My 2 year old is a 'lefty'.

eric-vaxxine

My 2 year old son loves to dance around the living room
with his ukelele and toy guitars when the music is playing.

I have noticed that he prefers to hold it left handed though.
When I try to change his guitar around he always goes 'No, no daddy..'

I think it is because he copies me as he sees me!
He's facing a right handed guitarist, the body on the left and the neck
goes to the right.

=

Arno-West

Now I know 2 leftie guitarists named Oliver...the other one will post here soon, that I can guarantee you.

ActionArnie

Here's a question, if a kid's left-handed would you encourage them to learn right-handed? For no other reason than availability of guitars.

IceCreamMan

Arno West wrote Now I know 2 leftie guitarists named Oliver...the other one will post here soon, that I can guarantee you.

left handed and his name is oliver !!!! we are going to rule the world i tell ya!!!!!!!

i bet he is a van halen fan toooo ?

never ever encourage yr kid to be right handed if he is a lefty ,,we are not in the middle ages anymore ...come to the light which is the 21st century...guitar choice aint always painful , u may not get the complete range but you get strats, les pauls, tele's ,V's, ibanezes etc etc etc ... and in the UK you should have no problem sourcing lefties. You may not get all the ranges but so what

Bob-Dubery

ActionArnie wrote Here's a question, if a kid's left-handed would you encourage them to learn right-handed? For no other reason than availability of guitars.

It didn't hurt Jimi Hendrix. Turn that sucker upside down! More difficult for modern acoustic players though - they tend to use altered tunings and capos (full or partial) a lot, and so a cutaway becomes almost a must.

Paul McCartney is an interesting case here because he does everything right-handed EXCEPT play guitar. He plays drums right-handed, writes right-handed etc etc but somehow the guitar only made sense to him when he played it the wrong way around.

I met Brian Lara once. I was surprised to find that he does everything right-handed except for batting in cricket. He even plays golf right-handed. He told me that it's deliberate, that it keeps him from hitting the ball in the air by placing his weak hand at the bottom of the bat handle, but I'm not sure that's true because he's ALWAYS batted that way. Somehow it made sense for him to bat left-handed even though he does everything else right-handed. Graeme Smith, Gary Kirsten and Graeme Pollock are the same - bat left-handed and do everything else right-handed.

Psean

ActionArnie wrote Here's a question, if a kid's left-handed would you encourage them to learn right-handed? For no other reason than availability of guitars.

Hmmm, interesting.
I'd guess as long as you let him do everything else left-handed, this shouldn't be a problem. It would definitely make guitar choice easier. A mate of mine's lefty and plays right for this very reason. It seems that lefty guitars are even more difficult to find in the entry-level (Squire, bottom of the range Cort ect.) ranges.

ActionArnie

X-rated Bob wrote I met Brian Lara once. I was surprised to find that he does everything right-handed except for batting in cricket. He even plays golf right-handed. He told me that it's deliberate, that it keeps him from hitting the ball in the air by placing his weak hand at the bottom of the bat handle, but I'm not sure that's true because he's ALWAYS batted that way. Somehow it made sense for him to bat left-handed even though he does everything else right-handed. Graeme Smith, Gary Kirsten and Graeme Pollock are the same - bat left-handed and do everything else right-handed.

Yeh there's a long list of left-handed batsmen who would be classified as right-handed for everything else. My brother-in-law is an interesting case, he's a pretty talented all round sportsman but he plays tennis/squash etc. left handed, but he throws/bowls right-handed. Weird. (He's a pretty mean right-handed bass player too!)

Psean

X-rated Bob wrote
ActionArnie wrote Here's a question, if a kid's left-handed would you encourage them to learn right-handed? For no other reason than availability of guitars.
I met Brian Lara once. I was surprised to find that he does everything right-handed except for batting in cricket. He even plays golf right-handed. He told me that it's deliberate, that it keeps him from hitting the ball in the air by placing his weak hand at the bottom of the bat handle, but I'm not sure that's true because he's ALWAYS batted that way. Somehow it made sense for him to bat left-handed even though he does everything else right-handed. Graeme Smith, Gary Kirsten and Graeme Pollock are the same - bat left-handed and do everything else right-handed.

A bit OT, but I've heard that batting left-handed by choice is becoming quite popular with otherwise right-handed schoolboy cricketers. Apparently because it's harder for right-handed bowlers to bowl at lefties. This kind of logic does not seem to work for me.

On the guitar side, why do we play right-handed guitars the way we do? Each hand's job in guitar playing involves both strength and coordination, although I suppose the right is generally more active in that, on the whole, one tends to strum/pick at a a greater rate than changing chords/notes so I could see why you'd want your stronger hand as your picking hand. Besides that are there reasons other than convention?

Bob-Dubery

ActionArnie wrote My brother-in-law is an interesting case, he's a pretty talented all round sportsman but he plays tennis/squash etc. left handed, but he throws/bowls right-handed. Weird. (He's a pretty mean right-handed bass player too!)

