Switching form right to left hand

[trader56]

Just wondering if any right-handed people have successfully switched to playing left-handed?

 

I've got some bulging discs in my neck which make my left hand somewhat numb (this problem is virtually non-existant on the right hand). As you can imagine, this can make feeling the strings difficult at times. This is especially a problem later in the day, of when tired. So, I usually practice first thing upon rising as that's when the numbness is somewhat less.

 

I'm working through all the conservative therapy options, chiropractic, traction, corticosteroids - but none have helped so far. The next step is surgery of some kind, none of which I want to do if I can help it. I have talked to a couple of the guys here via PM's about this.

 

So...can it be done?

Can a right-handed player succesfully switch to being a left-handed one?

 

I thought maybe since I write with my right hand, I can teach it to play the fretboard(?).

 

Thanks,

Dave

[Gruupi]

Nothing is impossible, you could over time make the switch. But I would be concerned about numbness in either playing hand, the ryhthm hand is as important as the fingering hand, why do almost all right handed players strum with their right hand? I think you need to get cured either way, I'm always scared of surgery, but wouldn't numbness have the possibility of leading to permanent nerve damage?

[Chad Thorne]

Just wondering if any right-handed people have successfully switched to playing left-handed?...can it be done?

Can a right-handed player succesfully switch to being a left-handed one?

 

Yes. I did it, successfully, over 20 years ago. Feel free to PM me.

[mdrs]

Chad.....that must have taken some kind of dedication to learn to play lefty after playing righty. That is quite an acomplishment!!

 

Were you ambidexterous prior to the switch? Are both of your parents right handed??

 

My Mom's an Irish Lefty LOL....explains a lot, eh?? LOL, and my Dad's a righty. I am primarily right handed, but very ambidexterous. I switch hit baseball, played lacrosse and hockey lefty, but throw righty. I actually golfed as a righty for several years, before going to lefty....a switch hitter golfer.....now THAT'S CONFUSION. Actually, a good left hand is quite handy in the O.R..

 

Anyhow, I've always been kinda interested in handedness, and just wondered if you had any "ambidexterous" tendencies, prior to your haveing to switch to lefty guitar.

 

Thanks!

[Durockrolly]

Whew! I thought this topic was asking about our personal life!!!

[Guitarzan]

when i use my left hand it feels like someone else is doing it....

seriously i have no idea.

i am a lefty when playing hockey but a righty when playing guitar.

 

[Chad Thorne]

Gosh, Don, I thought I had told this story so many times before. In 1980 I suffered an injury to my left arm/hand with a big power saw. Nerve damage resulted and now I can't really fret an instrument to speak of. Maybe a year later I tried a lefty Yamaha, but the conditioning to righty playing was so strong that I gave up and concluded that one couldn't switch. (I forgot to mention this in my PM, Dave.) I took up trumpet.

 

Trumpet is nice, but it ain't guitar. About 4 years later I was sitting down with a friend's guitar held lefty and noodling, and it began to feel possible to play that way. I wrote a letter to "Guitar Player" asking this same question Dave asks. They printed it and I got letters from all over, people encouraging me, sending me lefty chord charts, etc. Long story short, now I play lefty guitar pretty well, along with bass, mandolin and fiddle, all lefty.

 

I didn't notice any tendencies to ambidexterity before being injured. I did play a lot of fingerstyle (which I can't do very well lefty, sadly) so that may have helped my right hand make the switch. This is actually what I believe to be true: That too often the only obstacles we face are the ones, like in my case, that we erect in our own minds. Apart from 'Zan's reference to adaptive self-love, I believe that we are capable, physically, and intellectually, of a lot more than we believe that we are. Don, as a surgeon you know what a remarkable thing the human body is. Permit me a reference to my faith; the writer of the Psalms remarked, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made!" You can't really know what your body is capable of until you challenge it.

 

So the point is that I don't think I'm so special to have had the ability to make the switch. I do take some credit for making and sticking to the committment to do it; but even then, I felt like I was dying inside for those years that I couldn't play. I grabbed for a lefty guitar like a drowning man grabs a life preserver.

 

BTW, in outlawlebo's thread about lefty instruments I posted a pic of my guitars. The yellowed knobs on the Strat are all that's left of a guitar a guy in South Boston gave me. He read my letter in GP and wanted to help. Thank you, Peter, wherever you are!

[mdrs]

Hey Chad....I do remember the story...glad to hear it again.

 

The brain is biased for handedness (and many other things). I do agree that we are all capable of so much more than we will ever do. However, it is a true acomplishment to make the switch that you did. First, your brain DIDN'T WANT TO DO IT! Second, you DID do it by shear determination. That's awesome.

 

That is so cool that the guy gave you that guitar, too. It is good to know that there are good people out there.

