Why do people play leftie?

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Not knocking anybody, just curious.

 

See, when I started playing, I toyed with the idea of playing leftie. I'm actually right-handed, so it made sense to me to use my stronger and more dexterous hand as my fretting hand.

 

I didn't go through with it simply because I figured that, if most players fretted with their left hands, there had to be some sense to it.

 

But playing guitar is such a physically unnatural thing to do that whether you're right or left handed is probably pretty irrelevant at the beginning. We all start off at a similar level of clumsiness, one could go either way. Left or right.

 

What do you guys think? And why did some of you decide to play leftie?

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

Never made any sense to me... I mean, I'm a lefty that was beaten by the nuns for using the 'devil's hand' (though I'm not Catholic, my parents wanted me to go to the better schools... didn't last long.) So I was forced to do things like write with my right hand. I still eat lefty in the European tradition, and I am liable to do anything with either hand because it just doesn't matter much to me.

 

So when I started to play guitar, I just picked up what guitar was handy, and started to learn.

 

Likewise, I play drums right-handed (though pretty baddly these days).

 

A good friend of mine is a lefty, and what a pain for him... it's really not very practical.

 

Meanwhile, left handed people learn to drive cars, play brass and woodwind instruments, play piano and other keyboards, without ever thinking about it.

 

So why do left handed guitars even exist? I don't know. It seems to me that the fretting hand would be the one that should be the dominant hand, because that is where all the deterity is required. To me, this puts the left handed player at an advantage on a right handed instrument.

 

Bill

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Bill@Welcome Home Studios:

So why do left handed guitars even exist? I don't know.

I don't know either... you never see any lefthanded PIANOS, do you? And yet, it'd be easy enough to invert the "harp" and have the bass notes on the right. Well, maybe that would just make things more difficualt. But you could have left handed brass instruments too.

 

 

Originally posted by Bill@Welcome Home Studios:

It seems to me that the fretting hand would be the one that should be the dominant hand, because that is where all the deterity is required. To me, this puts the left handed player at an advantage on a right handed instrument.

Well, you eventually do some pretty "finesse" type things with your right hand (tremolo and so on). Even more so if you fingerpick.

 

Mind you, if you had your time over again, I'm sure you could learn to do that with either hand.

[Dr. Ellwood]

I have a question, if you just hand a right handed guitar to a left handed person, and that person does not have any experience with guitars at all, what will they do? Will they try to hold it like a right handed person would or do they want to turn it over???

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by ellwood:

I have a question, if you just hand a right handed guitar to a left handed person, and that person does not have any experience with guitars at all, what will they do? Will they try to hold it like a right handed person would or do they want to turn it over???

I think it'd be even money.

 

It's hard to say.

[Chad Thorne]

Well, I play lefty because I don't have a choice. I am right-handed, played guitar righty for 15 years and fiddle for 10. In 1980 I sustained an injury to my left arm/hand that prevents me from fretting/stopping strings with hand. I believed that a righty can't play lefty, and took up trumpet.

 

In early '85 I finally began to wonder if I could, in fact, play lefty. After months of thinking about it I tried it, and it worked.

 

So now I play guitar, fiddle and mandolin, all lefty. Thank God for the ability to adapt!

 

See also this thread from 2004.

[Pappy P]

Do they make left handed pianos, or is that even an issue?

 

Bill, I never even thought of left handed drumming before. I never even thought that would be an issue either.

 

Now that you guys mention it, it does sound sort of odd to flip a guitar for left handed playing.

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

Originally posted by Pappadopalus:

Bill, I never even thought of left handed drumming before. I never even thought that would be an issue either.

 

There is a left FOOTED drummer, plays in a country band around here. He says that he only sets up lefty because he can't keep time worth a damned with his right foot. And I said, "ooooookay...."

 

Bill

[Eric Iverson]

I hope some leftie guitarist reads this.. Sir Paul McCartney, are you busy at the moment?

 

I have read that many household utensils that we righties use without thinking about it are a royal pain to lefties. So there may be more to this than some of you are saying.

 

But, in this instance, I'm all ears (the LEFT one, of course....)

[A String]

Originally posted by ellwood:

I have a question, if you just hand a right handed guitar to a left handed person, and that person does not have any experience with guitars at all, what will they do? Will they try to hold it like a right handed person would or do they want to turn it over???

Back in the day, I used to average 40 students per school year. A small percentage of those students were left handed. The older, left handed kids and adults always had a predetermined idea about how to hold it (left or right). The younger, left handed kids, however, always held it left handed. regardless of how you handed it to them.