Watch Graeme Smith in the field. He's usually in the slips, but when he moves into the outfield you will see him throwing in with his right arm. Smith, Kirsten and Pollock all bowl (or bowled) right-handed.

It ain't always so - Wasim Akram is a "proper" left-hander.

Paul Adams bowled left but batted right. Alan Kourie, bowled left, batted right and favoured his left arm when fielding. Being right-handed is so boring!

Arno-West

IceCreamMan wrote
Arno West wrote Now I know 2 leftie guitarists named Oliver...the other one will post here soon, that I can guarantee you.
left handed and his name is oliver !!!! we are going to rule the world i tell ya!!!!!!!

i bet he is a van halen fan toooo ?

never ever encourage yr kid to be right handed if he is a lefty ,,we are not in the middle ages anymore ...come to the light which is the 21st century...guitar choice aint always painful , u may not get the complete range but you get strats, les pauls, tele's ,V's, ibanezes etc etc etc ... and in the UK you should have no problem sourcing lefties. You may not get all the ranges but so what

BTW Oliver, we're back at Cornerhouse every Thursday next month. See you there.

ActionArnie

X-rated Bob wrote
ActionArnie wrote My brother-in-law is an interesting case, he's a pretty talented all round sportsman but he plays tennis/squash etc. left handed, but he throws/bowls right-handed. Weird. (He's a pretty mean right-handed bass player too!)
Watch Graeme Smith in the field. He's usually in the slips, but when he moves into the outfield you will see him throwing in with his right arm. Smith, Kirsten and Pollock all bowl (or bowled) right-handed.

It ain't always so - Wasim Akram is a "proper" left-hander.

Paul Adams bowled left but batted right. Alan Kourie, bowled left, batted right and favoured his left arm when fielding. Being right-handed is so boring!

The point I was trying to make really is that it's unusual for a racket sport (i.e. only 1 hand used) to use the one hand and to use the other hand to throw.

IceCreamMan

Arno West wrote
IceCreamMan wrote
Arno West wrote Now I know 2 leftie guitarists named Oliver...the other one will post here soon, that I can guarantee you.
left handed and his name is oliver !!!! we are going to rule the world i tell ya!!!!!!!

i bet he is a van halen fan toooo ?

never ever encourage yr kid to be right handed if he is a lefty ,,we are not in the middle ages anymore ...come to the light which is the 21st century...guitar choice aint always painful , u may not get the complete range but you get strats, les pauls, tele's ,V's, ibanezes etc etc etc ... and in the UK you should have no problem sourcing lefties. You may not get all the ranges but so what
BTW Oliver, we're back at Cornerhouse every Thursday next month. See you there.

Brilliant !!! looking forward to it ......

ezietsman

I would certainly encourage but not force my kid to play right handed, as Bob says, didn't hurt Jimi Hendrix, also Gary Moore was left handed.

Here's an interesting tidbit for ya:

Next time you go and see the symphony orchestra (I'm not kidding) take a moment to count the number of lefty string players.

For those who don't go to see orchestras, the answer is there are none. All classical musos get are taught to play right handed because you cannot have lefties and righties sitting next to each other. Their bows will collide. It doesn't hurt them either.

So basically, it doesn't hurt and the choice of guitars is as it should be.

But then, if the kid WANTS to be different then I'll let them.

ActionArnie

ez wrote
But then, if the kid WANTS to be different then I'll let them.

And there's not a lot cooler in the guitar world than playing a strat upside-down. 8)

Psean

ActionArnie wrote
And there's not a lot cooler in the guitar world than playing a strat upside-down. 8)

+1
But then he'll have to learn to play with his teeth as well ?

aubs1

Jimi Hendrix was a lefty ....... an and awesome one at that ..... (if someone posted this already, sorry)...... 40% of the best tennis players in the world are lefties, and so were 40% of American presidents ....... so he's in good company, and he's gonna be just cool!!! ?

Sean

Take the whip to him, make him play right-handed ?

Fingerpicker

As a leftie who learned to play (right handed) Spanish from the age of nine, I would teach him to play right handed. Was no problem to me. Thereafter left/right was an interest to me, played soccer alternating feet for alternate games, water polo as well (using both hands alternately), boxed southpaw and normal, surfed normal and goofy footer, and write left-handed on paper and right handed on a board (chalk and felt pens were easier to pull than push).

The guitar is just more convenient right handed. For you (or your son) and your band members.

Wizard

My son is strongly left-handed.
Moved his food to his left hand from day 1.
Interestingly I can now bat pretty efficiently left handed after playing cricket with him over all the years.
(He's now 20)

The other major advantage of switching sides is that you start from a blank sheet of paper and can learn everything properly.
No bad habits to overcome.

eric-vaxxine

Thanks for all the replies to my topic.

My son draws, bats and throws a ball right
handed, so I reckon he will grow out of holding
guitar left handed once he actually starts playing
real guitar as opposed to playing air guitar.

But if he doesn't...we will just go with the flow.