Are you left or right handed ?

[kelltym88]

I forgot about the guitar. I play absolutely left handed. No way can I play right. But check this out, both of my sons are right handed, yet my oldest has taught himself to play guitar left handed. When we play guitar hero, we all play lefty flip, even my youngest, and he plays many on expert(he's 8). So figure that one out.

 

[Pantherjon]

Writing and throwing with different hands is quite unusual. I have never met anyone else who does that. ..SNIP..
Mark \\.

I KNEW I was UNUSUAL! I write left handed and throw right handed..Swing the bat right handed and golf club right handed...yep, I am weird...lol

 

[Intruder]

Writing and throwing with different hands is quite unusual. I have never met anyone else who does that. Do you do all of your handwriting, or most of it, with your right hand?

Writing and throwing with one hand, and swinging a bat/golf club/hockey stick with the other is not that unusual. Most often it is writing/throwing with the left, and swinging the stick in the same manner as a right-handed person. Lefties often develop the ability to do some things adeptly with their right hands, because practically all door knobs, handles, devices, tools, musical instruments, sporting goods, etc. are designed for right-handers. Being in the overwhelming majority, right-handers don't encounter too many things that turn the "wrong" way or are meant for the "wrong" hand, so they don't often develop as much coordination in their left hands.

Mark \\.

I do all of my handwriting with my right hand. I can use a computer mouse ambidextrously, but I'm still right side dominant with that. In fact, throwing is the only thing I can think of that I strictly do left handed. Everything else I either do right handed or requires the use of both (swinging, guitar, etc.), but I guess I do those "right handed" also.

 

[Peartree]

I need to correct something. When I said earlier that I never encountered any serious problems from anyone because I was left-handed, that wasn't quite true. I had forgotten about, or mentally blocked, a big one -- the clash I had with my instructor when I started taking guitar lessons. This was back in 1968, and the instructor at the music store where I was going for lessons absolutely insisted that I play right-handed. He said that left-handed guitars were rare; if I managed to even find one, it would be quite expensive. He also said that because of the way the neck, especially the nut, was designed, not to mention the bridge, I would not be able to just re-string a conventional guitar the other way and turn it around. Plus, he wouldn't be able to teach me, because everything he showed me would be a mirror image of the way I wanted to play. Nope, there was simply no other way - play right-handed, or don't play at all. (I had originally wanted to learn to play piano, and if I had taken lessons in that instrument, I would have run into the same problem, only it would have been worse.) So to this day, I play guitar right-handed (when I play at all). And I never learned to play piano. (Some day, though...) The biggest problem I have with it is that I don't have the dexterity to do much finger-picking, any really fast rhythmic strumming or picking out notes for a lead riff. I have never been able to do any of those techniques very well or at all.

Mark \\.

My kids all take piano (all righties) but how would piano be a problem since you play with both hands anyway? It is *generally* melody right and harmony left, but not always.

 

[MarkII]

My kids all take piano (all righties) but how would piano be a problem since you play with both hands anyway? It is *generally* melody right and harmony left, but not always.

I always thought that you played the rhythm, or something analogous to the "bass line" with the left, while you play all of the melody notes with the right. So the right hand runs up and down the keyboard, doing a lot more complicated things, than the left does. At least, that has always been my impression. But I've never played, so I may be totally wrong about that.

Excuse me, but Bruce is on now. I'll be back.

Mark \\.

 

[Len_Lekx]

Left handed people are the only right minded people!

I write left handed and use the mouse in my left hand...

According to casual testing, not only am I left-handed... but also left-footed and left-eyed. There are degrees to side-dominance - and I happen to be close to the extreme.

Still... I use a computer mouse with my right hand - the sole reason being that my computer-desk is set up that way, and I don't have the space available to change it.

 

[Peartree]

I always thought that you played the rhythm, or something analogous to the "bass line" with the left, while you play all of the melody notes with the right. So the right hand runs up and down the keyboard, doing a lot more complicated things, than the left does. At least, that has always been my impression. But I've never played, so I may be totally wrong about that.

Excuse me, but Bruce is on now. I'll be back.

Mark \\.

