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Posted by: Chief Brody Sep 9 2008, 12:32 PM

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

Posted by: Smikey2006 Sep 9 2008, 12:45 PM

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

Posted by: AnyJimmy Sep 9 2008, 01:02 PM

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

Posted by: JVM Sep 9 2008, 01:02 PM

I'm a leftie who plays right handed

Posted by: OrganisedConfusion Sep 9 2008, 01:04 PM

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.

Posted by: ZakkWylde Sep 9 2008, 01:08 PM

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

Posted by: audiopaal Sep 9 2008, 01:16 PM

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

Posted by: Bedlam Sep 9 2008, 01:21 PM

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.

Posted by: OrganisedConfusion Sep 9 2008, 01:33 PM

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

Posted by: Iluha Sep 9 2008, 02:51 PM

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.

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Sep 9 2008, 03:19 PM

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)..

Posted by: Resurrection Sep 9 2008, 03:46 PM

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.

Posted by: Bedlam Sep 9 2008, 03:51 PM

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.

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Sep 9 2008, 04:09 PM

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 ...

Posted by: AnyJimmy Sep 9 2008, 04:13 PM

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

Posted by: Scott Gentzen Sep 9 2008, 05:29 PM

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.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Sep 9 2008, 07:25 PM

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.

Posted by: Scott Gentzen Sep 9 2008, 09:07 PM

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.

Posted by: Emir Hot Sep 9 2008, 09:14 PM

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

Posted by: Jose Mena Sep 9 2008, 09:18 PM

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

Posted by: midnight Sep 9 2008, 10:13 PM

I'm right handed but play lefty. I could not get my left hand to work on the fretboard. I couldn't even really get my fingers down on 4 frets...chords were about impossible.

It sucks because I'm so limited in my selection of guitars.

Posted by: wrk Sep 9 2008, 11:58 PM

I'm left handed and play right handed guitars ...

At the end both hands have to be in good shape ... one needs more work, but i think it doesn't matter if it's the fretting or picking hand. Piano player don't really have this choice and they manage it as well ...

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Sep 10 2008, 12:20 AM

This is very interesting info you are posting guys, thanks!! I really wondered about this and didn't have a clue right handed players were doing the same thing too (reversing and doing the fretwork with primary hand)
Now I'm really interested in benefits of such approach in playing...Strong and weak points...Better fretting hand coordination , dexterity , speed ? Harder to learn fast picking with the right hand ? Basically how it compares to the other way around approach ...

Posted by: Fsgdjv Sep 10 2008, 12:39 AM

Dan Swanö is left handed, but plays right handed guitars. Only, he plays them upside down.

Posted by: Chief Brody Sep 10 2008, 01:38 AM

Wow, i went to sleep soon after i posted this expecting only a couple of replies but this has turned into a really interesting discussion!

Well i can't really talk about the "benefits" of playing right-handed as opposed to left-handed but i will say that initially i found strumming/picking to be where most of my errors were coming from and my fretting wasn't really something i had to be concerned about, it was pretty much always simple.

So i had to spend a bit of time doing strumming exercises to get that up to a good level.

Speed training i feel helped considerably in improving my right hand ability. All that time doing scale runs at increasing speeds definitely increased the fine control in that hand and as a consequence my playing improved also.

So i'd be tempted to say that there's no real disadvantage in playing the opposite way to your natural handedness, but perhaps initially you need to pay more attention to the strumming/picking hand and invest some time in technique exercises so as to prevent developing a sloppy style of play.

Posted by: midnight Sep 10 2008, 03:14 AM

Yeah, One hand is going to need more work than the other no matter what, be it the picking or the fretting hand.

I'd say if you can play right handed, even if it takes more work, do it. It sucks being a lefty and having less to choose from, instrument wise.

Posted by: Bedlam Sep 10 2008, 01:26 PM

I had no idea... thanks for sharing!




Thanks for posting this! I haven't heard of many people from this perspective.

Posted by: Scott Gentzen Sep 10 2008, 02:23 PM

No. Hendrix was left handed and played that way with flipped righty guitars.

I'm left handed, and play right handed, but want to play a left handed guitar flipped.

I think I'm confused now.