I'm righthanded.

Aside from the fact that there're lots of lefties playing rightie and they're hard to pick out of the crowd, there is very little guitar instructional material designed for lefthanded play which is a major consideration in an increasingly tab-centric world.

I have had only a couple of lefthanded students and they didn't relate to the mirror image thing at all so visual examples were not effective. One read standard notation well (for his tender years) while the other was a frustrated tab reader, but neither was happy with their equipment, music, and book choices. I should poll my students now to find out how many of them are lefthanded...they all play right.

I don't like the idea of forcing righthandedness on anyone (though I believe it's the better choice) but I distinctly remember, when I started to learn guitar, believing that my right hand would fret better because it was more agile than my left, and was clearly dominant when I played piano. Right or wrong, my left hand learned the necessary agility and maybe my right hand fingerstyle technique benefits from my piano experience.

From the outset, the instrument will feel foreign when held and played either way. It only takes the novice a few days to get comfortable with holding the instrument and not much longer to get comfortable playing it, especially when given decent advice on technique and posture.

I've encountered leftie players who regretted their decision not to start as a rightie because eventually they encountered the lack of leftie resources and equipment.

I am also not aware of any physiological reason why a lefthanded person can't play a righthanded instrument as well as a righthanded person. Further, I am not convinced of the "handedness" of the instrument to start with, particularly since fretting seems more difficult than strumming to beginners yet the dominant hand gets to strum.

I'm damn glad there's no lefthanded pianos around here, that would mess me up but good!

My advice? All things considered, no lefties.

Peace, Mooh.