Are you a Righty or a Lefty?

CDee · 2009-06-22T18:12:54+00:00

So, are you righthanded playing a righthanded guitar, lefthanded playing a lefthanded guitar, righthanded playing a lefthanded guitar, Lefthanded playing a r...

Are you a Righty or a Lefty?

CDee

I once visited a friend of a friend. My friend told this guy I could play guitar. So this guy gives me a lefthanded guitar and tells me to teach him some stuff because he is batteling to understand this instrument (having downloaded some free lessons etc). I tell him I can't because it's a lefthanded guitar and I am righthanded... He looks at me, looks at the guitar and says :"No f*&%ing wonder I'm struggling so much!" ?
We still tease him about it!

Danny-B

Also a righty playing a righty, but my first guitar was from my father who was left-handed, so I strung the lefty upside down, only to discover it was a righty after all...

After breaking my right arm twice in two years, ambidexterity becomes the norm...

TomCat

CDee wrote: I once visited a friend of a friend. My friend told this guy I could play guitar. So this guy gives me a lefthanded guitar and tells me to teach him some stuff because he is batteling to understand this instrument (having downloaded some free lessons etc). I tell him I can't because it's a lefthanded guitar and I am righthanded... He looks at me, looks at the guitar and says :"No f*&%ing wonder I'm struggling so much!" ?
We still tease him about it!

BWAAAAHAHAHA.......Brilliant....... :roflmao: :roflmao:

CDee

I'm very surprised to see that we currently don't have any lefties playing left... Come on lefties don't be shy, we wont laugh... much... ?

Carmen

I assume you mean playing with your pick and not playing with your hand on the neck? :-\

Bob-Dubery

The world's most famous living left-handed guitarist IE Paul McCarteney is actually right-handed. He does everything right-handed except for playing guitar and bass. Even plays drums "North-paw" (well that's the opposite of "south-paw" isn't it?)

This may be more common than we think. There is a tradition in cricket of "right-handed left-handers" who bat left and bowl, field, write, play golf etc right. Brian Lara, Graeme Pollock, Graeme Smith, Gary Kirsten....

TomCat

Bob Dubery wrote: The world's most famous living left-handed guitarist IE Paul McCarteney is actually right-handed. He does everything right-handed except for playing guitar and bass. Even plays drums "North-paw" (well that's the opposite of "south-paw" isn't it?)

Either way doesn't make much difference as long as you don't make your name "Paw-Paw"...... ? ?

aubs1

I have come across many left handers who do things with their right hand........guitar, shooting (a world champion), writng etc.......I have NEVER come across any right hander who would switch to being left handed!!!! ?

Bob Dubery wrote: The world's most famous living left-handed guitarist IE Paul McCarteney is actually right-handed. He does everything right-handed except for playing guitar and bass. Even plays drums "North-paw" (well that's the opposite of "south-paw" isn't it?)

This may be more common than we think. There is a tradition in cricket of "right-handed left-handers" who bat left and bowl, field, write, play golf etc right. Brian Lara, Graeme Pollock, Graeme Smith, Gary Kirsten....

Interesting Bob, always believed Paul was lefty! My Idol, JH, was a lefty, did he swop his strings around??

Wizard

aubs1 wrote: I have NEVER come across any right hander who would switch to being left handed!!!! ?

Culture plays a strong part here.
(just like you get very few brunettes with blonde roots)

Left-handedness has been considered evil, wrong and been discouraged.
As an indication, the latin word for left is 'sinister'.
There is evidence that many natural left-handers have been forced into right-handed ways.
20 years ago there were hardly any left-handed batsmen ... now there are many.

DonovanB

I don't know if any of you saw Lionel Ritchie? His bass player is a lefty, playing a right handed bass. He was brilliant! It just looked odd.

aubs1

Bob Dubery wrote: The world's most famous living left-handed guitarist IE Paul McCarteney is actually right-handed. He does everything right-handed except for playing guitar and bass. Even plays drums "North-paw" (well that's the opposite of "south-paw" isn't it?)
This may be more common than we think. There is a tradition in cricket of "right-handed left-handers" who bat left and bowl, field, write, play golf etc right. Brian Lara, Graeme Pollock, Graeme Smith, Gary Kirsten....

What I did know however is that about 40% of the world's top tennis players are left handed..........and probably a higher percentage of US Presidents!!!! Yes, Barrack plays Basket-ball (obviously for fun)l!!

DonovanB

aubs1 wrote: and probably a higher percentage of US Presidents!!!! Yes, Barrack plays Basket-ball (obviously for fun)l!!

If thats the case then 100% of current US presidents are left handed...

DaFiz

I only met one oke ever who could play either guitar either way... totally ambidextrous.
It impressed me no end. ?

I started teaching a girl to play the guitar last night. (The very first step is to clip your nails Ma'am ☹)

Turns out she's left handed, but I'm teaching her on one of my own right handed guitars.

Do we carry on with the lesson? or insist she gets her own left handed guitar?
Or do we restring the little nylon string guitar her daughter can't play yet? :-\

TomCat

DaFiz wrote: I only met one oke ever who could play either guitar either way... totally ambidextrous.
It impressed me no end. ?

