Hey folks,
I dabbled with guitar ages ago but never got past A,E,D,G, and C chords and basic strumming. I recently retired and picked up a guitar. I started with Justin in June. Now I am up finished with Grade 2, learning finger style (left handed, playing right handed), slash chord transitions, and I can actually play an F chord!
I practice every single day, frequently for hours. Will I ever play an entire tune well? Will I ever get better at finger style with my non-dominant hand? Will I ever be able to incorporate smooth hammer-ons in my playing?
I would love to hear from older learners and pros as well.
Caroline
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Welcome to the forum Caroline.
Can I ask why your playing right if you’re a lefty. Some lefties don’t have a problem playing right. That being said is My wife is a lefty and had a very hard time trying to play right. Bought her a left handed guitar and she pick it up very quickly. Same story with a friend of ours. She tried playing right as a lefty for about 6 months. At one of our jams she asked my wife if she could try her left handed guitar and it was like a light bulb went on and she is now playing left and loving it.
All though with this statement it sounds like your not having any problems playing right handed.
Welcome to the community, Caroline! 
Great you picked up your guitar again and giving it another go now. It’s never too late for starting over. 
I wish you loads of fun on your guitar journey!
Hi Caroline,
Welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun 
One of the best ways to spend your retirement
Greetings,Rogier
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Welcome Caroline, you should be pleased with progress … 
H/O & P/O are about embellishments in strumming and picking chords; generally speaking. There’s a skill to this and with a little practice (JG has lessons on this) it will enhance your repetoire greatly, particularly if you have an interest in flat-picking and finger-picking.
C & D chords work quite well and I found them a good place to start.
Keep having fun …
Hi Caroline and welcome to great place to bring new ideas and people into your guitar learning. I am 66, also left-handed playing right, and I’ve been in the JG universe for a bit over two years. I practice daily, and now that I’m more competent at it, 2-3 hours/day. What I’ve discovered is that:
- Fretting chords cleanly, even barre chords ,came relatively easy for me (well, not so much the B) though I’m always working to get them cleaner. I recently was in a guitar shop and tried to play a left-handed guitar - what a trainwreck!
- Strumming is still my big challenge, but getting better all the time. I did Justin’s Strumming SOS courses, to great benefit. I can now play well enough through moderately paced songs, and clunk away when I play something fast, but I never aspired to be a shredder.
- Interestingly, I am taking quickly to playing fingerstyle and it seems somehow more natural than strumming; left hand-right hand coordination seems dialed in, perhaps from practicing scales, arpeggios and chord progressions endlessly.
You will find that everything improves with practice. There are other posts here about lefty-righty playing and you’ll definitely want to read this one:
Cheers,
Michael
2 Likes
Hello Caroline & Welcome!
In answer to all of your questions - YES you will be able to accomplish ALL of your goals!
It’s all about putting in the practice time. If fingerstyle is your goal, Justing recently had a session with Joe Robinson about Fingerstyle Techniques that was pretty amazing & lots of fun! I can’t get the link to embed in this message for some reason, but if you go to Justin’s website & search for Clubs Archive, scroll down a bit you will find the lesson. It’s got downloadable tabs for the songs Joe discusses & it was lots of fun!
I’m at about the same level you are - the end of Grade 2 - consolidating & dipping a toe into Grade 3 to check it out!
Good luck & remember that the most important thing is to Keep it FUN!!!
Tod from New Mexico USA
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Welcome to the community, sounds like great progress. I started at the age of 53. One thing that made a difference for me was making my guitar playing something I did every day without fail. At first only 15 minutes a day. Once I got my first song under my belt, I took off an starting playing more, like 30 minutes initially because I finally wanted to play more.
Welcome to the community Caroline!
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64 years 6 months is a long time to be playing!
Welcome to the forum!
Hello Caroline
Welcome to JustinGuitar and this fantastic community. Please take your time to look around and get to know the wider space.
https://community.justinguitar.com/categories
We are a supportive and encouraging group of students and guitarists from across the world. Essentially, we are all here for music and to improve as players. We truly are a ‘community’. Members help and support one another and a friendly, positive attitude underpins this. We hope that all - young or old, experienced or new players - adopt and foster the pay-it-forward ethos that Justin personifies and embedded all those years ago when he started the website and forum.
Also, please make sure to read the community etiquette announcement for some important information and guidance.
Richard
Hi Caroline,
Welcome to the community forum.
Hi Caroline, welcome to the community!
I just picked up guitar again after a few false starts over the tear. I, too, am a left playing right-handed. In fact, I tried playing lefty and I didn’t find it comfortable. We lefties live in a right-handed world. How many tools do you use in your daily life were made for righties? You probably use those fine; you just needed to adapt. That’s the way it is with anything. Instead of just developing the skill, there will be the extra initial step of building the natural dexterity. Just keep at it and you’ll get there.
-Stan
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Hi Caroline! Welcome to the community!
I am a 68 year old resuscitated guitar noob. I started learning guitar in my early sixties but fell off the bandwagon. I’m back on now and enjoying every minute of it.
My best to you in your guitar 
journey!
Pastor Dave (Wheelin_Rev)
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Hi Stan. I hadn’t thought to compare playing guitar as a lefty to living in a right handed world so directly, but you’re right. One thing I’ve done since starting to learn guitar is intentionally use my right hand more for daily tasks (shaving, washing dishes, peeling an apple, scooping coffee). Maybe it’s all in my head 
but I feel this has helped with my right hand dexterity on the guitar.
Cheers,
Michael
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Hi Caroline, welcome to the community forum. You will reach all of the your goals if you keep practicing and have fun. I was working on grade 3 and went back to grade 1 and forced myself to learn (memorize) and record 5 songs to get myself used to playing entire songs. I’m 69 and retired, so I think that this is a great way to spend time doing in your retirement.
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When I was a kid, my sister played right handed and I learned a few chords on her guitar. Perhaps if I had started out left handed, it would have been easier. Back in the day when I tried a left-handed guitar, it was really hard after learning right handed.
But for me, fingerpicking is hard, and I really want to do it. I practice a lot because it doesn’t come easy.
Thanks! I am sticking to it thanks to Justin.
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Thanks! I am pleased with my progress, though not ready to have anyone hear me. My hammer-ons are coming along. Pull-offs, not so much.
I occasionally go back to his beginner lessons and review the basics. Seems I always learn from them.
C.