Hello! My name is Ian, I’m in my mid-30s and a life-long Californian (these days on the other side of the mountain from Monterey). I’m also life-long left-handed, like my grandfather before me! I’ve been sitting on a lefty Squier Stratocaster for almost 5 years now, and I’ve had a couple of false starts with it, but this time I want to make it stick!
I bought Rocksmith many years ago, after making no progress with my mom’s hand-me-down regular right-handed acoustic, and figured I’d install it and set it up before I even got a guitar; maybe try it through the computer microphone with the old acoustic since that was apparently an option, albeit a poor one… imagine my surprise when it asked me if I wanted to play right-handed or left-handed! Before that day, I had no idea left-handed guitars even existed! I have to say, controlling timing with my dominant hand and being able to learn “mirror” style definitely make much more sense to me than the regular way ever did.
I got myself a fancy computer-guitar interface and some nice amp modeling software that covers a wide range of gear, so hopefully I can stave off gear acquisition syndrome until I discover the tones I really want… but I still can’t help but want to reach for that next guitar before I’ve even got this one sounding good! lol
I’ve got a wide range of interests whose music I want to learn… Tom Petty has been with me all my life, Johnny Cash and Dwight Yoakam are my two biggest country faves, I like anything classic rock but Boston, Eagles, Zeppelin, Springsteen, Knopfler are some of my top choices… I’m also big into melodic metal; X Japan is one of my biggest favorites although I still have yet to see them in a proper stadium, and I like more recent melodic death metal bands like All That Remains, Trivium, and As I Lay Dying.
People always remind me about Hendrix as a lefty guitarist, but I have to say that Elliot Easton from The Cars and Ernie C from Body Count are equally big guitar heroes to me!
Welcome to the community, Ian. You’ve found the right place for a new attempt to learn guitar. Have fun and enjoy learning and hold contact to this community. It will pay of, as you get a lot of additional information about everything concerning guitar and a lot of help, when needed.
Hey Ian, welcome to the community. I lived in the greater Los Angeles area in the late 70s and have many happy memories of my time there. My wife and I got married in San Francisco well over 20 years ago now, we both have soft spot for California.
Hello Ian. Welcome to JustinGuitar and the community. A great place to learn and share the ups and downs of learning.
Can I check … are you starting with Justin’s beginner course grade 1 lesson 1 with the intention of learning properly with his structured course? That’s the way.
Any questions just ask.
Cheers
Richard
Hello from another 30-something, left-handed California native with several “false starts” on guitar over the past decade-plus! I also find it really impressive that many lefties can learn right handed - I can’t even play air guitar or Guitar Hero righty, let alone something that actually has strings.
I’m also a CA native, but I moved to Oregon 4 years ago. I’m left handed as well, but I play guitar right handed. Enjoy your guitar journey! You can’t go wrong if you follow the beginners course. You’ll find a lot of great help here if you need it.
