You probably already know that playing acoustic guitar consists of pressing certain strings down against the fingerboard with one hand, and then picking or strumming the strings with the other hand. While that is true, there are a few things to mention that may be helpful.

Most right handed guitarists use their left hand to form chords, and their right hand to pick or strum the strings. For a left handed guitar player, it is just the opposite. If you play left handed, you should use a guitar strung left-handed, meaning the strings are in the opposite order. There are many stories of left handed guitarists who learned to play on a right handed guitar upside down, but it is much more difficult to play a guitar in this way.

Playing a note on a guitar involves pressing strings against the fingerboard of the guitar. When a string is pressed, it becomes pinched against a fret on the fingerboard. When that string is played, it will vibrate only between the fret where it is pressed and the bridge where it is attached to the guitar. Pressing a string against a fret makes the vibrating portion of the string shorter. A shorter string will vibrate at a higher frequency causing a higher pitch note.

Strings must be solidly pinched against the intended fret. If the string is not pinched solidly, it may either have a muffled sound, or it may buzz. One way to help press a string more solidly is to place your finger just beside the fret that you are playing, instead of directly in between the two frets.

You won’t play guitar for very long before you realize that playing guitar hurts. Mostly it hurts your fingertips, but it also may cramp your hand, thumb, and forearm (especially playing barre chords). The only solution is to grit your teeth and play regularly, because that is how you will develop callouses and hand strength that will eventually alleviate the pain.

By: Christian St. Claire

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A distinct and important group of guitars is the left-handed guitar. The left-handed guitar is held with the freeboard in the right hand and picking done with the left hand. The strings are reversed, and the guitar looks like a mirror image of a right-handed guitar. It can be purchased in many styles and shapes.

One thing you must consider is how available left-handed guitars are. Until recently, they have been pretty hard to find, and although laws have been passed against discriminatory practices like this, you’re still going to have some trouble located a left-handed guitar is you’re set on one particular style.

However, good musical instruments manufacturers make no assumptions, and are not biased toward only the right-handed player. The left-handed player is equally dear to them. They make it a point to give this player many options and do their best to accommodate the left-handed guitar player. They are adding several new lines of left-handed acoustic guitars including 6 or 12 strings, either metal or nonmetal. Many manufacturers offer left-handed players the option of specially ordering a specific guitar. The price depends on a number of factors, including the quality of the acoustics, the material body and visual appeal. Those with finished necks and mahogany bodies are usually very expensive. Guitars manufactured by left-handed guitar specialists also cost more. Some manufacturers and music shops offer free lessons especially made for left-handed beginners.

Martin, Gibson, Larriv

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]]> http://lefthandedacousticguitar.org/left-handed-acoustic-guitars/feed/ 0 http://lefthandedacousticguitar.org/its-worth-buying-the-takamine-eg340c-acoustic-electric-guitar-left-hand/ http://lefthandedacousticguitar.org/its-worth-buying-the-takamine-eg340c-acoustic-electric-guitar-left-hand/#comments Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:27:46 +0000 Left Handed Acoustic Guitar Expert http://lefthandedacousticguitar.org/its-worth-buying-the-takamine-eg340c-acoustic-electric-guitar-left-hand/

Takamine has been a notable manufacturer for many years. They are also known for exceptional dollar value with features and construction seen in acoustic left hand guitars of a higher price range. On that note, the electric lefty guitar is no different.

As an acoustic guitar this Takamine masterpiece takes your performance to a new level. As an electric guitar left hand players are in for a treat. Either way, this guitar has been a favorite among guitarists for several reasons, outlined below.

In the realm of acoustic left hand guitars, construction materials are a major consideration. The EG340C is no exception with its mahogany back and sides. Mahogany is typically reserved for higher end instruments and has an excellent tone retention quality. Add the solid spruce top and the transference of sound is no less than spectacular.

All that beautiful material is designed into a single cut away dreadnought shape that has been favored since its debut in the 1920′s. The dreadnought has a deeper resonance well that produces a greater amount of acoustic volume. For accompaniment purposes, this acoustic LH guitar is superb for open mike night type performances as well as other gigs.

The neck is also mahogany with a rosewood fret board fitted with 20 standard Takamine medium frets. This provides a quick action much like that found in electric L guitars and a smooth silky feel that is easy on the fingers.

Not only does the EG340C excel acoustically, but it has the patented TP4T electronics on board that lets you amplify the sound while retaining the acoustic tonality. The electronic module has controls for bass, mid-range and treble as well as a gain potentiometer and an on board tuner facility. Talk about a full feature amplification process! All those controls give the player a range of tone control that is absolutely unbelievable.

