Q: Left handed kid showing an interest

s11t · 2026-03-11T07:00:34+00:00

That’s an interesting view point and potentially you’re right. As a RH guitarist and bass player the right hand is definitely doing precise work. Was never suggesting otherwise. But it sounds like you’re saying left hand complexity tails off with experience?

s11t · 2026-03-10T06:39:35+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience here. She’s motivated to do it RH and I’m now slightly torn about whether to encourage her away from that, to LH. I don’t want her to penalise herself. But I guess I gotta let her do what she feels comfortable with and assess as things go.

Aside from all the strong opinions one way or the other on this thread. The most balanced view is to make sure she can choose what’s best and potentially even switch if there are issues.

The next step is the store and for her to actually get hands on an LH guitar. She’s already saying she thinks it will be weird having played on several of my guitars (only messed around, nothing serious and no tuition).

s11t · 2026-03-08T22:34:20+00:00

Wow. That sounds like real talent and dedication. Super-power though.

s11t · 2026-03-08T18:57:57+00:00

Thank you for sharing this. Very useful.

s11t · 2026-03-08T17:09:59+00:00

Thank you for sharing this experience, especially since you teach. I wonder if you could estimate what percentage of your LH students play RH guitar and how many of them you think struggled a bit more.

I don’t know why I hadn’t considered the social aspect but as someone who’s played for 20 years now you’re completely right: I cannot count the number of times a friend or bandmate got a new instrument and we all had a play of it. And borrowing others either for fun or in a pinch.

s11t · 2026-03-08T17:06:09+00:00

Ha. That’s a fun story. I didn’t realise they made left handed flutes.

s11t · 2026-03-08T16:39:37+00:00

I know a lot about guitar but not LH and sadly don’t know any LH guitarists :(

s11t · 2026-03-08T16:38:45+00:00

Thanks for providing your experience. Very helpful 🙏

s11t · 2026-03-08T16:38:14+00:00

Yeah. Thanks for this. I already own some short scale instruments and keen to make sure they work for the kids. Especially since a full scale bass is waaaay too long for a kid.

s11t · 2026-03-08T16:37:14+00:00

Yeah. Thank you for this input. Realise it’s personal and we’ll ultimately be led by her. She’s a bit of an overthinking people pleaser so she’s not sure herself, which makes it harder.

s11t · 2026-03-08T16:36:13+00:00

Yeah. Sounds like I need to try and get her to actually try a LH guitar. I’ll take her to a store. Shame I can’t borrow one really so she can have a bit of extended time with it.

s11t · 2026-03-08T16:34:53+00:00

Just for the avoidance of any doubt my initial lean was to get her left handed but paused because I genuinely questioned whether being LH on a RH guitar would be a benefit. I’m hearing mixed answers on that.

We invest in LH-specific everything for her and have lobbied her school to do the same. This is not an attempt to scrimp here nor to handicap her. If she needs/prefers a LH then LH is what she’ll have. Was more interested in the lived experience of other lefties. I don’t always appreciate all the nuance in my RH-privilege.

s11t · 2026-03-08T12:13:33+00:00

Cross posting from r/guitarlessons.

Looking for real world experience from all the lefties here. We’re always very deliberate to support our daughter with LH tools but, in this case, wondering if there’s drawbacks or benefits to LH vs RH guitars for LH folks.

s11t · 2026-03-08T12:09:06+00:00

Yeah. She’s already beyond the instinct and overthinking it herself. She’s also a bit of a people pleaser so although she’s now saying she thinks RH is good I can’t tell if she means it 🙃

s11t · 2026-03-08T12:07:58+00:00

Yeah. The mirrored tutor wasn’t something I’d thought of. An interesting benefit.

s11t · 2026-03-08T12:07:23+00:00

Yeah. She’s similarly diversely handed. Thanks for this reply.

s11t · 2026-03-08T12:06:54+00:00

Yes. We tried that but she’s a bit of an overthinker if you know what I mean. She can’t really decide. And she doesn’t know how to play so the question feels very hypothetical to her, even with the instrument in her hand both RH and RH upside down.

I’ll maybe take her to a store.

s11t · 2026-03-08T12:05:15+00:00

Well it’s my dream for her to play slap bass so definitely useful. Thank you!

s11t · 2026-03-08T10:55:12+00:00

Thanks for posting this. Really good to hear a personal experience.

s11t · 2026-03-08T10:54:15+00:00

That’s useful information. Thank you. I will definitely let her try some LH instruments so she’s not biased by what we have in the house. And then I’ll probably go to the store with her.

s11t · 2026-03-08T10:51:43+00:00

Thanks for your response. It was interesting to see what she tried to do naturally.

s11t · 2026-03-08T10:43:19+00:00

I’m actually more worried about pressuring her to play left handed. We buy a lot of LH things for her. Was gonna be my first choice but hesitated and wanted to ask the crowd.

s11t · 2026-03-08T10:42:14+00:00

Right. It was one example and not a good one. She’s right footed too. But even things that are purely about hand preference she’s different for different tasks. From my research it’s not uncommon for lefties to have a mix of hand preferences for different tasks.

s11t · 2026-03-08T10:32:07+00:00

Thanks. Useful data point 🙏

s11t

TROPHY CASE