Can lefties play righties?

[tot_Ou_tard]

My brother just got an acoustic guitar for Christmas. He has never played a guitar before. The trouble is that he is left handed & his wife bought him a right handed guitar.

Can he play it like a righty? Reverse the strings & flip it over? Or does he need to get a lefty guitar.

To tell you the truth, I've never understood why us righties are supposed to fret with the left hand. There's a lot of action going on with that hand. A guitar is a two handed instrument after all.

 

[warren0728]

he could always learn to play righty...since he is just starting out...he will have a lot more selection of guitars if he plays righty....

ww

 

[oldguy]

I'm a lefty, but I learned to play right-handed. Everything else I do lefty, shooting pool, guns, bowhunting, all left handed. I got started on chords on the guitar from my Dad, and he taught me right handed. So yes, leftys can learn righty, and vice-versa, as long as they're comfortable with it.
I've even read that learning to play right handed is a plus for leftys, as the fret hand can be easier to learn, but not sure I buy that theory.

 

[stingx]

I'm a southpaw that does everything right-handed except write.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Coool. Thanks all, I'll tell him to just go ahead and play it northpaw style.
He does a lot of things with his right hand; scissors etc.

 

[marnold]

Can he play it like a righty? Reverse the strings & flip it over?

I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but it worked for Hendrix.

 

[Mark]

I being a lefty who plays "right handed" always thought this whole concept is backasswards. Whatever your primary hand is it seems you would want to fret with that hand as fretting requires the most dexterity and pick with your other dumber hand. So as a lefty I use my smartest hand for fretting and leave the pickin to the the dumber one and this is called the "right handed" postion. I submit to you the rightys got it backwards and should be playing in what is referred to as the lefty position.

 

[warren0728]

i've never heard of a left handed wind instrument, keyboard, etc...i think if you start out playing righty you'll have no problem

ww