[WELCOME NEW MEMBERS! - Tell Us About Yourself, Receive Encouragement and Advice!]

Hi All,

I guess this is my second introduction. 
I am new to the Guitar world. I have always wanted to play guitar. Finally, my journey has started last week with Learn & Master Guitar.
I spent the past week playing with a lefty guitar. Thanks to the feedback and suggestions of Steve, Dan Brown,  and Tjmeyers i will give the righty guitar  a try starting today.

* My previous post can be found below:

 

 

 

Thank you All!

[Getting started with Learn & Master Guitar]

On 1/1/2019 at 10:17 PM, Steve Krenz said:

Ozy,

First of all welcome!  It looks like you're starting to meet some of the gang.

Regarding Left and Right Handed-ness - I had answered this in a post on the old forum.  Here are some thoughts....

Can the course be used for a left handed person and should I play guitar left handed?

Thanks for the email. I play guitar right handed so naturally I instruct right handed. I have taught many left hand players and the material is identical. The only difference is that the left handed player has to interpret the visual elements in reverse. This sounds a little more daunting than what it actually is. Left handed players quite naturally make the distinction and capture the material with the same speed and comprehension that the right hand players do.

Actually, when the material is presented on video, to a left handed player it will be an exact mirror image of what they will be playing. So, I have not found in my private teaching that left hand students have any problem applying the concepts to their playing any more than right hand students do.

Here's another thought. I have found in my personal private teaching that whether a player is left or right handed in their playing is not as cut and dried as "All left hand players play left handed". I have actually found in the course of teaching many left handed people guitar that usually just about half of left hand players actually prefer to play the guitar left handed.

As confusing as this would seem. It seems that it has something to do with how "left handed" each individual student seems to be - the level of their handedness dominance. On a beginner, I can usually tell within about two or three weeks how their motor skill development is doing.

I generally start every brand new, never touched a guitar before, beginner (right and left handed players) playing the guitar right handed. (I do this for a variety of reasons, the largest being that left handed resources for the guitar are so limited. Almost everything for guitar is geared to playing right handed). For this new left handed beginner, if after three weeks they are still having great difficulty in getting their fingers to find the correct string when fretting a note then I would usually switch them to playing the guitar left handed. I flip the guitar and restring it in reverse or we try to locate them a left-handed instrument. We then start back at the beginning and after about a week of re-acclimating themselves to the instrument it becomes very clear which way is going to be preferable for the student to play.

Whether a left handed player should actually play guitar left handed is an issue of motor skill dominance regarding their "handedness". Often this hand dominance is not clear in the first week or two, but by week three it becomes very clear which "hand" is more dominant for these fine motor skill tasks. I wish it were as easy as "If you're left hand, you play guitar left handed" but I have not found it to be that simple.

(and from another post...)
 

Choosing whether to play left or right handed as a left handed person depends on how dominant your handed-ness is.

Typically, I would generally start a learner out playing right handed and see how it goes. You'll know in about a week if it is working for you. If you can't seem to do anything correctly and you are having incredible trouble just getting your hand to finger the right frets then that's usually a good indication that you probably need to try playing left-handed. But it takes a week or two of wrestling with it to really see. Because everyone is slow at the very beginning. So you really need to get past the first week or two of solid effort to get a good feel for how your fingers are doing. If by the end of a week or two and you are still struggling with getting your fingers to finger the correct fret (even though in your head you know which finger you need to play) then try switching to left handed.

After you've done this, get a left handed guitar or re-string your guitar left handed and begin back at the beginning again. You'll have to go over the early things again, but this usually goes much quicker the second time. And within a week you are back to where you were and beyond.

After this 2-3 week process it will be abundantly clear which hand you should be using to play guitar and you'll have the rest of your musical life to thank yourself for this small investment of a couple of weeks to figure this handed-ness issue on guitar once and for all.

Also, I would suggest not spending more than one week on Session 1 of the Learn and Master Guitar course.  The real learning starts in Session 2.

I hope this helps.

Please let me know how it turns out.

- Steve

Steve and the Gang ,

Thank you so much for the constructive and positive feedback!
I just returned the lefty and picked up a righty guitar. i will start working on SESSION 1 tonight using the righty guitar.

I am wondering if I can work concurrently with other materials such as "Learn & Master Guitar: The Song Hits", "Learn & Master Fingerstyle Guitar", and "Learn & Master Blues Guitar". 

Or is there any order to follow?

Thank you again!

[Getting started with Learn & Master Guitar]

On 12/30/2018 at 3:10 PM, NeilES335 said:

Hi @ozy   Let me add my welcome to Guitar Gathering and the home of Learn and Master Guitar, as well as Fretboard Workouts!

