Lefties Who Play Right Handed - Who Else?, Any notable guitarists? Options

[Chief Brody]

This is just me trying to satisfy a bit of curiosity.

I'm a left handed (and footed!) person, in pretty much every aspect of life i favour my left side, so much so that whenever i'm lost i tend to go left because i trust it more than going right

But seriously, when i first began guitar i thought i was going to have to get a left handed one, only to find that i couldn't play that way if my life depended on it, it was not comfortable at all. So i tried playing right handed and everything felt great! I've stuck with that ever since and never had any problems.

For me as a leftie, it just feels more logical to have my superior left hand doing the fretwork and the right hand taking care of the picking/strumming. I talked to some of my guitar-playing friends about this and they think i'm a bit weird, but i know i can't be the only one.

So i was just wondering if anyone on GMC is a leftie who plays right handed for similar reasons, or if anyone can tell me some famous/notable guitarists who are also the same way.

Cheers



This post has been edited by Chief Brody: Sep 9 2008, 12:35 PM

[Smikey2006]

Michael Angelo Batio... just insanity.. i don't know which way is his natural

[AnyJimmy]

I'm also a leftie who plays right handed. In the beginning, i also saw the same good things about it, e.g. using my left hand for fretting and bending. And i can also usually bend 2 whole notes (4 frets) in pitch.

But, now i've been playing for some time, and i'm starting to see some disadvantages to this whole left/right-hand mess.
I found it really difficult for my right hand to do sweeps and fast alternate picking. It took me about a year to get those things right. all better now though, and lately i've been thinking about getting me a MAB guitar j/k

/jimmy

[JVM]

I'm a leftie who plays right handed

[OrganisedConfusi...]

I'm also a leftie that plays right handed. Although I think right handed guitars are more suited to left handed people as I think your left hand is more important for picking than strumming on the whole.

[ZakkWylde]

Herman Li and Kurt Cobain are lefties who play right handed so youre in good company!

[audiopaal]

Kiko Loureiro from Angra also is left handed, but he plays right handed

[Bedlam]

I too am a lefty that plays right-handed. When I first got a guitar, I had no idea what I was doing and actually thought that I had a left-handed guitar. When I found out that I did have a right-handed guitar I tried a left-handed one, but it just felt weird to me. I guess it was too late to make the switch. It still makes more sense to me that the dominate hand does the fretting... I'm a bit ambidextrous though, so it may be different in my case.

[OrganisedConfusi...]

I'm a weirdo anyway lol. I write left handed and play tennis and pool left handed but play darts and cricket right handed

[Iluha]

Only famous Guitarist that is a natural leftie but learned how to play right handed I know is Michael Angelo Batio.

My friend is a leftie, and he plays a right handed guitar as a leftie(did that make sense?), which is just bizzare but I remember there was a discussion here a long long time ago about a famous blues guitarist who plays the same way.

[Bogdan Radovic]

Hmm I was wondering about this too..I can imagine for beginner to seem natural to do with his primary hand the fretwork (no matter if he is left or right handed)...But than again I feel that it is wrong because you need the "strong" hand to do the picking/strumming and whatever job which is in the end more engaging then fretting work.I actually don't see a difference between right handed player trying to play left handed and vise versa....I somehow fear that in the end there could be a problem with the picking hand because they are reversed.But than again there are people who can write with both hands etc for whom it doesn't matter at all..What I would suggest though would be if you are left handed - get a left handed guitar (should be more natural and not much of a experiment then)..

[Resurrection]

I remember hearing that Gary Moore is left-handed but plays right-handed. His Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Moore seems to agree with this.

[Bedlam]

What I would suggest though would be if you are left handed - get a left handed guitar (should be more natural and not much of a experiment then)..

I've tried, many times, but my right hand doesn't work on the fretboard. I feel like my left hand is fine with strumming and picking and feels almost natural at it, but my right doesn't have the flexibiliy or strength to get the job done.

[Bogdan Radovic]

I've tried, many times, but my right hand doesn't work on the fretboard. I feel like my left hand is fine with strumming and picking and feels almost natural at it, but my right doesn't have the flexibiliy or strength to get the job done.

Hmm its always like that at start, you should not switch hands because of that..I guess your right hand isn't less capable/flexible/etc nothing more than mine (or any right handed players) left hand??? Everything comes with practice , and its natural to use your primary hand for picking and strumming and guitar is designed that way.I don't know , you don't see right handed players trying to play like lefties...And its the same practically (we all have one primary side/hand) there is no difference in capabilities..

p.s. I guess of course that we all can learn in time to play with our primary hand on fretboard , but I don't know about the effort/limits thing needed to accomplish that ...

This post has been edited by Bogdan Radovic: Sep 9 2008, 04:16 PM

[AnyJimmy]

Hah, been playing like this for 7 years, i think its too late to change anything by now

[Scott Gentzen]

Herman Li and Kurt Cobain are lefties who play right handed so youre in good company!

I can't speak to Herman Li's preference but Cobain definitely played left handed.

http://www.kurtsequipment.com/guitarspage.htm

As for me, I consider myself to be left handed (I write left handed) but I do a lot of things right handed (swing a bat, I keep my mouse on the right side). Some of that's convenience...it's a pain to find left handed versions of certain things.

I play guitar right handed. It feels more natural to me than the other way around. Though some day I'm going to get a left handed guitar and flip it over and convert it to rightie.

[Ivan Milenkovic]

I think that is pretty cool what you do. Jimi Hendrix was right handed but he played lefty guitars, so that is similar in a way.

[Scott Gentzen]

I think that is pretty cool what you do. Jimi Hendrix was right handed but he played lefty guitars, so that is similar in a way.

The Hendrix thing was part of what I was thinking of in flipping a lefty guitar. Cobain had a couple of guitars early on that were righty and flipped too. I found a good local luthier in the area that is more than capable of handling such mods so it has me thinking.

It's weird. I like weird. I just don't have the budget to really pursue weird, so I have the guitars I have.

Actually, there are some Hendrix tribute Strats out there that were built at the factory (I think it was a custom shop limited edition) as lefty's and flipped for a right handed player.

[Emir Hot]

In every classical guitar school you have to play normal right hand guitar. Their theory is that this is the only right way. If you enroll some modern academy for electric guitar, then the choice is yours. They will let you choose. I had left handed teacher, we never figured out how he was doing some fast stuff the other way arround

[Jose Mena]

I think that is pretty cool what you do. Jimi Hendrix was right handed but he played lefty guitars, so that is similar in a way.

I am confused now, I though Hendrix played right handed guitars flipped because he was left handed. He was actually right handed?