Check this out, its called the Fingerbreaker originally by Jelly Roll Morton...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByULkdy8bWw&feature=related

 

[Micromeister]

I need to correct something. When I said earlier that I never encountered any serious problems from anyone because I was left-handed, that wasn't quite true. I had forgotten about, or mentally blocked, a big one -- the clash I had with my instructor when I started taking guitar lessons. This was back in 1968, and the instructor at the music store where I was going for lessons absolutely insisted that I play right-handed. He said that left-handed guitars were rare; if I managed to even find one, it would be quite expensive. He also said that because of the way the neck, especially the nut, was designed, not to mention the bridge, I would not be able to just re-string a conventional guitar the other way and turn it around. Plus, he wouldn't be able to teach me, because everything he showed me would be a mirror image of the way I wanted to play. Nope, there was simply no other way - play right-handed, or don't play at all. (I had originally wanted to learn to play piano, and if I had taken lessons in that instrument, I would have run into the same problem, only it would have been worse.) So to this day, I play guitar right-handed (when I play at all). And I never learned to play piano. (Some day, though...) The biggest problem I have with it is that I don't have the dexterity to do much finger-picking, any really fast rhythmic strumming or picking out notes for a lead riff. I have never been able to do any of those techniques very well or at all.

Mark \\.

Oh Man:
Sorry to hear you had such a misinformed goofball as an instructor Mark:
I guess I was lucky, tho I started learning to play on my grandfathers old flat top guitar upside down and backwards and got fairly good at it, the up struming was a bear:LOL. I still freak-out some folks doing it just for fun at parties just for fun.
I soon decided to switch the strings around and learn the comfortable, more natural way All ya do is Flip the bridge and nut. I'm thinkin your teacher of the day really didn't want to teach a lefty

Later trading it in for the first production model Hangstrum (Swiss made Fender) lefty model. I like my Strat and 12 string but Man I sure wish I still had that old Axe, she was sweet When I finially got around to taking serious lessions early 60's the teachers were always supportive and thought it was easier as we were looking at a mirror image???

 

[MarkII]

Oh Man:
Sorry to hear you had such a misinformed goofball as an instructor Mark:
I guess I was lucky, tho I started learning to play on my grandfathers old flat top guitar upside down and backwards and got fairly good at it, the up struming was a bear:LOL. I still freak-out some folks doing it just for fun at parties just for fun.
I soon decided to switch the strings around and learn the comfortable, more natural way All ya do is Flip the bridge and nut. I'm thinkin your teacher of the day really didn't want to teach a lefty

Later trading it in for the first production model Hangstrum (Swiss made Fender) lefty model. I like my Strat and 12 string but Man I sure wish I still had that old Axe, she was sweet When I finially got around to taking serious lessions early 60's the teachers were always supportive and thought it was easier as we were looking at a mirror image???

Yeah. None of his reasons made any sense to me, but I was a 14 year old 10th grader, and he was the adult, so you know who won that dispute.

I had always assumed that Jimi Hendrix restrung his guitars the other way, or else played custom-made left-handed guitars, but what I found out recently just blew me away. It seems that he always played right-handed guitars without making any modifications to them at all (for his handedness, that is). He just swung the guitar around to play it left-handed, strummed the strings upwards instead of down, and fingered the chords upside-down (the chords that he didn't invent himself, that is). Incredible!!!

So if you really want to play like Hendrix (and who doesn't? ), that incredibly hard task just got incomprehensibly more difficult...

I still have the no-name F-hole electric guitar that I got for Christmas in 1968, a few months after I started taking lessons. I still keep it in its original case (and take it out way too infrequently) and I might even have some of my original picks. It is the only guitar that I have ever owned. It is still in excellent condition and looks like it has never been played, but that condition belies that fact that I used to play it A LOT in my dorm room at school and in my bedroom at home. It still has never been plugged into an amp, though (I couldn't afford one) -- but considering the way I play, that's probably a good thing!

I never got very far with the lessons; I quickly ran into a figurative brick wall mainly due to my difficulties with performing even basic strumming and picking techniques (beyond simple strumming) with my right hand, and partly due as well to my near total ignorance of music theory at the time.

Mark \\.

 

[MarkII]

Check this out, its called the Fingerbreaker originally by Jelly Roll Morton...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByULkdy8bWw&feature=related

Nice video, John. But it looked like to me like the left hand was playing chords and keeping the beat, while the right hand was dancing all over the keys, playing individual notes. That fast striking of individual notes with the right hand would give me even more trouble than it normally would for righties. I could easily see my left hand doing what Dick Hyman's right hand was doing, and having my right do what his left was doing. But maybe I could learn. Certainly not that song, but maybe something that is played at about one-fourth that speed!

