Fellow Southpaws who play right handed

[scalpy]

At rehearsal last night our guitarist was flabbergasted when I started writing out some chords with my sinister hand. Seeing as he's a GP I don't know why, he must have seen much more freaky things at work but it did set me thinking.

Why is a right handed guitar right handed? Am I missing anything not following my lefty-ness inclination on my main instrument and how many others are in the same boat?

I know Mark Knopfler and Noel Gallagher are reported to be the same, and have seen photos of Jimi Hendrix writing lyrics with his right, who else is cross wired with their playing?

[JohnFitzgerald]

I'm left handed, but hopefully my avatar show me playing a right handed Jazz, the right way round.

I couldn't begin to play 'left handed'.

My left hand is far more dextrous than my right, that's why it does all the work on the fingerboard, or fongerboad as they used to call it in ye olde days of usenet.

[mike257]

I'm another one, I write, chop veggies, and play drums left handed, but pretty much everything else, including guitar and bass, right handed!

I've tried it the other way round, just felt wrong!

[Noisyjon]

I am another!
Think Duff McKagan is too...


To answer the OP - NO, we are not a traitor to our genes


edit: to answer the question!

Edited November 23, 2011 by jonthebass

[scalpy]

Duff?!

One of my absolute teenage idols!

Been thinking about it some more and I'm right handed using a mouse and calculator as well...

[Merton]

I am left handed for writing but right handed for everything else, kinda ambidextrous but not quite!

[Lozz196]

[quote name='jonthebass' timestamp='1321703625' post='1442136']
I am another!
Think Duff McKagan is too...
[/quote]

Yep, just read his book - `kin great btw - and was amazed to find out he`s a leftie.

[Monckyman]

One here.
I cut bread, write and used to smoke left handed, but play bass right handed.

[Grassie]

Mark King is another. And my nine year old is a leftie, but plays drums with a kit set up for a righty.

[MoonBassAlpha]

Another one here. I think it started with playing the violin at a young age - you don't get left handed violins!
I play a drum kit set up right handed but play open handed (lh on the hi-hat) like Simon Phillips, but with nowhere near the same results....
I decided to do it that way mainly that if I ever had to use anyone else's kit I wouldn't have to faff about too much, though the occasion has never arisen, as I'm not good enough to play live!

[Highfox]

Joe Strummer was left handed but learnt to play right handed machine gun style guitar.
I'm also a bit mixed up left and right handed, as well as being left-eyed which effects me more with anything with eye hand coordination.

Edited November 19, 2011 by Highfox

[Gareth Hughes]

Another one here. Not logical at all - in that when I'd play snooker it was with my left hand but when I tried golf it was with my right. Most other things are evenly split. Sometimes get confused with knives and forks.

[dudewheresmybass]

Me too. I learned cello in school, but lefty is not an option with the violin family- no real idea why!
It makes total sense to me to have my strong hand on the neck.
Ive tried to learn lefty but I can only do very simple stuff.
Btw I write left, bat (cricket/ rounders etc) either way, but use a mouse with my right
I wah with my left foot too now I think of it!

[Big_Stu]

[quote name='scalpy' timestamp='1321698639' post='1442024']
I know Mark Knopfler and Noel Gallagher are reported to be the same, and have seen photos of Jimi Hendrix writing lyrics with his right, who else is cross wired with their playing?
[/quote]

Duck Dunn is - Steve Cropper told me - who is also similarly "afflicted".

[JohnFitzgerald]

Drums - left handed, but open handed. I can't help but lead with my left hand.
Snooker cue - left handed.
Golf club - right handed.
Writing - left hand.
Hammer - left hand.
Screwdriver - put them in with the right, take them out with the left.
Trombone - right handed.
Guitar / bass - as above, right handed.
Mouse - right hand.
Cutlery - traditional, fork left hand, knife right hand.
Scissors - left hand. Try that with those modern handed scissors. Grrrr..


Now, I'm not sure whether I'm left or right handed.

[Badass]

Lefty playing right here too...

Although after reading the post above I am unsure now if I'm left or right handed, as I do many of those mentioned above

[LawrenceH]

Another one here...I've often puzzled over why, maybe I should string one bass up backwards and give it a go, perhaps I'll be wicked at it!

[Merton]

[quote name='Gareth Hughes' timestamp='1321711230' post='1442275']
Sometimes get confused with knives and forks.
[/quote]
Me too. Weird, innit?

[scalpy]

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1321715726' post='1442337']
Duck Dunn is - Steve Cropper told me - who is also similarly "afflicted".
[/quote]

That's made my day- he's my all time bass hero. With regards to scissors, left hand, but right handed ones, left handed ones should be for Ned Flanders only.

[G-77]

im a lefty that plays to the right, always have , never even though of playing left! , I do most thing left handed these days but was more ambidextrous when i was younger.

Just wondering if any one else who plays like this is Dyslexic or Dyspraxic as well?

Snooker cue - left handed.
Golf club - right handed.
Writing - left hand.
Tools - usually left but and be right if needed
Guitar / Bass - right handed.
Mouse - Usually Left but sometime Right
Cutlery - Fork Left , Knife Right, but very cack-handed with knife.
Scissors - left hand.

[BigRedX]

AS I've said in the past when this subject has come up...

I'm very left-eyed which means that for anything to do with using my eyes I'm left handed. Other things it's a bit of mixture. I write right-handed, but then I'm of an age and education that left-handed writing would not have been an option (although I can't remember being forced to write right-handed).

The first time I picked up a guitar it was as if to play it left handed. However I immediately realised that this was the wrong way round and I learnt right handed. I'm really glad that I did since the options for left handed guitarists and bassists are very poor and I'd be limiting my options too severely if I had to plat left-handed instruments.

[leftybassman392]

TRAITORS! You're all just a bunch of Pinko Commie Lefties! A pox on all of you!


You mark my words, when the revolution comes you'll be the first up against the wall (though in no particular order vis-a-vis your actual placement against said wall of course, since doing so would be to show favouritism, and that would be a breach of party discipline.... or at least it will be when the revolution comes).

In fact I'll volunteer to strangle you all with your own Labella flats. You see if I don't!

[Dave D]

I play bass in the right handed way, and everything else left handed.

I used to sign write with poster paints left handed and it would smudge all over the place. I eventually learned to write/paint backwards, much to the amusement of the stores customers.

[risingson]

I'm a lefty but I play right handed, fortunately! (There's a lot more choice bass wise).

[Silvia Bluejay]

Bless. I just wish all of us played left-handed, as that would give companies an incentive to market more lefty models.

I'm a lefty who was taught to write with her right hand 'by mistake', apparently (I was very little and they hadn't realised...).
That's bad enough an experience for an entire lifetime, so my bass guitars are all lefty, and the upright I bought right-handed is now a lefty as well, after I spent an afternoon re-stringing, bridge overturning/filing and nut filing/adjusting with cork some time last year. I love it.

I tried righty basses when I was a beginner; while my left hand felt like it could easily learn to both pluck and fret, the right hand simply appeared to refuse to learn how to pluck, so lefty it was from then on...

Edited November 20, 2011 by bluejay