Quote:
Originally Posted by shane_c
I tried twice, unsuccessfully, to learn guitar. I'm a lefty as well. The first try was about 25 years ago and I tried to learn on a RH guitar that my father had. It just didn't feel right and I couldn't get used to it. Then I tried again about 4 years ago with a LH guitar. It was a bit better but I found it difficult because everything seemed to be geared towards RH players. I've been thinking about giving it another try though.
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Sometimes it's the guitar you're using. The easiest guitars to learn on are classical guitars, followed by electrics and then acoustics. It's because as a beginner you have no callouses and because of that your fretting fingers spread over more surface area and can cause muting and buzzing.
A classical guitar has 3 metal strings wrapped around a long strand of silk and 3 nylon strings and they are very easy on your fingers so you can practice longer. Classical guitars have a slightly wider neck which helps clean up your technique especially if you have thicker fingers. Acoustic guitars have the thickest gauge strings and are great to play once you have already gained your callouses.
The negative to being a lefty is guitar selection, as only about 1% of all guitars made are left handed. If you've got a good guitar you'll be fine.
Just make sure your guitar has no warping. Quickly play each fret up the neck on each string and make sure there is no buzzing. Also run a finger up the bottom and top edge of the frets and make sure you can't feel any sharp edges, as that usually indicates that the wood has shrunk (dried out) and it never shrinks evenly so if that happens you will have warping.
There are advantages to learning as a lefty. It's easier to mirror what your instructor is playing (if the instructor is right handed). As a teacher I find that lefty's learn a bit faster so keep at it. It will come. Also, I use mirroring technique when I'm learning from a golf instructor and always look for a teacher that is a lefty (as I'm a right handed golfer and it works great).
Hope this helps a bit. Keep at it and have fun.