Like I said, someday...

Mark \\.

 

[Peartree]

Nice video, John. But it looked like to me like the left hand was playing chords and keeping the beat, while the right hand was dancing all over the keys, playing individual notes. That fast striking of individual notes with the right hand would give me even more trouble than it normally would for righties. I could easily see my left hand doing what Dick Hyman's right hand was doing, and having my right do what his left was doing. But maybe I could learn. Certainly not that song, but maybe something that is played at about one-fourth that speed!

Like I said, someday...

Mark \\.

There was a section where he was playing some pretty solid molody runs on the left hand. Don't worry, the crazy stuff is pretty much impossible for righties as well. If you listen, Dick Hymen says that Jelly Roll (one of the best jazz pianist ever) used it as a showoff piece to challenge other pianists.

 

[Intruder]

I had always assumed that Jimi Hendrix restrung his guitars the other way, or else played custom-made left-handed guitars, but what I found out recently just blew me away. It seems that he always played right-handed guitars without making any modifications to them at all (for his handedness, that is). He just swung the guitar around to play it left-handed, strummed the strings upwards instead of down, and fingered the chords upside-down (the chords that he didn't invent himself, that is). Incredible!!!
Mark \\.

Nope. Hendrix's strings are in the "correct" E B G D A E order. See here.

I know it's hard to see on youtube even when zoomed in, but his strings are right side up.

And besides, it doesn't matter which way his strings go because no body can play Hendrix like Hendrix.

 

[MarkII]

Nope. Hendrix's strings are in the "correct" E B G D A E order. See here.

I know it's hard to see on youtube even when zoomed in, but his strings are right side up.

And besides, it doesn't matter which way his strings go because no body can play Hendrix like Hendrix.

Well, I know that I read that somewhere, but it was apparently wrong. Anyway, here is a passage quoted from the Wikipedia article on Jimi Hendrix, in the "Guitar Legacy" section:

"Hendrix used right-handed guitars, turned upside-down for left-hand playing, and re-strung so that the heavier strings were in their standard position at the top of the neck.[113] This had an important effect on his guitar sound: because of the slant of the Strat's bridge pickup, his lowest string had a bright sound while his highest string had a mellow sound, the opposite of the Stratocaster's intended design.[114]"

​

Thanks, Intruder, for pointing that out. I stand corrected.

Mark \\.

 

[Micromeister]

I'm glad someone cleared that up LOL!
As mentioned in my earlier post, I orginially started playing on my Grandfathers right handed guitar Upside down and backwards but believe me It's NOT a good way to play or learn, Yea; it's cool as a novilty tirck at parties, but trying to play any real involved lead lic or even a very fast cord change series is really a pain particually if your upstruming as well. I was never anywhere near Jimmy's league, but we did play semi-professionally and actually ended up as a Pretty good lead player in my day..playing with the strings in the proper place that is Urban legons are fun but it's alway nice to see that our heros are really doing things more or less the same way we Mear mortals do... just much betterLOL!
Mark ya might want to temper any reading done on wikipedia..I mean I Wouldn't take alot of stock from any publication anyone can change at anytime without any really backup at all at their whim. I use it also, But only as the bearest of beinging any reasearch info. Remember what our greatest Pres. said..."Trust but varify"

 

[Intruder]

I remember one time I was watching Eric Clapton on tv, and he had a rhythm guitarist who was left handed and played "stock" right handed guitars. He was pretty good, but it was pretty weird watching him make upside-down chords.

 

[MarkII]

...
Mark ya might want to temper any reading done on wikipedia..I mean I Wouldn't take alot of stock from any publication anyone can change at anytime without any really backup at all at their whim. I use it also, But only as the bearest of beinging any reasearch info. Remember what our greatest Pres. said..."Trust but varify"

Are you saying that the passage I quoted from Wikipedia's article on Jimi Hendrix was wrong?

Mark \\.

 

[Larry]

I'm left handed. My son is also, when he was in Kindergarden he would switch back and forth from right to left, but favored his left more. The teacher tried to make him write right handed. She told us this, and we told her to leave him alone that he would find what hand he was going to be able to do the best with. She wasn't real happy with that, but oh well. Both of us do other things right handed,but write left handed

Lefty Larry