With a couple of your favorite effects daisy chained to the amplifier, you can use this “beauty” continually without the need to switch guitars or use an acoustic stand that gets in the way. Just switch to electric mode and you can use distortion, wah pedals or any electronic effect very nicely indeed.

All in all, this acoustic/electric L guitar is one that needs to be looked at seriously. In the left hand guitar world, it is sometimes hard to find a great acoustic left hand or electric left guitar at affordable prices. This nice beauty fills that bill nicely and can be found at music stores and sites.

But what you really need to do is find a site that specializes in acoustic left hand guitars and electric guitar left hand orientation. That site is http://www.lefthandedguitarmall.com. A specialty site focused on LH instruments, they have southpaw musicians at heart and are dedicated to the procreation of quality lefty stringed instruments like the EG340C.

By: Zane J Freeman

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As a beginner to guitar playing, you will have to get a guitar for your practice. You should understand how the instrument works. If you are right handed, your left hand will be the fret-board hand and your right hand will be your picking hand. If you are left handed, you have to switch your hands the other way around. Then you are ready to play. In this article, we are going to discuss some basics on guitar playing about how to use both of your hands.

You have to put your fret-board hand on the guitar neck and move it all over the neck. The method is simple. You use the fingers of this hand press on the assigned positions on the neck. Then you use your picking hand vibrates the strings. Then there will be the sounds made from the vibrations which should be corresponded to the notes you want to play.

Like playing most of other musical instruments, playing guitar needs coordination of both hands. The fret-board hand must hold the strings down firmly and the picking hand strikes the string precisely. If you do it right, you will get clear noise and notes.

After you start playing for awhile, you will get callous skin on your left hand. That is supposed to happen especially when you use guitar with metal strings. The callous will be less for nylon-strings guitar players though. For ladies, you may find it hurts a little. But don’t worry. The pain will go away once you get used to it. And you will be with it for a long time as long as you still play guitar.

The next thing you need to know is to learn notes and chords. Some guitar players just skip the notes and learn the chords. I wouldn’t recommend that since music notes will help your progress much better. However, learning just guitar chords allows you to play guitar faster. Also, guitar tabulature helps replace the notes when you want to play more complicated songs.

You will have to allocate enough time for practicing. When I started playing guitar, I spent one hour a day every day practicing. I did it after I have done my homework. I could play it after nine months without any teacher. You can speed up your guitar learning process by getting a guitar private tutor, attending guitar class or buying an online course. You should not learn it from the book since the process will take very long time and you may give up before you achieve anything.

By: Tom Founder

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Left-Handed Acoustic Guitars

Being left handed doesn’t just mean you hold you pen funny, or that the scissors are upside down, it comes into every area of your life. When it comes to learning a musical instrument, especially a stringed instrument like the guitar or violin, there are problems come up all over the place with chord conversion, or getting the guitar to sound the same as a right hander when it’s upsidedown. Jimi Hendrix is a model lefty guitarist; he was showing up people with an upside down, with reverse strung guitar, while he was drunk or on drugs! Ok, maybe the drugs and drinking aren’t such a good example, but he defiantly had the idea.

Unlike the 60s’ however now-a-days there are guitars made for lefties, left handed scale generators, left hand chord progression and even tabs written for lefties. So anyone, even lefties, can bring rock to the next level. But do left handers have an easier time learning guitar than right handers?

Learning to play guitar is a painstakingly simple task no matter what hand you play with. The simplicity of the instrument fools the common person into thinking the instrument’s simple to master. Although left handers are known for their above average statistics in money and intelligence, Lefties still have as much trouble learning an instrument as a righty. Some musicians, despit there left-handedness, find it easier to play the instrument with their right hand Robert Fripp from King Crimson, Noel Gallagher from Oasis.

So what does it take to learn to play guitar for a left hander? The same dedication and passion for music as a right hander, although you may see up-coming Paul McCartney’s and Kurt Cobain’s and Jimi Hendrix’s playing an upside down, reversed strung guitar in their room while everyone around them is yelling at them to shut up. It’s all about practise practise practise, and learning from as many people as you can. There are courses and teachers like Music master Pro, But regardless of your teacher, if your passion drives you, we’ll see the next Jimi Hendrix in no time.

By: Tony Schirmer

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When you start to play classical guitar one of the biggest stumbling blocks is poor left hand technique. The main issue is that both hands are moving in different rhythms and all the eight fingers used need to move totally independently of each other. You may not think that is so hard so try this exercise place both hands on the table top in front of you and raise the palms leaving the finger tips touching the table now raise and move each finger backwards and forwards in turn while leaving all the others on the table and not moving any of them. OK so did you find it easy? Was one finger more difficult to move than the others?

