There were always various stringed instruments around the house when I was growing up. I was playing left handed before taking any lessons. The worst part was trying not to impale my hand on the banjo's fifth peg. My first guitars were a cheap restrung classical and no name dreadnought. I took to fingerpicking like a duck to water, listening to Pentangle, old folk/blues and Ry Cooder.

Steve Morse, in addition to excellent pick control is very adept in playing classical pieces. I used to play in a band with Chris Grooms, who was, I think, the only American to have an album on Transatlantic Records. His right hand coordination was perfect. I was shocked to find out he was lefty, too.

I was at a blues jam session this weekend. Including myself there were two other lefty players, one w/ reversed strings, the other with right hand order. Both were very good players. While on break, Leo DeLaVega (www.thesilvertones.com), the one that didn't reverse strings tried out my lefty Martin HD28. It was a hoot seeing a master musician fumble around on my guitar. But then he handed me his beautiful custom lefty blonde Epiphone Joe Pass archtop and I couldn't do much with it! In other words, there are no rules, dexterity varies between people. Leo learned the way he did because he wasn't allowed to reverse strings on the first guitar that was available to him.

From Russia with love,

quote:

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Originally posted by Guitar Jim:
It seems there's plenty of lefties playing righty, but has anyone heard of a righty playing lefty?

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Just joined the forum as the subject matter aroused my interest. I am a lefty who did not start playing guitar until well into my twenties - tried friends guitars a few times but it just did not happen for me -playing a right handed instrument just felt incredibly awkward.

I eventually bought a guitar when lefty instruments came onto the market and it all just happened from there - thirty years on I am still playing and learning. I am far from a pro but do the odd folk festival and have started playing slide (in public) - I have a Johnson Style O copy but have fitted a National Cone and biscuit bridge, bone nut, professional set up and it sounds OK - Nationals are just incredibly expensive here -much as I would love to own one. The good thing is that the swap over to a lefty is a pretty uncomplicated affair. Back to the topic -

My point is that I think that there are leftys out there who seem to adapt to right handed playing without too much trouble. However, with people like me it is just so hard wired into the brain that fretting with my right hand presents real muscle co-ordination problems. Even now if I pick up any right handed string instrument like a fiddle it just feels impossible. A friend of mine, who is a superb harp player gave me a small celtic harp to play - without any conscious effort I automatically reversed the instrument.

I recently gave a fingerstyle workshop at a folk festival where a young lady turned up playing left handed but with a right handed guitar - she was a performer and played well but how do you teach somebody who plays the treble stings with her thumb -although I understand that Elizabeth Cotten could fingerpick upside down. She was comfortable with her playing and so was the audience -I have no more right to try and change her style than some teachers out there who still try and get lefty's to play right handed -this neanderthal approach might convert a few but many more young students will be lost to the instrument.

In light of all of this, I can understand the point that Bob is making - the rule book just does not apply in every case.

I think that I have said enough for a first timer. Great forum -nice to be able to read and learn.

The only thing I learnt out of that situation was to tune and string guitars. Which ended up being a skill I used later as a Guitar Tech out on tours. Now that that faze of my life is over I found I missed having guitars around. But the idea of just having my favorite one as wall art in my apartment seemed kind of stupid. So, I bought one. After much thought a right handed one. I've never worked with a left handed guitarist ever while on tour and left handed guitars seem somehow wrong to me on first impulse. Plus all my guitarist friends are righties and they were my confidants in the decision. And I'm making my second attempt to learn how to play. As a lefty playing right handed.

So far, all that's here in this forum is turning out to be true. First, it was too hard to find a decent lefty guitar that I liked. ( Of course I have built up a righty bias but with the guitar I wanted and finally bought - Red vintage reissue SG -400. The left handed version I could only find in Black or White. The red one being a custom order here in Canada.) On first try, playing right handed, finding cords and learning scales is far easier than when I attempted it left handed all those years ago. With Righty playing friends and all the guitar web sites out there I was plugging along with basic cords and scales, in between shows calls, quite nicely at first.

However, when I started learning even simple songs. My right hand started to show it's weekness very quickly. Even attempting playing with a pick for the first time, the week after buying the guitar was a fustrating experience. After short practices now I can tell the difference in the strength of my left hand vs, my right hand. It's really quite fancinating how biased we are as human beings.

So, I've found that I need to practice and do warm ups consistantly and focus study on my right hand more than my left. In between guitar practice. I've bought a hand strengthener to use for my right hand and I even practice hand exersizes that Pysotherapists give to patients that have lost the ability to use their dominate hand. basically, I'm learning to be more ambidexturous as a result. So, I wouldn't automatically counsel a Lefty to play the guitar restrung or a lefty version. It 's what seems natural to each of us on first impulse that "right". You just have to make it work.

Years later I was in a car accident and had a severe break to my left index that needed two surgeries to correct, so if I had never switched in the first place I would have really been in trouble. Especially since I was in the final year of my major in guitar performance (as it was, I had to take a year off for therapy to get the finger bending past 90 degrees).

So blah, blah, blah, my boring story. The bad news is that when ever I walk into a store I hope for and almost never see anything worth while. The good news is that I really enjoy searching for and finding great lefties, and I have seen and played some beauties, and even managed to own a few. The best selection I have found in the US is in Houston, Southpaw Guitars, although there are some great places in NYC and a killer store in Lansing, MI Elderly Instruments.

I am just about to purge again, and I am on the hunt anew. So if anyone is intersted, I am selling a Larivee, a Martin D28HDL, an Epiphone Joe Pass, a rare very low serial number c. 1978 G & L Bass (mint) - all factory lefties.