A few weeks ago, I had one of those rare and wonderful experiences; catching up with an old friend.
John Dawson and I had known each other as teenagers, went to the same high school together, worked together one summer doing landscaping/yard work, and he even invited me on one of the few fishing trips I’ve ever taken. (I have a thirty-some year old photograph to prove it.) His wife, my girlfriend, and the two of us had a terrific time when we met for a meal in a small town outside of Annapolis, MD.

Since then we’ve kept in contact and his kind comments about a couple of guitar videos I posted on YouTube lead to some questions. I asked him if I could answer them here on the blog.

John wrote:
“My son tried on a few occasions to give me some beginners lessons only to remark that I looked like I was in pain trying to hold the guitar right handed. He had me turn the guitar over and hold it left handed at which point he told me I am a natural “lefty” because my hand addressed the neck in a more relaxed manner. At one point he was helping me shop for a left handed guitar and he was recommending that I buy a Fender Squire Strat kit to learn on rather than an acoustic because the Strat would be more forgiving if I crunched a chord.
What is your opinion about righty vs lefty and acoustic vs a hard body electric?”

Righty/Lefty: There are some pretty pronounced schools of thought on this one. The classical guitarist, Julian Bream, felt the guitar shouldn’t be thought of as either left or right handed. He considered it an instrument like the piano, where both hands are being used and it doesn’t matter which is naturally dominant.
Then there are players - Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney are obvious examples - who flipped it over and made it work out pretty well. Would  they have played as well if they had just picked it up the way most of us did? Probably not, if it was uncomfortable.
There’s a definite downside to the unconventional approach, though.  Both standard notation and tablature are tougher to read because they have to be mentally “flipped” from the way they appear on the page. Plus, the left handed guitar (or a right handed one set up for the lefty) is just harder to find. Go to any guitar shop and you would be lucky to find two or three of them.
There’s something to be said for trying it both ways, if you’re so inclined, and going with your gut.
My personal opinion, based on my teaching experience, is more in line with Mr. Bream.

Acoustic/Electric: This is an easy one. Which one do you see yourself playing?
Electric guitars have lighter guage strings and lower action in general, but a good acoustic (with light guage strings) set up pretty well shouldn’t be much more of a challenge to play.
I recommend the guitar that matches the players taste in music. If you’re a Stevie Ray Vaughn fan, that acoustic is probably not going to feel like it’s taking you where you want to go. Playing John Denver tunes on an electric is going to seem weird, as well.
Get whichever instrument you feel you’d be eager to pick up the most often. It’s got to be something you enjoy.

Visit my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/jimwestlyn  to check out those tutorial videos I mentioned.