lefty child's guitar?

[cjackearl]

Help! My son, who will be 6 shortly, has been asking for a guitar for at least a year. We decided to get him one for Christmas and were going to just buy one available at Walmart, First Act I think? Another thread on the dis convinced me that if I wanted a real instrument rather than a toy, First Act was NOT the way to go. Fine, I don't mind paying more, but I'm running into a problem. The boy is left handed and does everything, other than swing a golf club, left handed. Where can I find a child sized lefty guitar that I'm not going to have to spend much more than $100-150 on?

 

[finz2left]

Musicians' Friend has a few, and your local guitar store will, as well. Though, I warn you...it is likely a 6 year old will give up pretty quickly. Mine did at 6 and restarted at 8.5 or 9. Learning the chords is hard and painful . BTW, we got a fender and had it flipped .

 

[candyfloss]

we were told where ever possible try to get them to play a right handed instrument.

out of 5 kids we have 4 leftys!

 

[finz2left]

we were told where ever possible try to get them to play a right handed instrument.

out of 5 kids we have 4 leftys!

Wow...why? They are leftys...that seems just wrong . I'd ask some great lefty musicians what they think of that advice...

 

[candyfloss]

i think it was to get around the limited options available in lefty guitars.

 

[Nicolepa]

I am a lefty and when I took guitar the first time I had it restrung as a lefty. The second time I played as a righty. I'm not sure there are right/left handed acustic guitars?? The second time I was playing an electric guitar and we already had a classic fender so I just learned to play it right handed.

 

[Purseval]

A six year old's fingers are too short to play most chords. Buy a First Act and get it restrung then if the kid is interested get a Baby Taylor. You can get the best guitar in the universe and until they are physically able to play it's just a useless piece of wood.

 

[njziggy]

Get which ever guitar you like & simply restring it (switch the strings to reverse order). My DH is a southpaw & did this for years until he realizes he liked to play righty better. Now guitar playing is the only thing he does right handed.

 

[msmayor]

Wow...why? They are leftys...that seems just wrong . I'd ask some great lefty musicians what they think of that advice...

I'm a lefty and honestly, I wish there were some things I DID try to learn right-handed.

I swung a bat lefty and it affected me in later years when I wanted to learn golf. Its not easy to translate what a right-handed golf teacher is showing you to your left hand. Finding a set of left-handed clubs that is available to test before buying is almost impossible.

As a beginner guitar player I don't really see how hard it would be to learn right OR left handed. If you've never done it before, the issue of 'breaking' a habit isn't there.

 

[mjkacmom]

DH has been playing the guitar for 30 years, and had ds playing on a righty (ds writes righty, but does everything else lefty - has a lefty mitt, golf clubs..). Dd is lefty, but when it comes to instruments, always does righty. When she played the violin, it was righty - I don't think there are lefty violins?

 

[dfchelbay]

Hmmm, a left handed guitar player...do I see a future Beatle a la Paul McCartny here????

 

[AllesonWonderland]

My son is a lefty too. A friend who works at a music store said they hand kids a guitar, neck straight up and down, and see which way they flip it to try to play. Most will naturally try to play right-handed. I also did a lot of reading that said unless your child absolutely could not do it right-handed, to try for that. More guitar options is one reason, plus the ability to pick up any guitar, any time and play. DS hasn't had any trouble playing right-handed, but does everything else left. DH is left-handed, but was forced as a child to write right-handed. (Had a teacher who insisted he was 'wrong' writing left-handed.) So, he writes RH but does all sports, etc. left-handed.

We got a 3/4-size guitar and DS9 is really enjoying it. Good luck to you!

 

[Purseval]

Hmmm, a left handed guitar player...do I see a future Beatle a la Paul McCartny here????

Paul learned on a righty guitar strung backwards, just like other posters here recommended.

 

[cjackearl]

Thanks for the input everyone. I took my son to a guitar store today and had him try out a 3/4 size guitar. It was too big for him to handle comfortably. He's a peanut for his age! I ended up ordering him a 1/2 size nylon stringed guitar from amazon. Its a regular right handed model that I guess we'll have restrung if we have to. Do I need any accessories? A strap? I'm assuming I don't need to worry about picks for awhile?

 

[hcoker1]

I teach classical guitar at the high school level (along with band and choir) and I always have my students learn "right handed". Three main reasons: the instrument has developed over the centuries to be played with the neck on the left; a left handed guitar is actually built differently (the braces inside the top match the thickness of the strings) so restringing it can cause the top to warp; the student can never go to a friends house and pick up someone else's guitar and play along. Over all of the years I have convinced all of them to play the same way as everyone else. I also tell them that as lefties they have the advantage because they have better fine motor skills with the hand that is doing the most work early on.

I hope your son enjoys playing guitar! It is a lifelong skill.

 

[littlele]

I teach classical guitar at the high school level (along with band and choir) and I always have my students learn "right handed". Three main reasons: the instrument has developed over the centuries to be played with the neck on the left; a left handed guitar is actually built differently (the braces inside the top match the thickness of the strings) so restringing it can cause the top to warp; the student can never go to a friends house and pick up someone else's guitar and play along. Over all of the years I have convinced all of them to play the same way as everyone else. I also tell them that as lefties they have the advantage because they have better fine motor skills with the hand that is doing the most work early on. I hope your son enjoys playing guitar! It is a lifelong skill.

I learned to play as a righty because my DD4 and I were learning at the same time and I thought it would be easier if we were all going the same direction. I was quickly surprised to see that a 'right handed guitar' really made more sense for a lefty in my mind. The frets seem like they need more hand coordination and that is what you would do with your left hand on a right hand guitar.

As for what else you would need, yes you will need picks and I would suggest a book of simple songs to learn and play. Being able to play a song is my dd's favorite part of course!

 

[MamaJessie]

DH is a lefty and plays right handed guitar. He says left handed guitars were more expensive when he started playing so he just learned righty. He never knew the difference and this way the left hand does more of the finger work anyway.

Funny note - when he plays air guitar he does it lefty

 

[spaceacewannabe]

DH has been playing the guitar for 30 years, and had ds playing on a righty (ds writes righty, but does everything else lefty - has a lefty mitt, golf clubs..). Dd is lefty, but when it comes to instruments, always does righty. When she played the violin, it was righty - I don't think there are lefty violins?

Nope, no such thing as a lefty violin...none of the orchestral strings nor any of the woodwind instruments are different for a righty or lefty---which I would say is another good reason not to seek out a "lefty" guitar.