 

To add my opinion to Vince's question, I believe that a left handed person playing right handed has an advantage.

 

Some of the best guitar players I know are "lefties" who play right handed. Your "fret" hand is your dominant hand and is therefor far advanced for doing chords and scales and stuff. Seems like a waste to have your dominant hand over the strings, strumming.

 

Oh, I'm right handed by the way...

[The Geoff]

Originally posted by ellwood:

I have a question, if you just hand a right handed guitar to a left handed person, and that person does not have any experience with guitars at all, what will they do? Will they try to hold it like a right handed person would or do they want to turn it over???

I used to work with a young left-handed (In Scotland we call that 'corrie-fisted') keyboards player. The double neck I once had to use was his.

 

He took a R/H guitar and turned it upside down and played it (reasonably well) completely upside down - strings & all - which is why I was able to use his guitar one night.

 

He never made any comment about R/handed keyboards.

 

Wasn't (isn't) Joe Pass a lefty playing righty?

 

Geoff

[J J]

Im left handed and play a right hander. I'd say it helped me, but who really knows. I just got used to playing right handed because that's what my mom and brother played, so thats what was laying around the house. I noodled around on the guitar ever since 4th grade and didnt get my own guitar until 7th grade...

[fantasticsound]

Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington III.:

...playing guitar is such a physically unnatural thing to do that whether you're right or left handed is probably pretty irrelevant at the beginning. We all start off at a similar level of clumsiness, one could go either way. Left or right...

We've hashed this out before and your statement sums up exactly what I've always said about playing lefty.

 

I'm a lefty who plays righty. I was 8 when I began learning on my mom's jumbo classical. (She's a righty.) I never even toyed with the idea of playing the instrument upside down, with the righty string positions intact, let alone restringing it lefty.

 

I do think musicians on piano, guitar and many other instruments are forced to adapt for both hands to do what they must to play the instrument. I'm a fingerpicker, so both hands do fairly articulate movement.

 

That said, I understand the lefty drummers who choose to mirror image their sets. I definitely have a dominant hand and foot, making it more difficult to begin rolls, etc. with one hand vs. the other. I've never studied drumming, so I don't know how long it would take to teach myself to compensate. All I know is I can begin certain rhythmic patterns with one hand and keep solid time, but if I'm forced to begin with the other hand my time falters. Of course, this is simplicity for a drummer. To my knowledge all drum hardware can be used lefty or righty with little or no modification.

 

Given the limited choices of instruments, I just don't see the point in not teaching new students to play guitar righty. It's a strange set of physical movements requiring dexterity in both hands that can be taught, IMO, equally well to most people regardless of which hand is dominant.

 

FYI - I write, throw (baseball, football), skateboard, waterski, and used to shoot lefty, but I've always batted, played golf righty. Swinging a bat or club never felt comfortable to me lefty.

[FormerOceanwaySlave]

"Given the limited choices of instruments, I just don't see the point in not teaching new students to play guitar righty. It's a strange set of physical movements requiring dexterity in both hands that can be taught, IMO, equally well to most people regardless of which hand is dominant."

 

This sounds remarkably similar to the "logic" presented by teachers, parents, doctors, nuns, etc. over time as to why children should do things with their right hands. I don't mean to pick a fight here, but why not just let the person try out whatever they want and let them play what feels right? Perhaps there are people out there who would have played piano if it were layed out with the bass notes on the right. Obviously piano makers aren't offering this option, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't exclude people from playing piano.

 

Guitars are, I suspect, one of the the most popular instruments in the world. I think that offering left-handed instruments is an exceptionally positive and liberating idea. If some novice finds an instrument that is left-handed easier to play, isn't that a great thing? Why would anyone possibly be opposed to that?

 

Cheers,

 

Alan Tomlinson

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by FormerOceanwaySlave:

This sounds remarkably similar to the "logic" presented by teachers, parents, doctors, nuns,

Ahh, yes. The nuns. I knew they were coming up!

 

 

Originally posted by FormerOceanwaySlave:

I don't mean to pick a fight here, but why not just let the person try out whatever they want and let them play what feels right?

There's no fight to be picked.

 

I guess if I had to give an answer, I'd say it doesn't do a beginner much good, to find himself limited to a few, usually costlier, guitar models.

 

But we're just talking about guitars and there's no set rules. Whatever you find valid, is.

[Tedster]

My oldest daughter was right-handed, but she (an avid softball player) always swung lefty.