I will confess here that I personally have great difficulty moving my ring fingers, but each person is different. To play classical guitar you will need to not only be able to do that, but to also move each hand in different sequences and rhythms! Not to worry there are exercises to help both on and off the guitar, but before we come to that I will outline the correct positioning for the left hand. In order to get into the correct position you will need to be sat on a square backed chair with the left foot raised on a classical guitar footstool and with your guitar across your body pointing its neck to your left (Left handed players playing left handed will need to reverse everything I say). Place your left arm under the neck of the guitar and put the thumb in the center of the back of the neck, now arch your fingers as when you tap them on the table and place them just above the strings. If you are sat correctly your left arm is free to move and it does not take any of the weight of the guitar.

When you start to play the thumb is usually directly opposed to your index finger, but it may be allowed to drop more behind the treble strings to give reach when you stretch for the bass strings. It should never come over the top of the neck. When you are playing correctly your left hand fingers come down at almost 90 degrees from the fret board and just the tip of the finger makes contact with the string. Ideally you should only use sufficient pressure to ensure the notes are all clear, surprisingly children are usually much better at gaugeing this than adults.

When a barre is required the barre finger should be placed across all of the strings required and rolled just slightly into the fret, this helps to eliminate any buzz where strings fall under the joints. It sounds hard and it is the part of the technique that requires the most practice. Heikila Sakari has developed a training system for off the guitar work his site is http://www.masteringthefivedisciplines.com and I also recommend the book Pumping Nylon by Scott Tennant which includes his left hand exercises (this one is really for intermediate players and above).

There is also a series of books by Abel Carlevaro (Serie Didactica Para Guittara) which is in 4 parts, I only have parts 2,3, and 4 Right Hand, Left Hand and the culmination!). This work is in Spanish and English translation it is published by Barry in Buenos Aries copyright 1967 and Montevideo Uruguay copyright 1975 and it is a comprehensive work on the exercises for both left and right hands and both in harmony. The essential idea is to work slowly and correctly and only add speed after each exercise is mastered.

I really hope that you find this helps and I wish you every success in your playing.

By: Stephen Parkin

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A guitar is a musical instrument played with the fingers or a pick. It consist of two parts, the neck from which the strings originate and the body on which the strings end.

There are two main categories of guitars, The acoustic and the electric guitar

Acoustic Guitar. This is unique in that the sound of the guitar strings are produced from their vibrations from which the sound is then amplified by help of the boxlike or hollow body. This is the earliest form the instrument and today, the sound could further more be amplified through electric loud speakers.

These guitars are again divided into 3 subcategories. The nylon skin or classical guitar, the steel string, and the archtop guitar. Classical guitars usually are made up of six strings from which all the parts parts of music can be selected. On the other hand an extended range classical guitar may contain up to 12 strings.

The electric guitar: As the name implies, the electric guitar relies on an amplifier to amplify the vibrations of the guitar strings to be well appreciated by the ears. This technology as recent as the 1930 and has taken a great toll on modern music. This guitars depending on which may of may not have hollow bodies and will produce very little or no sound without the help of an amplifier.

The guitar is one of the most fundamental and most convenient musical instrument. It is light and easy to carry along where ever we go compared to drums and pianos. There are several types created to meet the needs of both the reach and the poor. Both left handed guitars and right handed are made to suit left and right handed people respectively. Basic knowledge on how to play a guitar is sufficient to entertain people.

My recommendation to those who want to make a carrier in music is to start by learning how to play the guitar. Playing the instrument is the source through much most artist formulate their songs before a complete peace is out.

By: Karlhans Che

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When it come to learning acoustic guitar, most of the southpaws suffer a dilemma in taking the decision whether they should start learning left or right handed. There are instances of famous guitarists who are lefty but play guitar right handed. At the same time, in the recent years, many specialized stores have come up and offer left hand guitars from the big brands including Fender, Daisy Rock and Fernandes. Most importantly, with internet providing valuable information about how to change the guitar’s orientation to suit the needs of a lefty, learning left handed acoustic guitar has become lot easier. When you know how to overcome the predicaments of being a southpaw, you can play the acoustic guitars just the same way the right-handers do. The tips below will help you get started.

Find out what suits you most

To begin with, if you do most of your works with your left hand, it does not mean you will have to be a lefty guitarist. First you have to find out, which way you feel more comfortable. There are many southpaws, who do all other works with their left hands except strumming the guitar. On the other hand there are instances, where despite being a left hander, some students try to start as a right hander and fail to make much progress. Paul McCartney was a case in point, who started learning guitar as right handed, but could make little progress and then switched to left hand playing and made history with the brilliance of his playing style. So do not go out of your way to become an essentially left or right handed guitarist – choose the way of playing guitar that comes naturally to you. But once you have chosen the way, try to settle down and don’t switch frequently.

