GUEST,20 year teacher, not to be nit-picky or try to one-up you, but I've been teaching for about 50 years.

I did not say that the left hand is primary. Nor did I minimize the importance of the right hand at all. What I was trying to say was that initially the lefty has an advantage when beginning to learn because, at that stage, the left hand is more difficult to learn to use. Fretting the strings takes a kind of strength that is not required of the picking hand, and since the lefty's left hand is usually stronger than his right, and is generally more adept with finer motor skills, he is slightly ahead of the game in the beginning stages. The right hand is equally important for getting the music out of the guitar, but that group of skills can't really be developed until the left hand has started doing its job reasonably well.

I use the guitar primarily for accompanying songs and ballads (including alternating-bass picking), but I studied classical guitar for many years and I play a fair amount of Tarrega, Sor, Bach, Vivaldi, lute works by Dowland, et al, and a bit of flamenco, which takes some pretty flashy right hand work. I stand by what I said.

Don Firth