 

Meanwhile, my old bass player always played righty bass...so I was astonished when once he signed his name with his left hand. I said (in my worst Liverpool accent) "How come y'don't play bass lefty like Paul?"...and he just larfed a loud larf and said "Always done it this way".

 

For me, a right hander, it always seemed more natural to have my right ARM be active (strumming) and leave the fretting stuff for my left hand. I've tried to play southpaw and I feel like a total beginner.

 

BTW...I've often found it interesting to note that there were TWO lefthanders in the Beatles...Paul, of course, but also Ringo, who set up his drums righty.

[fantasticsound]

You've misunderstand, Alan.

 

I'm not suggesting that lefty instruments not be made. I'm stating pure economic facts. Despite their popularity, lefty instruments are only available on a fraction of models manufactured by most guitar makers. You can pay a premium to have instruments made to order, but the high price of custom built instruments makes that feasable for only a handful of players.

 

So given that the manufacturers aren't going to change, why limit a player the rest of their life to a tiny fraction of the available instruments by teaching them physical techniques that are equally alien to lefty and righty novices by teaching them lefty?

 

You can complain up and down about the number of lefty instruments available but the fact is, even if every lefty played lefty there wouldn't be enough need for lefty instruments to make it worthwhile for Gibson, Fender, PRS, Martin, Taylor, Epiphone, etc. to make lefty runs of most available models.

 

In addition, if I'd learned to play lefty, there are innumerable experiences I've had that would have been lost because I couldn't pick up someone else's instrument and play. What a loss that would have been.

 

We're not talking a pair of scissors here. Guitars aren't a dime a dozen, even in this day and age of decent quality, $100 instruments.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by fantasticsound:

Despite their popularity, lefty instruments are only available on a fraction of models manufactured by most guitar makers. You can pay a premium to have instruments made to order, but the high price of custom built instruments makes that feasable for only a handful of players.

Yeah, what he said.

[FormerOceanwaySlave]

Guitars are a hell of a lot cheaper than most musical instruments (try dropping $40,000 on a flute, or $50,000 on a violin bow). And since neither of us has even the slightest documentary evidence to support anything we say aside from agreeing that left-handed instruments cost more and are less available, I suggest that the issue, such as it is, will be difficult to resolve.

 

What ultimately is being suggested here? Does any of you think that people should be encouraged to play right-handed if they feel more comfortable playing left-handed? Do you really think that their lives will be lessened because they can't play someone elses' incredibly awesome guitar? I've played a lot of guitars, a few of them were really something, but they didn't change my life musically, not one bit.

 

We play music because we feel driven to express ourselves. How we do that, be it with a Fender Stratocaster that was once jizzed on by Jimi or on a left-handed Sigma that was purchased cheaply seems to me rather secondary. It's nice to have an instrument that makes us happy. Whether we derive that pleasure from the sounds it makes, the way it feels, the action, whether it is a "lefty" or because it's got an Iron Maiden sticker on it, is, in my absurdly irrelevant opinion, totally irrelevant.

 

I think, and oddly the market agrees with me, that some people want to play left-handed. That one cannot buy most musical instruments set-up more advantageously for left-handed people, is stupid (many instruments are played in orchestras and it would of course be awkward, not to mention aesthetically unsettling, if there were left and right-handed flutes, for example. Guitar manufacturers actually lead the way here, which is amusing given how incredibly conservative most guitar players are in their taste in instruments.

 

I don't think anyone is suggesting that we should allow satanic music teachers to force their incarcerated students to play left-handed. I strongly suspect, and I have no evidence to back me up here, that only strong-willed students would even consider playing a left-handed instrument. I can't imagine anyone saying, "Oh what the hell, I'll play a left-handed guitar, just to be different."

 

As for being limited in your choice of left-handed instruments, I suppose to a degree that it's true. Of course although I play right-handed my options are limited as well since for me the great majority of instruments are either too heavy, or don't play well, or just don't sound good to me (my opinion only, of course).

 

I honestly don't think that the great majority of choices of instruments that are out there are either interesting or necessary. If one is learning an instrument, one does not necessarily need the very best instrument available and when one does feel ready to purchase a good instrument, it would behoove that person to look beyond the mass manufacturers in any case. That there is a rather more limited selection of left-handed instruments out there is something that one will have to come to terms with. Is it worth it for someone to learn an instrument the way they want to learn it? I, rather obviously, concur.