I started teaching a girl to play the guitar last night. (The very first step is to clip your nails Ma'am ☹)

Turns out she's left handed, but I'm teaching her on one of my own right handed guitars.

Do we carry on with the lesson? or insist she gets her own left handed guitar?
Or do we restring the little nylon string guitar her daughter can't play yet? :-\

I'm a lefty playing right handed so IMO let her try the right handed approach and see how it goes for a while......there is a much greater scope for guitars later on....

aubs1

DonovanB wrote: If thats the case then 100% of current US presidents are left handed...

Brilliant deduction Donovan......hahahahaha

TomCat

aubs1 wrote:
DonovanB wrote: If thats the case then 100% of current US presidents are left handed...
Brilliant deduction Donovan......hahahahaha

HeHeHe......That's Deep......... :-\

Bob-Dubery

aubs1 wrote: I have come across many left handers who do things with their right hand........guitar, shooting (a world champion), writng etc.......I have NEVER come across any right hander who would switch to being left handed!!!! ?

Bob Dubery wrote: The world's most famous living left-handed guitarist IE Paul McCarteney is actually right-handed. He does everything right-handed except for playing guitar and bass. Even plays drums "North-paw" (well that's the opposite of "south-paw" isn't it?)

This may be more common than we think. There is a tradition in cricket of "right-handed left-handers" who bat left and bowl, field, write, play golf etc right. Brian Lara, Graeme Pollock, Graeme Smith, Gary Kirsten....

Well Pollock is a right hander who started batting left in games with brother Peter in the backyard. I one such game he announced that he was Neal Harvey. Brother Peter said "you'll have to bat left then ." (Harvey was a left-hander). And so Graeme started batting left. When he fielded in the slips for Transvaal he preferred to dive right and catch right, When, on occasion, he bowled it was right arn wrist spin rather than chinaman,

I think what may happen with some of these players is that they are inclined to be lefthanded but parents or schoolteachers try to make them favour their right hand, but that natural left-handedness will out in some activity or another. Paul said that he struggled with guitar until he tried playing lefty (with strings restrung for a left-handed) and it was then that things suddenly made sense.

Brian Lara told me that he is actually right handed but bats left because that meant fewer shots going in the air. With a conventional right-handed grip the stronger hand is on the bottom and can lead to the ball being hit in the air. Lara now has his strong band on top and weaker hand at the bottom.

Lara gives a reason for batting left, but he had to adopt that style early on and I wonder if his decision to do so was instinctual or caculated. "Instinctual" may suggest that he was born lefty but encouraged to write righty etc. He even plays golf right-handed.

There must be guitarists who, say, play left but sign signatures with the right hand. They might be naturally lefty but as kids were encouraged to be "dexter" rather than "sinister" I know two men who were born left-handed and had fathers who believed that "there is no place in the world for a left-handed man" and so forced their sons into orthodoxy. But the left-handedness can never be completely surpressed.

Interesting Bob, always believed Paul was lefty! My Idol, JH, was a lefty, did he swop his strings around??

His guitars and basses were all restrung for left-hand playing.

CDee

After seeing this I should add a category to the list. Footy...
This is amazing and inspiring!

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1915522

?

aubs1

Geez Bob, I would NEVER challenge you to a game of Trivial Pursuit! ? Hahahaha........

IceCreamMan

I am left handed and off the scale so ..everything i do is left handed from holding a knife and fork to ball sports jerking off etc etc etc

when i first played a guitar as a lad i played a right handed guitar lefty with the strings as they are , theory being the pickups were arranged to suit the strings and i could not "turn " the pickups around. As you can imagine the hurldes to overcome are huge. Got the hang of it and was able to make my way but was not brilliant , by my own admission.

now i found a beauty of an ibanez (still got both eyes as well) in a left handed model and it litrary is like learning all over again , no synapse paths are the same.

The only shop i have ever walked into that had left handed guitars in stock is music connection, and then prolly less that 5 out of a range of hundreds with what appears to be higher pricing as well. makes sense as the costs are amortised over a shorter production run. My particular ibanez is 30 pounds more expesive left than the standard version as a matter of interest. (not a huge amount in m y case thankfully)

I would think that left handed ppl who move over to doing things right handed are probably not going to get to the same heights of achievement as they would have if remaining left handed. Left handers are over represented in achiveing in racket an ball sports. Research (limited)also indicates that left handers are more IQ endowed than their counterparts. unfortunately there is a down side to this , lefties are over represented in certain neurological abberations and lefties are also over represneted amongst paedophiles ???. what nature gives it taketh away. ALso lefties dont live as long as righties.

Left handers are the most maligned and discrminated against minority in the world yet no one raises a flag about this.

There is an oz guitar company making only left handed guitars http://www.gaskellguitars.com/ and they making some very sweet axes. Prices a highish but remember these are class acts. Unfortunately no importer to ZA as yet but i do go to euro / NZ now and again so may be bringing one back at some point.

Edit : just voted , cannot believe i am the only lefty playing left that has voted in this.