Any lefties that play rightie here regret goint that way?

[rono7]

I am left handed, do just about everything that way. When starting out playing guitar, I wanted to learn left handed, and bought a right hand electric guitar from a friend for $15 and planned on reversing the strings. But when I got it, the bridge,saddle and tailpiece wouldn't allow it, so I just thought I would go for it playing right handed, since my dominant hand would be on the fretboard.

Well, after 40+ years, I don't regret it. Like some others, I'm a little weak with the flat picking but the fingerpicking is a lot easier. Overall, it worked out OK.

I also used to play electric bass right handed for about 15 years when in bands.

[bizango1]

Left handed: Throw, eat, write, brush teeth, Tequila

Right handed: Guitar, Uke, Mando, shoot, scissor, bat, beer

[Bob Womack]

I'm a lefty who has played righty for forty-six years. The very beginning was extremely tough - the instructor I had for a few lessons gave up on me. But I got better: seven years later he served as concert promoter for my group when we traveled back into my hometown.

Forty-six years and many thousand hours of later I find that I have better left-hand articulation than many of my peers but the right hand is less tractable than some others. It now is what it is.

Bob

[Howard Klepper]

Originally Posted by Larry Pattis

My former business partner in my shop "Local Music" is a lefty that insisted on playing lefty when he was growing up...and he not only regrets his early decision, but counsels strongly against this.

You don't see any lefty violins, if you know what I mean...

And which great violinist is left-handed?

[JonHBone]

I'm a lefty who plays righty. I had NO idea there were so many of us. It was natural for me. Besides writing with a pen and pickin' my nose I do almost everything as a righty. I also play drums as a lefty on a righty setup kit.

[guitararmy]

My only regret is my way-too-large collection of right handed guitars.....

[alien]

My youngest nephew is very left handed. He eats, bats, golfs, writes lefty. When he came to me saying he was ready to learn guitar, I made certain that he knew he had a choice as to which way he could learn. Lefty or righty. Besides myself, his mother, brother, uncle and 2 cousins play. The only advice I offered was this-If you play right handed you will have access to multiple guitars to play. If you choose left handed you will be guaranteed your own guitar. He chose right handed and doesn't regret it one bit. BTW, he did end up with his own guitar and heads straight for one of mine when he visits!

I also think because of playing guitar, I have more dexterity in my left hand. But then I played drums in school. That is definitely a two handed instrument!

[bhbayless]

Originally Posted by bizango1

left handed: Throw, eat, write, brush teeth, tequila

right handed: Guitar, uke, mando, shoot, scissor, bat, beer

....... .......

[pjmacd]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

And which great violinist is left-handed?

A fiddler rather than a violinist, Ashley MacIsaac does some pretty amazing things on a violin.

I'm a lefty who plays guitar and golf righty. Everything else I do is completely sinister.

[JohnW63]

Lefty who plays righty. I haven't regretted it.

What I find a little odd is how many of us can finger pick better than using a flat pick. Logically, you would think the fine motor skills would be harder on our off hand, and the bigger muscles would be easier.

I tried going back to lefty, after I had learned. I thought I would get a brain cramp. The mind said " Do this. You know how. " My hands said, " No we don't ! "

[Paraclete]

I'm dominant right but quite ambidextrous. I write with my right hand for the most part, throw right, kick left. Alternate for a lot of other stuff including tool usage. However, my first instrument was classical violin, and while there might be fiddlers who have switched, classical violin is always fingered left and bowed right. It would cause chaos in a symphony orchestra otherwise! So it would not even have occurred to me that guitar or bass would be any different. Although I did go through a phase of trying to learn to play electric left handed a la Hendrix. But I guess I did not think of violin as being right handed....mostly just a learned technique. Both hands have very different skills, and if anything, playing stringed instruments or the piano fosters really a lot of ambidextrous thinking and movement. Music is both a right and left brained sort of thing anyway.


The pastor at my church plays left on a right handed guitar. I have to say that it does make it a lot easier for all the rest of us (who play right handed) to do sound and gear checks on his guitar. My older daughter is left handed, and playing a guitar right handed feels wrong to her. (She plays piano)

So I guess I'd say that the only real issue to me about left vs right is the loss of universal compatibility.

[gimme789]

IMO the accepted convention is backwards .... who would not want their master hand on the fretboard ? I am a lefty who learned on a right handed guitar and I see it as an advantage.

[The Bard Rocks]

When I started, I reasoned that since I am left-handed, the hard stuff should be done by my left hand, on the fretboard. Strumming was left for my right hand (had to get that in). I am not so simplistic now of course, but I've never regreted this.

Re: left-handed pianos. Never seen one - yet. The left hand tends to play the accompaniment (think "boogie woogie, ragtime...") while the right does the embellishments and melody. They are not truly ambidextrous.

[sirwhale]

One of my good friends is left handed playing righty. He's really good at fretting and switching chords etc. I'm right-handed playing such, my fretting hand isn't so good (especially at switching between chords) but I find picking with my right hand quite natural. Surely we will all have similar playing problems, just reversed.

[tonyo]

Interesting thread. I'm right handed and play a right handed guitar but have often thought it a bit odd given the finger strength needed now in my left hand to fret the chords esp barre chords.

It's made me muse and wonder if somehow this right handedness of guitars was an accident of history and my journey might have been easier if I'd started with a left handed guitar.

It's not of any consequence to me as I'm reasonably proficient with my guitar and certainly wouldn't contemplate changing now.

I also find flat picking a challenge, but then I've played fingerstyle almost exclusively.