Get yourself the right instrument

Your first step to learning guitar involves buying the right guitar. So far as the choice of the instrument is concerned, you have two main options. Either you have to buy guitar custom made for lefty player or a standard guitar changed to suit the needs of a southpaw. In order to make it suitable for left handed playing, the instrument will be given a new nut, and an adjustment or replacement of the bridge. To make sure that the instrument is properly tuned, the bridge saddle must be properly adjusted. A bad adjustment may result into out of tune playing. However, it is slightly difficult to make such southpaw adjustments on acoustic guitars and it may prove expensive. So many left handed guitarists opt for the lefty guitars.

Reading music

Next you have to deal with the difficulties of reading the guitar lessons. The learning materials such as guitar tablature, scale and chord charts etc are written in keeping the right handed players in mind. Every time you look at one of them, you have to mentally reverse them upside down. Most of the lefty guitarists maintain that this is nearly not as difficult as it sounds.

It is ultimately your dedication and practice that can help you excel in your acoustic lessons, irrespective of your being left handed or right handed. The above mentioned tips will further help you dealing with the imitations and help you quickly learn acoustic guitar lessons.

By: Brian Jr Green

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People love to play the guitar. Not only is there romance involved in a person being able to manipulate these strings to make music, but there is also a self satisfaction that is undeniable.

These aspects of guitar playing have existed for years, however, for the left handed player, playing the guitar was more about dealing with and maneuvering around certain inherent difficulties of the guitar industry rather than romance and personal satisfaction.

However, with today’s left handed electric guitars, those problems are a distant memory.

Guitars come all different shapes and sizes. There are extensive models available from almost every manufacturer. On thing that had been missing from those line-ups was a variety of left handed electric guitars.

Often times the best that a player could hope for was about two, maybe three different models to choose from. However, with today’s guitar makers, every model a guitar company offers is also available in a left-handed configuration.

With today’s electric guitars, a lefty can now enjoy all that the modern day guitar market has to offer. There are deals to be had that were never afforded to the left handed player. In the past, a lefty guitarist might have to pay extra for a left handed model, today, every guitar sold is available for the player at no extra cost.

There is a guitar for every budget, and with today’s guitar market, it is easy for any guitar player to enjoy the wide range of guitars and guitar-related products available. If you are a left handed player but only have a small amount to spend, you will be happy to know that an affordable guitar for a right handed player will also be affordable to you as a “lefty” as well.

The guitar market has come quite a long way in a very short period of time and with the advent of quality affordable guitars now available, having them all available for everyone makes things that much better.

Not being relegated to paying unnecessarily high prices for left handed guitars makes playing the guitar more accessible than ever, regardless of whether you are a righty or a south paw.

By: Stevie Saughn

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Stop struggling with your guitar on stage. Whether you are just learning to play the acoustic guitar, or have been playing for a while, do yourself a favor, spend some time and learn how to perfect your standing position and be a pro.

The left hand does not support the guitar.

Most students automatically go for this. Wrong! The left hand touches the guitar, while it plays, of course, but does not support the guitar at all.

The guitar strap helps, but does not do all the work.

A lot of players just let the strap hold the guitar up. But, if you just rely on the strap, you’ll have a guitar that wobbles all over the place. Getting the right angle for your left wrist can be a challenge too, if you are relying on the strap for that.

A proper strap setup is a good start.

Most straps come with a string on the end. Most steel string, acoustic guitars come with an end pin, at the end of the body, but they don’t all have another pin for the other end of the strap. The strings are intended to be tied at the head, underneath the strings just before the head nut (the white piece of plastic).

It’s an awkward and inefficient setup. Do yourself a favor, go to a music store, buy a pin for about 75 cents, and have them put it on your guitar for you. I suggest, the back of the body at the edge, right behind where the neck meets the body. I have tried a few different spots, that’s my preference.

Right elbow grips the guitar.

The correct way to hold the guitar is with the right arm at the elbow — just before the bend and just after it. It feels like you push the guitar forward to the left, farther than it would sit, just resting with the strap. You also push the guitar against your body from the front, with your right arm. The guitar should feel very snug.

You should be able to remove your left hand from the guitar, without the guitar moving at all. The guitar should feel snug, exactly the same, whether your left hand is touching it or not.

You should be able to let go of the neck as you change chords, without the guitar moving even slightly.

With a good grip on the guitar, you can relax and do your stuff. If you have been playing for a while and haven’t had a good grip on the guitar, you will be amazed at how much better you can play. You will also find that some problems you have had with smooth changes were related to not having a good grip. It’s worth the effort of getting it right. Be a pro.

By: GK Eckert

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