Left Handed Guitar

Playing An Electric Guitar With The Left Hand

Can you become a successful electric guitar player if you are left handed?  Yes you can.  Just look at what Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney accomplished. 

Guitars can be built for anyone who is left handed.  With a left handed person, his dominant hand is the left hand and his right hand is the secondary hand.  The dominant hand strums the guitar strings and the secondary hand holds the strings against the guitar’s neck. 

If you are a left handed person, you may not want to settle for a right handed guitar.  Your left hand is your active hand.  It is this hand that will tell your right hand what to do.  By changing the strings around, you create a guitar that is meant to be played with the left hand.  An electric guitar is a guitar that has been “plugged in” to create an “electric” melodious tone.

If you are unable to afford to have a left handed guitar built, than with practice you could learn to play a right handed guitar like Jimi Hendrix.  He just learned to play the right handed guitar upside down.

There is an advantage to playing a right handed guitar, even an electric one, with your left hand; you will use your left hand to play the notes.  This will build endurance and your left hand will have enough strength to play and do pull-off without using a pick. The neck and top of the guitar will be pointed to the right and the strings will be played from the high to the low.

Let’s face it.  It is a right handed world.  There are many artists and musicians who are left handed and that is the hand that does all the fingering work.  The main advantage in purchasing a right handed guitar is that you can share with others as well as try out theirs.  When upgrading, this can be a big advantage.

Left Handed Acoustic Guitars

Left handed acoustic guitars are an important group of guitars. Traditionally guitars have been made for right handed playing and left handed players often resort to almost playing the guitar backwards, however you do not have to go to such lengths thanks to the rising popularity of left handed guitars of all types.

Acoustic guitars for left handed players range in price in a similar way to regular guitars. You may also want to look into left handed acoustic guitar accessories when you purchase your guitar. More »