Explain this....

[ricach]

Why is my left hand - which can't even hold a pencil correctly (i'm right-handed obviously) - expected to do contortions on the frets and fly with dexterity on the strings? Who came up with this concept? B)

 

And lefties - why don't you take advantage of this by sticking with a 'right-hander'?

[brad1]

Because your right hand is the one that is controling the rhythm, the flow of what you're playing. I am a drummer also, and that's why I and most right handed drummers use the right hand on the high hat and ride cymbal instead of the snare drum. It's the high hat that is keeping the pace, or rhythm. The left comes in on the snare where it needs to.

Same for the guitar and other instruments.

Now this is only my opinion. I don't state this as fact.

But to me, that is the reason why lefties don't have anything to take advantage of. Righties usually play with pick in right hand, lefties with pick in left.

I just thought of something. This could also apply to golf, and the fact that right handers usually golf with the left arm leading.

[dubstar]

the strumming hand is equally as important as the fretting hand...it was never even a consideration for me to

switch to RH...

[Obed]

FWIW, I'm a lefty who plays right-handed guitar.

 

Actually, it's a bit more complex than that... I'm actually naturally ambidexterous. When I was first learning to write my letters, I'd start with the left hand and switch to the right when I got to the halfway point on the paper. My mother made me choose, and I arbitrarily chose my left. Then, as I learned what a PITA it was to be a lefty in a righty's world (I think the dearth of lefty scissors with sharp points in elementary school was the first issue), I gradually switched most things over to be right-dominated. Nowadays, I'm a lefty with respect to writing and eating, but a righty in most other respects. In baseball, I switch between the two as necessary.

 

But, to make a long story short, I agree with the original poster. I'd think for a lefty to play right-handed guitar would be easier. One of the folks I regularly jam/gig with is the same as me in this, except that she's 100% lefty in everything but drumming and guitar/bass playing.

[dubstar]

"I'd think for a lefty to play right-handed guitar would be easier."

 

well, you'd think wrong, in my case and in many others...also, I don't understand why RH players are always puzzled by

natural LH players who choose to remain that way...LH guitars aren't as rare as people make them out

to be, all you RH players are all welcome to switch over, given that it should be easier and all that...what are

you waiting for?! you'll be a better a better player LOL

 

(see how it doesn't really make sense when you hold up the mirror?)

[Obed]

 

(see how it doesn't really make sense when you hold up the mirror?)

 

Except for the part where I am a lefty playing a right-handed guitar!

[Biff]

I'd say for a right-handed person the the right hand is specialized for finer movements and the left for broader, contextual movements. As in playing the guitar.

[mrjones200x]

Ha im a lefty and i play a rh guitar. Only thing i do is write with my left hand. everything else is right hand.

 

Fret hand is more complexed i think as you can play with just the left if you wanted and not use your strumming hand at all by playing hammers/pulls ect.

 

Fingers move faster too. If you had no right hand you could adapt a pick onto a prostetic hand and play to a good degree after practice, but with out your left hand you couldnt fret anything so would only have 6 notes excluding harmonics.

 

I did once see a guy who played slow jam music with a capo which slid up/down the fret board battery controlled and he picked out individual notes this way. Very clever bit off home engineering

 

Biff,

 

I agree but would say leftys playing rh guitars have a better feel as left hand being used for complex movements which is norm for them and right hand for easy stuff. Even tho i find picking hard. maybe theres something to all this

[JEPI]

I just spent 1/2 hour reading about right brain, left brain theory to understand how this may contribute to why some of us are and play left handed. Evidently, the theory doesn't support anything other than a matter of choice or what feels natural/normal. Leads me to believe that some people who write with their right hand, may play lefty and the opposite also applies. I write and play right handed but, back in the day, found that batting lefty gave me much more power/contact on the ball. Interesting..........J

[bluelake07]

Agree with Dubstar that the strumming hand is as important as the fretting hand. My picking individual strings really needs improvement and because my dominant hand is doing it I should see quicker results from practice.

[JefferySmith]

Brain lateralization is more than just having one side of the brain dominant compared to the other. The two sides have different functions regarding things like language. Most boxers use the left arm for most of their fighting, the right hand either blocking the opponent's left, or throwing the occasional long bomb. Just standing in a southpaw stance feels completely awkward to me, making it harder for me to maintain my balance.

 

Try some Chet Atkins style finger-picking with your left hand. It will seem far less coordinated.

 

I am left eyed, as are many people. So I have to shoot a gun left handed. But, as explained in an earlier post, it may also have to do with how you first picked up a guitar. Tut Taylor didn't know that a resophonic (Dobro) guitar used finger picks, so he learned how to do it with a flat pick. And Jeff Healey (R.I.P.) plays blues with the guitar on his lap, Dobro style.

 

Much of what is known about brain lateralization was discovered after some split brain surgeries, in which the corpus callosum was severed, giving some people two separate, but non-communicating, sides of their cerebrum. Interesting stuff.

 

In a nutshell, here are some "generalities" regarding what the left and right hemispheres do:

 

Left Hemisphere

* Language

* Math

* Logic

 

Right Hemisphere

* Spatial abilities

* Face recognition

* Visual imagery

* Music

 

Inasmuch as the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa, the right hemisphere, the one dominant in music, controls your left arm.

[Notes_Norton]

I've often wondered about that. It seems my left hand works much harder on the guitar than the right. It seems to me that the guitar is a left handed instrument. But not being a lefty, I'll have to take the word of the majority.

 

At least they make a left handed guitar.