 

I suppose ultimately, this discussion comes down to the following: how do you think that people should be informed about the advantages and disadvantages of learning guitar or bass on a left-handed instrument. Should there be warning signs?

 

If somebody wants to teach themselves guitar, even though I know that they will pick up lots of habits that will be less efficient than what they could have relatively quickly learned from a teacher, should we tell them not to? I'm not sure. People do things for a variety of reasons. I play music to please myself and I rarely give a damn about what others think about my playing. I play for me. I learned a lot of bad habits teaching myself guitar and it might have been a lot more efficient if I had gone to a guitar teacher earlier. But I don't think, even in retrospect, that I should have started instruction earlier than I did. I think that this applies to what instrument one chooses as well. Be it left-handed guitar or pennywhistle.

 

This response is far too wordy and boring to continue. I have no idea why I wrote so much about so little.

 

Cheers,

 

Alan Tomlinson

[Chad Thorne]

Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington III.:

Originally posted by fantasticsound:

Despite their popularity, lefty instruments are only available on a fraction of models manufactured by most guitar makers. You can pay a premium to have instruments made to order, but the high price of custom built instruments makes that feasable for only a handful of players.

Yeah, what he said.

There are actually more quality lefty instruments available now than there have been in the past, I'm happy to report. And some makers (e.g., Larrivee, Guild) don't even add an upcharge.

[Eric Iverson]

Which may be the REAL meaning of a "left-handed compliment"!

[Eric Iverson]

PS One of my good friends, the leader of an acoustic rock trio I was friends with, is and plays lefty. It was a trip at first watching his hands fretting chords backwards, but I quickly got used to it, as he was used to righties.

 

I asked him once if he was interested in learning mandolin, knowing he likes bluegrass. He said, "I might be, but I'd have to find a left-handed one," which for some reason totally escaped me!

 

Insensitive right-handed bastards!

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

I'm a lefty who plays righthanded. My buddy is a lefty who plays left handed. If we go somewhere together, I'm playing, while he's wishing that he had a guitar. He is three times the player that I will ever be. I just think that from a practical standpoint, it doesn't make any sense to be so 'special'. Options on new available instruments may very well be less limited than ever before, but they are still incredibly limited compared to right handed options; but on a day to day, walk into a room and lets jam situation, there aren't many left handed instruments sitting around on stands waiting for the lefty to drop by and play.

 

Bill

[LeftyBlues]

Originally posted by ellwood:

I have a question, if you just hand a right handed guitar to a left handed person, and that person does not have any experience with guitars at all, what will they do? Will they try to hold it like a right handed person would or do they want to turn it over???

All depends on the person of course. I flipped it over and started strumming away the first time I held a guitar. It's what felt natural! This thread pops up form time to time, I play lefty 'cause I'm lefty. I use right hand scissors, use utensils like any right hander, but I play left handed guitar. It's not subject to debate, it just is what it is...a pain! It does help with G.A.S. however, limited supply of vintage goodies...

[fantasticsound]

Originally posted by FormerOceanwaySlave:

...And since neither of us has even the slightest documentary evidence to support anything we say aside from agreeing that left-handed instruments cost more and are less available, I suggest that the issue, such as it is, will be difficult to resolve...

 

Cheers,

 

Alan Tomlinson

Speak for yourself. I worked for one of the largest manufacturers of guitars (who happens to be based in Nashville) and had to be one of 6 or 7 chief apologists to every lefty who played left handed who felt the need to voice their understandable opinion that there should be more models available in lefty configuration. As many calls as I fielded, the company still insisted that

 

• Stopping the line to retool costs money
  
• Most dealers aren't interested in stocking left handed instruments. They simply want them immediately available as soon as the one sale in 100 shows up at their sales counter.
  
• Left handed instruments cost more from manufacture to point-of-sale, and they will continue to make a variety of models in left hand configuration, but only 5% or so of their entire line.
  

 

I may not be able to provide written proof, but believe me I know what I'm talking about.

 

The reason Larivee and others don't always upcharge for lefty instruments is because they don't build guitars on assembly lines, per se. So long as the jigs are available, they can quickly change over to a lefty instrument. OTOH, they couldn't possibly provide the number of instruments at that quality and price were they to all of a sudden have the market share of Fender or Gibson. That may or may not be important to them, but it certainly governs the current and future availability of lefty instruments in dealers' store stock.

 

Bill gets it. It's not the occasional situation where a lefty is SOL if they're without their own instrument. These situations happen all the time to most guitarists, but the lefty won't have an instrument to play, whether it's at many guitar stores, on vacation and you run into people with a guitar, dropping in on a buddy's studio, etc.

