Before I started my B2B journey, I was telling my 17yr old daughter what I was thinking of doing, and she approved, LOL. She then got the idea in her head that she then wanted to learn guitar so we could play together eventually. Kinda cool right? Great kid! So she bought herself a nice new left handed Fender Squier Contemporary Stratocaster HH, amp, case, guitar stand… the works.
It took a LONG time for the left handed Squire to finally arrive, cause Covid, but now she has it and is on the quest for a quality guitar course for the beginner that would be good for her left handedness.
She has been shopping around because she is having trouble doing the random YouTube video thing, and being left handed adds another curve ball to the process I didn’t have to deal with being right handed.
I did a search here before posting this, and someone else had recommended https://goodguitarist.com. Just wondering if anyone else had any other recommendations or ones that cater to the left handed crowd? or tips to get the lefty going in general.
Best wishes to your daughter. It’s great that she’s starting out a young age. I’m not familiar with the guitar courses, but in my experience with bass courses, they are all right hand oriented. You just have to transpose what the instructor tells you to do with the right hand and left hand.
I could be wrong, and certainly hope I am. It would be lovely to find a left handed guitar course for her.
Here are my though being left handed all my life(54 years). When I was young back in the 80’s, I learned to bowl finger tip, PBA style, with a hook, etc. It’s a skill you have to acquire over time, much like playing the bass, guitar, pitching a baseball, etc.
I had to purchase an expensive ball; $125 back in 1987 was real money for me. It had to be drilled for my left hand, and away I went to the local bowling alley with my friends to lean to throw a mean hook. For the next 3 years I learned to bowl PBA style with a nasty lefty hook and picking up my 7 pins when needed, got to be a pretty good till I got married when I was off to bigger and better things.
Again, it was a lot of skill to develop. I learned mostly from my right handed peers; although I did purchase a book form Earl Anthony who was a great lefty bowler. But mainly what I had to do was watch the more capable right-handed bowlers and learn from them. I had to learn to transpose everything I saw in my head. It was a pain, but I did it. It’s been over 30 years. Here are my takeaways:
As a lefty you can learn from right-handers; it’s a pain though. But, I honestly think you can learn more for the more capable right-handers than the best lefties.
When was a young adult, I took it upon myself to broaden my horizons and learn specific skills right handed. For example, I learned 10-key on the cash register right handed since the register station was designed for a righty anyway. Over the past 30 years I’ve learned to be a bit ambidextrous.
Now picking up the guitar initially last year, and then the bass shortly thereafter, I decided to just learn right handed. I just didn’t want to do the transposition thing again and be so different. I felt it was worth it to try, and so far not too bad. It’s very nice to go into a music store and pick up any instrument, hold it, and play.
So, that’s one lefty’s perspective. Not what you asked for exactly; just my thoughts.
That’s awesome that you’ll soon have someone to jam with! My daughter is still slightly too young but the instruments are all here for when she’s ready!!
Justin guitar (https://www.justinguitar.com/) is a great resource for online guitar tuition, I’ve used it in the past and find he’s good to watch and takes you through it really well (similar style to @JoshFossgreen I think)
From memory he does a couple videos of teaching himself to play his beginner course left handed so your daughter may be able to use that to help?
Hope that helps and best of luck!
Ps Hope I’m okay posting links sorry if it breaks any rules!
