The guitar and it's relatives the bass guitar, banjo, ukulele etc., are unusual instruments in that they come in right-handed and left-handed versions. Like most guitarists, I play right-handed. Many left-handed players play the other way around, strumming with their left hand and fretting with their right hand. They usually also reverse the strings. A famous example of someone who played that way was Jimi Hendrix.
However, there are a number of guitarists who play left-handed, but without reversing the strings, for example Otis Rush the Chicago bluesman. Albert King was another bluesman who played that way.
Is it necessary to play the guitar left-handed if you are yourself left-handed? I don't think so, and there are plenty of well-known virtuosos that bear this out. B.B. King, Robert Fripp, Mark Knopfler and jazzman Jim Mullen are all left-handed, but play right-handed, and I'm pretty sure that their playing doesn't suffer from it!
In fact, being left-handed may well be an advantage if you're learning to play a "normal" right-handed guitar. In the early stages, the hand that has the most demanding job to do is definitely the left hand, which holds down the chords and fingers the scales. If your left hand is the dominant one, surely fretting is easier than for a right-handed person, who is using their weaker hand?
Let's consider other musical instruments. The piano is always bass on the left, treble on the right. What about other stringed instruments like the violin. Look at a symphony orchestra, with rows of violinists sitting next to each other, all holding their violins the same way around. Some of them must be left-handed, and yet they all play right-handed. If one of them played left-handed, the movement of their bow might cause a nasty accident with the next violinist's eye!
Guitar shops usually encourage lefties to buy left-handed guitars. Could this possibly be because they're more expensive? Perhaps the whole left-handed guitar industry can be attributed to the influence of Jimi Hendrix, who has been seen on TV by millions, playing the right-handed guitars of the day, but left-handed. Interestingly, Jimi used to write with his right-hand. Maybe he wasn't actually left-handed after all. His whole playing style was self-taught and unconventional.
So, if you're left-handed and thinking of taking up the guitar, don't assume that you must buy a left-handed model. Learn a few simple chord shapes, and try them out on a right-handed guitar first. Holding down the chords will feel strange and awkward to begin with, but no more so than for anyone. After all, these are intricate movements that all of us ask our fingers to carry out when we learn to play, so it really doesn't matter which way around you hold your guitar. Regular daily practice will overcome any initial difficulties. As well as the advice of a good teacher of course!
I'm a lefty & play right. Have all my life. I t would feel strange to play left handed but I may try it for gits & shiggles.
ReplyDeleteI have taught some lefties to play right-handed, and maybe it's my imagination, but they seem to pick up on certain of the basic chords shapes slightly easier than most righties.
DeleteIn my opinion guitarists who are right handed always seem to try to understand lefties from a right handed perpective. Being a lefty is good for fingerstyle as all the complicated stuff is done with the left hand.
DeleteTrue Andrew. I think once you've been playing a while your weaker hand becomes stronger and more usable, so to a certain extent we become ambidextrous.
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