Perhaps you'd like to visit our Welcome Page, introduce yourself (further) and tell us about your guitar learning goals. We're here to help.

All the Best! NeilES335 - Moderator



 

Hi NeilES335,

Thank you for the information, I will definitely introduce myself in the Welcome Page.

[Getting started with Learn & Master Guitar]

On 12/30/2018 at 10:22 AM, appledaddy said:

Welcome Ozy! They are all right. There's tons of great information here and players of all levels that are more than happy to answer any question you may have. I'd encourage you to watch the Tuesday live lessons as well. You can check the Live Lessons tab for the schedule or the new News Ticker on the main page. Most of all, have fun!

Bill

Thank you Appledaddy, I will look into it!
Happy new year!

 

[Getting started with Learn & Master Guitar]

On 12/29/2018 at 9:51 PM, DianeB said:

Hi, @ozy! Welcome to our guitar family. I collected several resources that I found helpful in this list. As you start out, you might find something helpful there.

Hi DianeB

Thank you so much for these helpful resources!

Happy new year!

[Getting started with Learn & Master Guitar]

23 hours ago, Dan Brown said:

Ozy,

First of all welcome to the community!  I am a lefty, who has never played guitar lefty, playing guitar is the only thing I do as a righty.  This goes back a mere 54 years ago, when I was ten, and right after the emergence of the Beatles!  Anyway, the first thing the guitar instructor asked me was if I was lefty or righty, I said lefty.  His response was, good, your left hand is stronger and more coordinated for shaping and fretting chords and so on..  So, right from the start, from the very first lesson, I played righty.  If you are not too far into your learning, give it a try. ...good luck on your guitar journey, no matter what hand you choose to use !!!

Dan Brown   ?

Hi Dan Brown,

Thank you for the suggestion!!!.
You got me thinking ? . I will give a try in the next few days.
If it works out, I will try to return my lefty guitar to Guitar Center. I am still working on the material of L&MG session 1

 

[Getting started with Learn & Master Guitar]

On 12/29/2018 at 12:00 PM, matonanjin said:

Welcome, @ozy.  I will second DougH's comment.  That site you linked is our "old" home and there are few of us (probably none!) that frequent it any more.  All of us from there have migrated of here now to follow Steve. 

Best of luck in your guitar learning journey.  Please keep us up to date with your progress.

Hi Matonanjin.
Thank you for the warm wishes! I will definitely share my experience and progress  ?

[Getting started with Learn & Master Guitar]

14 hours ago, columbo said:

Welcome OZY.. oh yes here a long time. Steve is the real deal. How do I know, while visiting Nashville area for a weekend , we stopped in a music store just outside of Nashville, I think it was Franklin. We just happened to park down a street with a small music shop that looked like a converted home. As I was buying a music book for my new Congas, I began to tell the clerk in the store about my music journey and using Steve's system and how great it was. She smiled and told us Steve had worked at her other store as a music teacher.  She had nothing but high praises for him. Yes Steve is real and has shown his students answering questions when he can along with his live lessons. 

Hi Columbo

Thank you for the warm wishes!

it does not get better thank that, I can already see that Steve’s system is far superior. 

While ordering LMG, I also ordered Acoustic Guitar Primer Book for Beginners (Book/cd/dvd) but it was not cutting it for me.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. 

 

 

[Getting started with Learn & Master Guitar]

12 hours ago, K9kaos said:

Welcome aboard Ozy! 

Great bunch of folks here! Have fun, and be sure to let us know how its going and if you have any questions!  

 

K9kaos.

Thank you for the warm wishes! I look forward to sharing my experience and progress  ?

[Getting started with Learn & Master Guitar]

23 hours ago, Eracer_Team-DougH said:

Hi Ozy.

That was our "old" home for over 12yrs, this is our new "amazing " home.

If Steve could buy the domain name and redirect everyone here would be great, but he can't and there are literally thousands of copies of Learn & Master Guitar and Gibson Learn & Master Guitar out there all referencing Legacy site.

You found us, that's the main thing.

Welcome aboard, no live lessons next week but Steve plans on one Jan8.

 

Hi Eracer_Team-DougH

I am glad that I found the new “amazing” home. I look forward to the live lesson next  week. Would it be too advanced for a beginner?

[Getting started with Learn & Master Guitar]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the Guitar world. I have always wanted to play guitar. Finally, my journey has started this week with Learn & Master Guitar - session 1.
Being a lefty and having never played any instrument before, the road might be bumpy, but I will enjoy it all along!

I joined this discussion board after reading few articles at https://community.learnandmaster.com.

Happy playing!!!