So i think i may have f$&ked up…

[Dustin Stevens]

So ive been playing guitar for the better part of 10 years and im left handed but i learned to play right handed. My dad played guitar and he is right handed so i learned on his guitars and in some ways i think it gives me an advantage and in other ways i feel hindered by it. Where my fretting hand is strong and pretty coordinated my picking hand has always had trouble keeping up and not even with just speed. I feel like i have a hard time controlling the dynamics and the fluency of my picking and in a way i feel handicapped. Some days its better then others but it can become very frustrating to get on the guitar and want to be able to express yourself and feel hend back when your playing. Im already to invested in playing right handed to start playing left handed and i will never stop playing guitar just venting is all. Anyone else here left handed and learned right handed. If so do you have any of the same problems

 

[Noah Berends]

I play natural righty and I’m right handed and I still experience having my picking hand feel like it’s falling behind my fret hand. That’s actually what I’m trying to work out of right now. I don’t think it’s tied to your primary hand, as anything can be trained with muscle memory. I think it’s just a matter of focusing on the weak spots and strengthening them.

 

[D K]

I’m left handed and play right handed as well, I chose to do that because whenever I imagined playing guitar I would imagine playing right handed, because left handed seemed awkward. I have never experienced this as a disadvantage. Of course my left hand will always get the hang of things faster than my right hand, but I have never seen this as something that’s caused by my left handedness, but rather as something that can be fixed by praticing more.

 

[Christopher Lonski]

Yeah dude, your actually at an advantage considering your fretting hand does most of the work. A lot of guys play almost exclusively legato like Allan Holdsworth or tj helmerich and dont really pick at all. My guess is that your fretting hand is just more developed is all.
If you want to work on your picking, I would start by holding down just one note and just focus 100% on alternate picking that one note. Focus your efforts on making whatever rhythm you’re playing (8th notes, triplets, 16th notes etc.) As even, in-time, and perfect as possible. Also focus on moving your pick as little as possible, like just enough to get from one side of the string to the other. And make sure that the dynamic and volume for your downstroke and upstroke are as even as possible.
After you’ve done this for at least 15 minutes or longer, introduce your fretting hand again and make sure both hands are moving totally in sync, so just a your finger is hitting a fret, your pick is plucking the string at the EXACT same moment. You can do this with scales or even just 2 fingers repetitively like index-middle, index-ring, etc. And do this CRAZY slow. The goal here isnt to play as fast as possible, but as perfect as possible.
Practice with this mindset for like an hour or so and your playing will IMMEDIATELY get better. Like you’ll notice a massive difference today if you do this.

 

[Dan Shipway]

It is something that is definitely not a hindernce but not something that should be relied soley on. I love to do legato type playing as my picking just isnt that great but both are definitely useful. You could say that both come in …handy (best pun I have ever made).

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Hey Dustin! This is kind of an interesting topic because I can actually relate in a way.
My singer originally was a guitarist, and she came to me back in highschool asking for lessons. She is left-hand dominate and had to learn right-handed because all the guitars she was around were right-handed guitars. I’ll just say this, rhythm was HARD for her. She could change well, but she didn’t progress very fast at all in the beginning. She still struggles with some things but ironically, when she plays a left-handed guitar, it seems to work well for her.
I don’t know if anyone suggested this because I’m short of time and can’t really read the comments. But perhaps you could experiment on a left-handed guitar. Maybe it won’t be as bad as you think All I know is I will ALWAYS live by the advice of Papa Gates, “Fix it now. Suck for a while. Then Progress faster, quicker, and more efficiently.”