 

I once held Roy Acuff's boyhood fiddle. He willed it, along with notarized proof of authenticity, to Charlie Collins who played guitar for Roy for many years. When Charlie handed me that fiddle and bow backstage at the Opry it made me gush.. but as I can't play a lick of fiddle I also felt very awkward as Charlie expected me to throw down on the instrument. I wasn't about to draw that bow across the strings.

 

I imagine that's the life of most lefty guitarists. They inevitably end up in situations where they could enjoy themselves, playing a historic or simply a wonderful (or even a crappy) instrument when the opportunity arises. Except they can't because the instrument is almost invariably a righty instrument.

 

So again, this isn't a golf club or a baseball bat. Do you really want to encourage someone to play an instrument in a way that will limit them the rest of their lives in a significant way?

 

It was hard enough to play baseball at summer camp if I didn't bring my own mitt. I wasn't about to miss out on playing someone's guitar because I was left handed.

[D. Fox]

As a card-carrying lefty guitarist, I don't see any advantage/disadvantage, other than you can't pick up someone else's guitar at an impromptu jam, and you have to be a bit more finicky about what guitars you buy, as you don't have as many choices as the "normal" guitarists out there.

 

Still, places such as Southpaw guitars carry a a wide assortment of lefties. I've found that the "basic food group" of new electric guitars (Strats, Teles, LPs, etc) are easily obtainable, but cool, funky pawnshop-type guitars are NEVER found in lefties. It's also hard finding vintage lefty instruments. (Elliot Easton had a GREAT collection, but I think he's pared it down in recent years.

 

I play lefty because before I got my first "real" guitar (an Aria Pro II thank you very much)I was so used to plunking around on whatever I could find. So it simply felt more natural. If I was TOLD to play righty, who knows if I would have continued. It's also surprising that, after playing guitar for 20 years now, I can pick up a righty guitar and play it no problem. God knows I get a lot of practice!

[Dr. Ellwood]

I have a story about this, I'm not sure how it applies to the thread but here it is. A few years ago a friend of mine, a drummer wanted to start his 14 year old son out on guitar, he already played drums quite well. My buddy didn't want to invest in a good guitar for him untill he thought the teen would carry on, makes sence to me! Ok, so I offered to teach him some things to get him started, he is a left handed person. I don't own any left handed guitars, so I asked him if holding one of my guitars felt wierd or unnatural, he said yes it did feel strange. Well I didn't have any choice but to let him try to play right handed. I worked with him for about a month and asked him how he felt about it and he said that the right handed instrument felt right and that when he then tried it on the opposite side it felt strange. The proof I guess is that when he finally went out and bought a good guitar for himself, he got a right handed guitar. He is a very good player today.

[FormerOceanwaySlave]

Fantastic Sound wrote: "Do you really want to encourage someone to play an instrument in a way that will limit them the rest of their lives in a significant way?"

 

We are clearly not communicating well. I have no idea as to why.

 

I disagree pretty fundamentally with your point of view. First, I'm not advocating that anyone play guitar left or right-handed. If they want to play, they should play however they want to. Secondly, f you think that being somewhere where there isn't an instrument that is available is a significant limitation on your life, then bring your instrument with you. When I want to play guitar, I bring mine with me.

 

Having a leg amputated can limit your life in a significant way. Having lung cancer can limit your life in a significant way. Being unable to pick up somebody else's guitar and play it, is not even on my top 100 list of significant limitations. But my perspective clearly differs from those of others.

 

Cheers,

 

Alan Tomlinson

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

Hey Alan, did you try to send a private message to me? If so, I didn't get it. My fault, I know. resend, if you did.

 

Thanks,

 

bill

[Petethebassman]

Originally posted by A String:

To add my opinion to Vince's question, I believe that a left handed person playing right handed has an advantage.

 

Some of the best guitar players I know are "lefties" who play right handed. Your "fret" hand is your dominant hand and is therefor far advanced for doing chords and scales and stuff. Seems like a waste to have your dominant hand over the strings, strumming.

 

The logical extension of this argument is that right-handed guitarists should play left handed to get that special advantage. Don't see much of that happening..

 

When I started playing bass in the early 1980's I did try playing right handed, but it just felt too awkward and weird though I had never even tried playing bass before. So I flipped a right handed bass over and restrung it left handed and it felt much more natural. I'm very strongly left handed, and that might have something to do with it.