"Why am I doing the chord shapes with my left hand and strumming with my right, when that seems to be just the opposite of what would be easiest."
The answer they usually get is not very satisfying.
The truth is, there's a very good reason for this. Yes, if you are right-handed, your right hand is a lot better at performing complex tasks of fine-dexterity than your left. But more importantly, your right hand is also much better at performing simple tasks unconsciously. This matters.
Quick. Rub your belly with one hand while patting your head with the other.
Now without switching hands, pat your belly while rubbing your head.
Takes concentration, right? That's because it's extremely difficult to do two different tasks at once unless you can do at least one of the tasks without thinking about it at all. This is also why most drummers keep time on the hi-hat cymbal with the right hand. It has to become an unconscious activity, or what some music instructors call "muscle memory" so that your awareness is free to focus on other tasks.
So there's method to the madness.
This doesn't change the fact that your first baby-steps on the guitar are really, really daunting. Odds are, if you are like most people, you haven't really used your left hand for ANYTHING until now, other than to hold things still while your right hand works on them. This is fortunately less-true for young people in the modern era. Between computer keyboards and two-handed game controllers, those of you under 30 probably used your left hand's fine-motor skills a lot more as children than people my age ever did. So you've got a leg up there... but still.
If you cracked open a "How To Play Guitar" book or had an instructor in a music shop give you a first lesson, you were probably shown all the basic "cowboy chords" way up by the headstock (G, C, E, A, D, and maybe B or F) and then you were told that you need to master playing all of those and changing between them quickly.
Fun, huh? It probably took you a minute or two to get your left hand into the right position for just one of those chords without touching strings that you didn't want touched, without only half-pressing some of the strings, with everything in the right place, and strumming something that mostly sounded like the chord is probably supposed to sound like. Now you have to learn several completely different "Vulcan Nerve Pinch" hand positions, do them all with your left hand, and hit them right away every time. GYAH!
This is the first barrier which often determines who sticks with the guitar and who just chucks the thing in the closet and goes back to playing Rock Band on the X-Box.
Any why the fuck is the guitar laid out so this most basic element of playing it (major chords) so fucking difficult anyway?
At this point, you have two choices as a beginning guitarist, both perfectly valid.
1. Gut it out. If you stick with it for a week or two, really working on it for about 20 minutes each day, I promise you that you'll start to get the hang of these beginner chords, and they will become useful tools that will be the basis of playing much more fun and interesting things in the future. These chords don't need to be the FIRST thing you learn. In fact, I tend to teach beginners on the electric guitar how to play basic "barre" chords first and then work backwards to the ones at the far end of the neck. But sooner or later you'll need to train that left hand to do what you want it to do, and mastering these chords is as good a way to do it as any.
2. Fuck it. You CAN play the guitar without putting yourself through this. You can play slide guitar on an open-G tuning, you can play metal "power chords" (made even easier in a special tuning called "drop-D"), or you can simplify everything into little 3-note chords which are easier to do. There are drawbacks to approaching the guitar by such unconventional means. You'll find that you don't quite speak the same "language" as most other guitarists, and will have to either find and instructor who knows how to work with what you're doing or else commit to figuring out a lot of things yourself. But it can be done. Self-taught guitarists like John Flansburg of They Might Be Giants went on to rich and rewarding careers as singer/songwriters without learning "the right way" at all. Don't let anybody tell you it's impossible.
In an upcoming lesson, let's talk a little bit about just what the fuck a major chord is and why it matters. Get ready for me to drop some theory on you. Meanwhile, whether you follow formal-instruction advice or not, keep messing around with your guitar.
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