[Scott Fraser]

Just wondering if any right-handed people have successfully switched to playing left-handed? Can a right-handed player succesfully switch to being a left-handed one?

 

I worked with an ancient music ensemble in Europe, Musica Antiqua Köln, some years ago, & the leader of that group had switched from right handed to left handed violin due to a nerve injury. He said it took about 5 years to get back to his professional level of proficiency. You would never know he had not played left handed his entire life. It can done, & it's a lot of work. The alternative, of giving up guitar, is just unthinkable.

 

Scott Fraser

[Scott Fraser]

Anyhow, I've always been kinda interested in handedness,

 

Here's an interesting aspect of handedness: there's a pair of identical twin brothers who are well known monster musicians in the experimental/improv/freejazz scene in LA. One is left handed & his hair parts naturally on the left, the other is right handed & his hair parts naturally of the right. They're identical, yet symetrically reversed.

 

Scott Fraser

[Greg B.]

Anyhow, I've always been kinda interested in handedness,

 

Here's an interesting aspect of handedness: there's a pair of identical twin brothers who are well known monster musicians in the experimental/improv/freejazz scene in LA. One is left handed & his hair parts naturally on the left, the other is right handed & his hair parts naturally of the right. They're identical, yet symetrically reversed.

 

 

 

 

Scott Fraser

 

Scott, my brother (known as Wolfgangsta on the forum) and I are identical twins. We are the same as you describe above, me being right handed, him being lefty, hair parts, etc. It is, from what I have read, a sure sign of identical twins, not fraternal. It is called "mirror image twins". A funny story about our birth: We were born in a small town hospital, and at the time the only way they monitored babies in utero was by heart beat. Our hearts were beating at the exact same time, therefore, my brother was born, then they discovered that there was another baby, 20 minutes later, I was born. Talk about a shock for Mom and Dad! They hadn't really completely decided on 1 name, much less 2 names. Having one at a time sure has been a handful, I can't imagine having 2 babies at the same time!

 

BTW, good luck with your switch, trader. Keep at it and you'll get it down.

 

 

[Scott Fraser]

Scott, my brother (known as Wolfgangsta on the forum) and I are identical twins. We are the same as you describe above, me being right handed, him being lefty, hair parts, etc. It is, from what I have read, a sure sign of identical twins, not fraternal. It is called "mirror image twins".

 

So you both are guitarists? Does your brother play guitar lefty? If so, I guess he never borrowed your guitars when you were growing up. My twin friends became a drummer & guitarist respectively. They have quite different personalities, one being extroverted & outgoing, the other introverted & quiet. Both are just insanely great musicians.

 

Scott Fraser

[Greg B.]

Scott, my brother (known as Wolfgangsta on the forum) and I are identical twins. We are the same as you describe above, me being right handed, him being lefty, hair parts, etc. It is, from what I have read, a sure sign of identical twins, not fraternal. It is called "mirror image twins".

 

So you both are guitarists? Does your brother play guitar lefty? If so, I guess he never borrowed your guitars when you were growing up. My twin friends became a drummer & guitarist respectively. They have quite different personalities, one being extroverted & outgoing, the other introverted & quiet. Both are just insanely great musicians.

 

Scott Fraser

 

Yeah, we both play. When we first took lessons at school, our teacher first of all wouldn't teach us on an electric, she didn't think that it was a "proper" guitar (a "proper" guitar was a nylon string classical), and she wouldn't let him play lefty, cause it was not the "correct" way to play a guitar. He has always been a little ambidextrous, so it wasn't too difficult for him to play righty. I think that just for availability and choice, he is glad that he learned righty, and when we only had one guitar, it was no issue. BTW, he is a great drummer, too.

 

We still look very much alike, depending on who you ask. If you didn't know us both and saw him out and about, you would probably think it was me until you talk to him. We are both extremely quick on picking up when someone thinks that they are talking to the twin that they know. We both will usually have a little fun with them but always tell them. I like to tell people that I automatically know twice as many people because of being a twin! :grin: Our personalities have alot of similiarities, but also alot of differences, but we are extremely close and talk at least once or twice a day (but then again our whole family is pretty close).

[Eric Iverson]

A semi-OT but related story:

 

I heard a guy play once who had lost his right hand somehow. He picked with a metal right hand.

 

The guy's left hand was good enough, but his right hand flatpicking was exceptionally good ... not so much super-fast, but with a great deal of finesse.

 

I would never have believed it if I hadn't seen and heard it with my own eyes and ears!

 

PS Thank God prosthetic technology has advanced a lot... we're not talking "6 million dollar man" or "Robocop" - just so as to be able to help out the poor SOBs who are injured in war or in other ways!