Learning Left Handed or Fretting without a Pinky

[Loraine]

@thachertom I wish I had the magic answer for you. I know there are players with missing fingers that have adapted their fretting hand to accommodate for the missing digit. There are a few left handed players but they were already dominant with The lef hand. You could probably rent a left handed guitar to try it out before purchasing one. Talk with your local shop to see if that’s an option.

[RenoDon]

Left handed might be an option. I mean both hands are doing some pretty complex stuff, so the extra dexterity in your fretting hand if you started fretting with your right wouldn’t be a bad thing. It will just feel weird at first because you’ve probably unconsciously always done air guitar in a right-handed manner. If you were going to switch, then now would be the time to do it instead of having to re-learn everything later. I play guitar left-handed. I am left-handed, but I think I could have went right just as easily, but I wanted to be like Jimi. Many shops will recommend lefties to play right handed because it’s so much easier to find guitars, or pick up other people’s guitars, but I don’t think the actual playing is much of a hindrance in and of itself. I think I would rather be missing a pinky on my strumming hand than on my fretting hand. There are some guitar shops that specialize in left-handed guitars if you’re looking to try a bunch out at some point in the future (Southpaw Guitars in Houston), but you can order them pretty easily online now as well.

[Alfred]

As a thought… Have you looked at shell chord voicings? If you need to play a 7th for instance the voicing only uses the first third and seventh note. For non extended chords you can look at using triads. I’m sure there are other ways around using 4 fretting fingers to get the job done.

https://www.fretjam.com/simple-guitar-chords.html

As far as building triads, you can learn that in the fretboard wizard here!

If it is something that is recoverable I wish it to be speedy for you.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by  Alfred. Reason: Autocorrect wasn't... Correct

[thachertom]

So this brace gives just enough resistance so the pinky knuckle almost never hyperextends and locks and when it does lock, I can unlock the knuckle with the strength of the pinky itself. I will wait to see what it feels like to use while fretting before I decide that I can move forward as a right-handed guitar player.

[Alfred]

That is a cool find! I hope it is working for you!

[queenkobraxx]

Wow my band mate has the exact same issue. His dad told him at 6 yo that he would never be a guitarist due to the pinky on his left hand locking so he made him play bass. I’m normally a singer but recently started this guitar journey so I pursue writing. I actually have the opposite problem…I am a lefty having to play right handed due to a fracture in my right hand that left my ring and pinky too weak to press strings down hard enough! In my opinion it would have been more difficult flipping the guitar then adapting! Now he knows how to play guitar but struggles with 4 finger and barre chords. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!! Now I can shut him down when he tells me he can’t….or we can at least try it!

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by  queenkobraxx.

[solitaire]

I am a left-handed person who has learned to play right-handed guitar fairly successfully in the past. Currently, I’m starting out again doing both – I have a left and a right guitar and I’m swapping between them. Actually, I’m finding I’m slightly better at fretting with my non-dominant hand, which I thought was quite odd. Guitar has evolved so that in general people pick/strum with the dominant hand. I haven’t yet observed much advantage to that, but I guess there must be one. An advantage to learning right-handed would be it’s much easier for (the majority = right-handed) people to show you stuff, and easier to learn from others, or use their guitars in a social situation. Keep us posted on how it goes.

[SpecialK]

I am new to this program and I have always had the same problem with my pinky finger locking. I am right handed and I really don’t want to buy a new guitar and learn to play left handed. The locking pinky wasn’t an issue until I tried this barre chord exercise. Did the splint help you and/or did you find anything that helps?

[petelanger]

I would go with whatever feels more natural. I wouldn’t switch if it causes a lot of confusion. You can definitely get by without use of the pinky.

I just read this article yesterday about what Andy Summers (very notable guitarist for The Police) where he said you can play any chord with 2 or 3 notes. I’ll try to find it again and post it here. He has a very unique style of playing, as does with Stewart Copeland on the drums. Add Sting’s infamous song writing skills, and well you’ve got one of the top bands of the 80’s.

[petelanger]

I actually found it right away, thanks Google!
https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/guitarists/andy-summers-robert-fripp-collaborations

I see that the OP posted about 2 months ago. I am wondering what his decision was?

guitarworld.com

“I’ve never played a barre chord in my life. I hate them. You don’t need more than two or three notes to express a chord”: Andy Summers on his “abstracted instrumental” collabs with Robert Fripp, his dream pedalboard, and what he learned from Béla Bartók

It was the ’80s and Andy Summers was living the dream as guitar culture grew, and his side-project with King Crimson's mad-genius Fripp gave him the opportunity to work his art-house cinema influences into music