 

All saxophones are left handed. The right hand is used on a little more than half the notes. For the rest of the notes, the right hand is idle. The left hand us used on every note but one middle-range C# (where no fingers at all are pressed).

 

They do not make a right handed saxophone.

 

I once new a lefty who played the guitar both ways. He could flip it around in the middle of a song and continue playing. He did play it a little better as a right handed guitar "up-side down".

 

For you lefties, be glad you have a choice, saxophonists do not.

[JefferySmith]

 

For you lefties' date=' be glad you have a choice, saxophonists do not.

 

[/quote']

 

Nor do French horn players.

[Notes_Norton]

 

Nor do French horn players.

 

Nor flute or wind synthesizer players either

 

Notes

[Goldie]

FWIW' date=' I'm a lefty who plays right-handed guitar.

 

Actually, it's a bit more complex than that... I'm actually naturally ambidexterous. When I was first learning to write my letters, I'd start with the left hand and switch to the right when I got to the halfway point on the paper. My mother made me choose, and I arbitrarily chose my left. Then, as I learned what a PITA it was to be a lefty in a righty's world (I think the dearth of lefty scissors with sharp points in elementary school was the first issue), I gradually switched most things over to be right-dominated. Nowadays, I'm a lefty with respect to writing and eating, but a righty in most other respects. In baseball, I switch between the two as necessary.

 

But, to make a long story short, I agree with the original poster. I'd think for a lefty to play right-handed guitar would be easier. One of the folks I regularly jam/gig with is the same as me in this, except that she's 100% lefty in everything but drumming and guitar/bass playing.[/quote']

 

I too am ambidexterous, but the only thing I do that is 'handed', is play guitar.

[Whitmore Willy]

Don't understand that one myself.

I have been playing classical guitar (off and on) since I was a kid. I can play things like Bouree in Em. Not terribly difficult, but still requires a certain amount of independent dexterity. I have been playing piano even longer and still sound like dog sh.t. Never could get my hands together on a piany. Go figure.

[JefferySmith]

Don't understand that one myself.

I have been playing classical guitar (off and on) since I was a kid. I can play things like Bouree in Em. Not terribly difficult' date=' but still requires a certain amount of independent dexterity. I have been playing piano even longer and still sound like dog sh.t. Never could get my hands together on a piany. Go figure.[/quote']

Nor can I. Reading two different lines of music simultaneously and having one arm do one thing indepdently from the other, well, that pretty tough. I guess I'll never try pipe organ, where I have to be playing with both hands and feet.

[pohatu771]

I'm a left-handed writer and shoe-tie-er.

 

I play right-handed guitar, and use a right-handed drum kit, though I play with a left hand lead, like Ringo Starr.

 

I do most things with my right hand, actually.

[Ron G]

....and although right-handed violins do actually exist, I have never seen one (have you?). Almost all students, regardless of handedness, learn to play right handed. Paganini was left-handed but played righty.

[carverman]

.

Much of what is known about brain lateralization was discovered after some split brain surgeries' date=' in which the corpus callosum was severed, giving some people two separate, but non-communicating, sides of their cerebrum. Interesting stuff.

 

In a nutshell, here are some "generalities" regarding what the left and right hemispheres do:

Inasmuch as the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa, the right hemisphere, the one dominant in music, controls your left arm.[/quote']

 

Right brain/left brain..but what about motor control? People who have suffered a stroke have paralysis on

the opposite side of their bodies from the brain hemisphere that suffered the stroke. Relearning to do up

their shoelaces is a major task, never mind learning to play guitar again.

 

And somebody mentioned that if you were right handed, you couldn't manage without the fret hand, but

could use a prostetic arm, hook or whatever to pick the strings. As long as you have a thumb on the right hand

you can still play a pretty reasonable guitar (Wes Montgomery) and as long as you

have the index and middle finger, you can do some basic bar chords and some fast

runs. Django Reinhardt, lost the use of his third finger and pinky in a caravan fire

(from what I read), yet that didn't stop him.

 

And what about Albert King..he was left handed, yet managed to play a right handed

guitar (Flying V) in an upside down fashion, where the right hand was the fret hand

but he had to learn the chords in an inverted fashion.

[JefferySmith]

For a lefty to try to become right-handed for writing is a problem. The language center is on the left side of the cerebrum. In the last century, either Kentucky or Tennessee made it a law that children would have to all be taught to write with their right hands. One of my profs, a southpaw, was affected. He could write very nicely with his right hand, but it was a mirror image of what it should be. He then lost his ability to speak normally (stuttering, stammering) as the right side of the brain tried to take over the language part.

 

People with strokes have to use another part of their brain to relearn the lost functions. The only part of the brain that seems to regenerate new nerve cells is the hippocampus, involved in long term memory.

[Obed]

I've read that when men are forced to switch their handedness, they often become stutterers or stammerers. In women they tend to have difficulties telling left from right. I don't know why that is, though.

[JefferySmith]

I've read that when men are forced to switch their handedness' date=' they often become stutterers or stammerers. In women they tend to have difficulties telling left from right. I don't know why that is, though.[/quote']

Women seem to be less dominant on one side, and use their right brain more than men do. I think that's why women all dress differently, men all dress the same, and men don't notice that women all dress differently.

[Bill V]

My oldest son, soon to be 29, is left handed. However, he plays right handed. His guitar teacher had a hard time teaching a left handed person, but since my son was a beginner at the time (I think he was 15), he had no problem transitioning to right handed play.

[pohatu771]

 

Nor do French horn players.

Many people think the French horn is a left-handed instrument because the keys are on the left hand. The truth, however, is that before they had keys the pitch was controlled with the right hand, which was in the bell.