issue now. Don’t suppress your left handed roots guys ‘n gals!
Have anything to add? Leave a comment below!
This is an interesting article. I’ve been playing lefty for a while now (two years) and i’m happy with my decision. I have a lot of friends who are left handed, but decided to play righty. I know my choice was better for dominance. One of my friends even admits that he breaks strings a lot becasue he’s not as coordinated with his strumming. Sure it’s hard to find a good lefty sometimes, but it’s part of the adventure. The only issue I come across with eBay is the Jagstang issue (Nirvana fans like me will get this). I want one, but with them being really rare and thus expensive, it’s a true competition. But regardless, much love to all the other lefties, we’ll soon rule the world!
if you like stage symetry, look at the live videos of avenged sevenfold… one of the best band ever…
Avenged Sevenfold fucking sucks.
Disney generation poser band.
I started playing around 1995. The guy at the guitar store handed me a right handed guitar. Tried it, didn’t like it, turned it upside down and did my Jimi Hendrix interpretation since it was a Strat. Bought a lefty guitar not too long after that. I’ve had people tell me to learn right-handed or make the “hey you’re playing it upside-down” joke which does get old after awhile. I’m glad I learned left-handed because if I learned right-handed, I wouldn’t be as good of a guitar player as I am.
I had to laugh when I read #8. If leftys “would be better off playing right handed”, then why aren’t all the rightys playing left handed guitars?
I think you need to re-read #8
I play left-handed for about 2.5 years already , and I love it. When I started playing (I was almost 16) , my dad got me this cheap acoustic guitar and I tried playing with my right hand for a couple of days but then I said “Nope , this doesn’t work” , and so he strung it left-handed for me and I’ve been playing ever since. I’ve had the “shop-stock” incident a couple of times already , and both my current electric guitar (the Cobain Mustang) and my current bass (an Ibanez GSR200L) were the last ones in stock (they had to search the warehouse for it). True , I can’t play any of my friends’ guitar (I mean , other than a few chords upside-down) , but they can’t play mine either
I’m a lefty and wow, I didn’t know that #8 – better hand-eye coordination than a righty – but people say I can play fast. Something I do better than my right-handed twin, our drummer! Never knew that #8. Thanks! JP Mann of REBELMANN
2 more advantages:
At a party or bar-B-Q etc. you don’t have to participate on a boring Blues in A or E if there is no lefthanded instrument available
If you see an expensive guitar in a music shop that is not available for us lefties, there is no G.A.S.
This helped me alot originally learned right-handed then relearned left-handed like paul gray, and jimi hendrix, (yes jimi learned to play righty as well) look it up and #8 like everybody else helped me so much, proud to be a lefty, also I have to play fix you by cold play (rhythm/ acoustic) on a upside down right handed guitar playing it left, caue the chords are easier but thanks for sharin man (;
Oh, and does right handed people have better hand-eye-coordination with their left-hand? please lemme know (>;_;)><(;_;<)
I’m one of the lucky lefties to have 1 of only 150 left handed Ibanez Jems mentioned in #3. I’m not selling, even after arthritis kicks in!
Glad I only spent 198 bucks on my right handed guitar! I got the same crappy advice here in Richmond Va. I am heading out to buy a left handed instrument!! It is hard enough to learn at age 55!!!
Been through a lot of crappy ltd and cheap ibanez guitars, to land on a custom brian moore and a taylor acoustic…I started playing lefty because I played piano first and the lead hand switched over to the frets felt normal.
I’m a rare example, naturally right handed in everything I do, at 18 suffered an accident that cost me the top joints of 2 fingers on my left hand. At 34 decided to learn guitar, the guy in the shop gave me a RH guitar and tried to get me to make chord shapes with my affected left hand, not possible. I was determined so he restrung the guitar upside down and away I went. I’ve now been playing for 14 years and can mix it with most social righties. I have a beautiful left handed Maton that has been through a lot, including being submerged on a sinking boat. Learning left was the best thing I ever did, I have had accomplished professional musicians comment that it actually seems logical for right handlers to play this way, and that they only learned the standard way because that was the way it was done and no one questioned.
I’ve been playing lefty in an acoustic band with my righty brother for over ten years and we haven’t banged headstocks yet! Very cool to be onstage with him and be able to chat without worrying about banging our Ovations! Lefties, remember to stick to the right side of the stage!
I’m left handed, but I started to learn guitar off of my Dad’s guitar when I was 11 and he’s right handed, so I started learning with a right handed guitar. I’ve been playing right handed for almost 5 years now. I wish I could just switch to lefty instantly.
I started playing as a lefty 20 years ago,and my pet peeve about being a lefty is I have all six of my lefty axes in different tunings to jam with different people. Otherwise if you keep changing your key on a guitar, you’ll throw its intonation out.
BUT OTHERWISE,I LOVE BEING IN THE .5% CLUB!!!!!!!
SHRED THAT LEFTY AXE!!!!!!!
#1, #5, #7, all very true. I’ve been playing lefty for ten years, since the first time I picked up an ax I knew. They tried to get me to play right handed but I bought a lefty anyways. Great post. For the most part, the righties dont even try to play my guitars, me and my guitar teacher were able to sit face to face as I mirrored his techniques, and whenever I’ve taught guitar to a righty we’ve been able to do the same. If you’re lefty, play lefty. Totally worth it.
the #8 is not completly right or wrong. this depend from your director eye, not from your main hand. I’m left handed but with a right eye director and cause of this i got a faster reflex on the left hand. Not on the right hand.
Lefty player since 45th Christmas and love every minute of playing, choice of left hand guitars in shops usually crap though. So if you want something special just get it made, I did and I have two beautiful left hand Artinger guitars for life. Also I used to coach kids at table tennis including a couple of good left handers. I had a special word for the right handers, I used to all them “the ordinaries”