Left handed guitar players

[DrFaroohk]

Any musicians here who can shed some light on this? I always wondered why left handed people play the guitar "left handed". Duh, right?

What I mean is - I'm left handed. I play my guitar in the traditional "right handed" style, because I wanted my dominant hand doing all that complicated fret work. Why wouldn't everyone want this?

[crashhelmet]

I play the guitar left handed because I no longer have full rotation in my left wrist. I can't grip the neck and hold the strings properly because of it. I actually learned to play it right handed and then had to learn again left handed years later.

The other people I know that are left handed, it's just a matter of comfort and/or mechanical dominance.

[wraiths_crono]

I play lefty because I am also left handed, but i learned originally the normal way because school refused to get a "specialized" instrument. Usually it is easier to learn to play with your dominate hand just like with writing, dexterity and coordination come easier that way.

[Ginger Tea]

I thought all you had to do was restring it upside down for southpaw

[Andara Bledin]

People strum with their dominant hands because it requires far more manual dexterity and range of motion than the fretwork, and your non-dominant hand will never equal your dominant had for this, even if you're ambidextrous (in part because the world is set up for right-handers).

^-.-^

[crashhelmet]

I thought all you had to do was restring it upside down for southpaw

There are two different schools of left handed players. Some restring it upside down and play it left handed, others learn to play it with the strings set for "normal right handed playing."

But... not every guitar is designed for flipping it over. Especially if it's electric. The patch cord often gets in the way.

[HYHYBT]

What I mean is - I'm left handed. I play my guitar in the traditional "right handed" style, because I wanted my dominant hand doing all that complicated fret work. Why wouldn't everyone want this?

I don't know... but if everybody found it easier to use it the way you do, right-handed people would play what we currently call "left-handed."

I've never played the guitar, but I've played the violin.... and it's very much as Andara just said. Thinking about it, the bowing *seems* like it ought to require less agility than the fingering, but even though I'm not nearly as strictly handed as many are, I can't imagine it working as well "backwards." (And not because I haven't seen a left-handed violin, either, or because the bow would interfere with that of the person in the next seat.)

(And now you've got me wondering whatever happened to my violin. The last time I remember seeing it was at Mom's house, but she's moved twice since then. Yet it's the sort of thing nobody would have thrown out, either by accident or intentionally, unless perhaps they thought I was going to try to play it again.)

[Greenday]

I tend to do a lot of the smaller coordination stuff with my off-hand and the heavier, hard work with my dominant hand. So it just makes sense for me to do the fret work with my left and strumming with my right.

[blas87]

I can't play any instruments, but I have been considered ambidextrious (sp?) because I was born left handed, and "changed" into a rightie by my grandmother (my parents were furious when they found that out), but it turns out I always had skills in my left hand also. I just cannot for the life of me write with my left hand. It looks like a four year old boy's writing.

But I can cut food, throw, etc etc, anything with my left hand just as well as the right otherwise.

[crashhelmet]

I can't play any instruments, but I have been considered ambidextrious (sp?) because I was born left handed, and "changed" into a rightie by my grandmother (my parents were furious when they found that out), but it turns out I always had skills in my left hand also. I just cannot for the life of me write with my left hand. It looks like a four year old boy's writing.

But I can cut food, throw, etc etc, anything with my left hand just as well as the right otherwise.

My brother is left handed and our older sister used to smack him on the hand every time he tried to write or eat and say "You're doing it wrong!"

I'm right handed, but have become (partially?) ambidextrous because of broken bones in my right wrist and/or hand all too often. Sadly, a boxer's break doesn't get you out of doing homework :P