Left-handedness and stringed instruments
Dec. 2nd, 2010 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmcirvinIt's increasingly clear that Jorie is probably left-handed. For a long time, while she switched hands when using a writing instrument, there was one thing she always did consistently: when she picked up her little guitar, she always wanted to pick with her left hand. (These days I usually keep it tuned to an open D tuning, so she can just strum away on the open strings and it sounds all right.)
The most recent time she did it, though, she actually slung it on in righty fashion, imitating me, and started strumming with her right hand--though her writing is getting more consistently left-handed.
Left-handed playing is not unheard of in the world of rock, of course, and I've pointed out to Jorie that Paul McCartney and John Flansburgh and lots of other people play left-handed instruments.
And of course there's Jimi Hendrix, who, well, he was an anomalous case in a lot of ways. It's unclear whether he was even left-handed in the conventional sense.
But in classical music, left-handed instruments are much rarer and playing reversed seems to carry a real stigma. And children's left-handed guitars are harder to find than grown-up ones.
I hear all kinds of stories. There's a common claim that it's actually better for a left-handed person to play right-handed, because they're doing the seemingly more complex job of fingering with their dominant hand. Which raises the question of why right-handers don't play left-handed; with some possible exceptions like Hendrix, they generally don't.
I suspect this is, to some extent, just something music teachers tell left-handed students to convince them to play like everyone else. I'd guess that, for most people, it's actually easier to bow or pluck with your dominant hand, rather than finger, just because that's the more rapid and time-critical motion. But some generally left-handed string players do seem to be happy playing right-handed.
And then there are some who are not. Guitarists who play lefty seem to fall into three categories: those who actually buy left-handed instruments, those who string right-handed instruments in reverse (this is not really feasible for acoustics but can usually be done to a solid-body electric, with some awkwardness), and the really dedicated folk who just learn to play a normally strung righty guitar upside down. (I imagined that this guy would have a whole separate set of go-to chords that would be easier to play this way, but, no, in those photos he's just fingering the familiar open chord patterns with his hand curling the other way around the neck. I guess the human hand can do it.)
For the case of Jorie, it's probably not something I should worry about too much. I suspect that guitar playing isn't a big thing for her anyway. But if she does someday decide to carry it further, I wonder which approach I should advocate. Probably I'll offer to get her a lefty guitar if she wants one.
The most recent time she did it, though, she actually slung it on in righty fashion, imitating me, and started strumming with her right hand--though her writing is getting more consistently left-handed.
Left-handed playing is not unheard of in the world of rock, of course, and I've pointed out to Jorie that Paul McCartney and John Flansburgh and lots of other people play left-handed instruments.
And of course there's Jimi Hendrix, who, well, he was an anomalous case in a lot of ways. It's unclear whether he was even left-handed in the conventional sense.
But in classical music, left-handed instruments are much rarer and playing reversed seems to carry a real stigma. And children's left-handed guitars are harder to find than grown-up ones.
I hear all kinds of stories. There's a common claim that it's actually better for a left-handed person to play right-handed, because they're doing the seemingly more complex job of fingering with their dominant hand. Which raises the question of why right-handers don't play left-handed; with some possible exceptions like Hendrix, they generally don't.
I suspect this is, to some extent, just something music teachers tell left-handed students to convince them to play like everyone else. I'd guess that, for most people, it's actually easier to bow or pluck with your dominant hand, rather than finger, just because that's the more rapid and time-critical motion. But some generally left-handed string players do seem to be happy playing right-handed.
And then there are some who are not. Guitarists who play lefty seem to fall into three categories: those who actually buy left-handed instruments, those who string right-handed instruments in reverse (this is not really feasible for acoustics but can usually be done to a solid-body electric, with some awkwardness), and the really dedicated folk who just learn to play a normally strung righty guitar upside down. (I imagined that this guy would have a whole separate set of go-to chords that would be easier to play this way, but, no, in those photos he's just fingering the familiar open chord patterns with his hand curling the other way around the neck. I guess the human hand can do it.)
For the case of Jorie, it's probably not something I should worry about too much. I suspect that guitar playing isn't a big thing for her anyway. But if she does someday decide to carry it further, I wonder which approach I should advocate. Probably I'll offer to get her a lefty guitar if she wants one.