Marcus Stray

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re a beginner left-handed person who wants to know if they will learn and play guitar more easily with a left-handed guitar, or try to learn right-handed instead. Here is my perspective as a lefty who ended up playing right-handed.

The left handed guitarists out there have it rough. Left handed guitars are far less common, and are often more expensive than right handed ones. Of course, it’s entirely possible to emulate Jimi Hendrix and rig a right-handed guitar to play upside down, but its not possible to do this right out the box. The nut would have to be modified or changed, along with some other tweaks depending on the guitar. This might answer another question: can a right-handed guitar be strung left-handed? Yes, BUT…

When I young teen who first wanted to learn how to play guitar, I asked my dad for a lefty guitar. I was just starting out, so understandably my old man didn’t want to go out and buy a left handed guitar just so I could decide that playing guitar just wasn’t for me. I don’t remember his exact words, but he basically said if I really wanted to learn I didn’t need a lefty guitar to do it.

My dad was right. I think, as a left-handed individual, learning on a right-handed guitar was the best thing I ever did. My left hand has more dexterity which helped when learning chord shapes and solos. It did take me some time to develop a good picking technique with my right hand but eventually it felt natural.

I would recommend left-handed people try learning to play right-handed. There are a number of benefits! Left-handed guitarist spend their lives saying “Oh wow, that’s a great new guitar you have there, too bad I can’t play it. I’m left handed.” Right-handed guitarists will say “Let me try it out!”

To be honest, I don’t know if I would have learned guitar any easier or better if I had learned on a left-handed guitar. Maybe I would have, but at this point, it doesn’t matter because I learned to play right-handed. I would recommend other left-handed people do the same based on my experience.