The left-handed guitarist: the challenge of playing the guitar with “the other hand”
Left-handed people face daily challenges from a world built for right-handers. Everyday activities can become uncomfortable and, when the movements must be very precise, the tools and ways of doing things as a right-hander become a barrier.
Playing the guitar is one of those activities that can be doubly challenging. However, left-handedness has not stopped many from making guitar-playing history: Jimi Hendrix, Mark Knopfler, Gary Moore, Kurt Cobain, Albert King…
With this daily experience it’s normal to wonder: How can I play the guitar? The decision affects everything about being a guitar-player, and is independent of musical style or if the guitar is electric, classical, Spanish, or any other type. There are several options:
a) With a common guitar. The advantage is that the guitar player can find instruments anywhere and has the whole commercial guitar catalogue available to them. Possible systems:
-Hold the guitar as right-handers do (with the neck in the left hand, paradoxically, the one that makes the most complex movements). This posture may be uncomfortable, unnatural, and difficult to learn for left-handed players.
-Turn the guitar leaving the neck on the right hand side. The base strings will be above the high-pitched strings, meaning that you have to learn new hand positons and to invert the direction of plucking and strumming. Study manuals would also have to be read in reverse.
b) With a left-handed guitar. Designed specifically for left-handers as a mirror-image of common guitars. The posture is natural and the neck is supported by the right hand. The advantages are obvious, but there are also limitations: you’ll only be able to play this type of guitar, and they aren’t easy to find.
In short, left-handed students must weigh up the pros and cons. In Alhambra Guitars we build all our types of guitar for right and left-handed people, except the OP Series.
