Right handed vs. left handed

[Yuletide]

I've never understood why there are right handed and left handed guitars and mandos. There aren't right and left handed pianos. And I've never met a left handed fiddler who bowed with his/her left hand. Why are guitars and mandos different?

Given how closely the right and left hands work together on a mandolin, it's hard for me to imagine that there's anything more than convention behind "handedness" on these instruments. But the demand for left handed instruments would seem to indicate that I'm missing something. Any left handers care to explain?

[violmando]

I'm not a leftie, but I'm a public school strings teacher and in the classical world, there is no such thing as a left handed violinist--or there didn't USED to be. So when parents tell me their child is a leftie, I tell them it's an advantage, because in my 19 years of teaching, I have found it usually gives a student an edge when they start out---left handed students (keep in mind, my students are 9, 10 or 11 years old) have more co-ordination since that's their fingering hand. By the time they are older, I don't think handed matters as much, but at that age, I REALLY see a difference! Now I could see where it would be different with adults, so Lefties, where are you? Especially on guitar, with fingerstyle....
Yvonne in Ohio

[Jason Holmes]

Interesting, this reminds me of the days when left handedness was considered an affliction, and schoolteachers would make the lefties learn to write righty, regardless of how awkward it felt to them.

I'm a righty, and having tried to play left handed (of course on left handed instruments) out of curiosity, I'll say it was tremendously awkward for me. It felt so un-natural, literally backward, it made me realize how natural it feels for me as a righty to play a right handed instrument. I assume the same would be the case if I were a lefty, just with a left handed instrument.

[bradeinhorn]

hendrix man, hendrix.

[sunburst]

This has come up on here before.
It is my opinion, and the opinion of many others, righty and lefty, that you don't play right handed or left handed. You play both handed. You have to train each hand to do it's job on the instrument, either picking/bowing or fretting/stopping. It is an advantage to the lefty to learn "righty" because playing "lefty" severely limits the number of instruments available.

Despite that opinion, however, several left handed people posted and said that they had struggled for years on right handed instruments, and eventually tried left handed instruments out of frustration. They said, once they got past the initial challenge of re-training both hands, that they progresses much faster and farther on the instrument playing left handed. Can't argue with that...

[Lefty&French]

Hello righties! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Jason Holmes]

Well put, we do indeed play both handed.

[Eddie]

FWIW, the three best guitarists I know personally are lefties playing right-handed. They do everything else lefty (writing, shooting, etc...).

[ab4usa]

I've tried righty and it was a non starter. I just don't have the dexterity to pick cleanly and accurately with my right hand (not that I'm all that fast anyway). When, as a child, my mother made me take piano lessons, it was much easier to play the bass line. Didn't seem to matter mutch with a clarinet though.

[Brady Smith]

I've never met a left handed fiddler who bowed with his/her left hand.
Introducing one of the most talented fiddler's...a true lefty...Molly Cherryholmes.


http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j230/bsmith712/0720Molly-Kate-Cherryholmes.jpg

[John Flynn]

I never help my wife cook because she bought all left handed pans. The handles point the wrong direction for me. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[gospelman]

I'm a lefty but play the mandolin and guitar righty. #I don't believe it is too much of a disadvantage because using a pick with my right hand is pretty much a gross motor skill. #I don't have to use all of my fingers on my non-dominant hand, just my wrist. #The only instrument where it would seem to make a huge difference would be everyone's favorite, the BANJO! #I couldn't imagine ever getting that finger roll going with my right hand. #I wonder if there are any lefties that play the banjo right handed?

[DryBones]

Interesting, this reminds me of the days when left handedness was considered an affliction, and schoolteachers would make the lefties learn to write righty, regardless of how awkward it felt to them.

I'm a righty, and having tried to play left handed (of course on left handed instruments) out of curiosity, I'll say it was tremendously awkward for me. #It felt so un-natural, literally backward, it made me realize how natural it feels for me as a righty to play a right handed instrument. #I assume the same would be the case if I were a lefty, just with a left handed instrument.
EXACTLY...I am a lefty and tried playing guitar right hand about 10 years ago and gave it up because it was too awkward. Also, If you are looking for a lefty fiddle player you don't have to look any further than The Cherryholmes. Young Molly is a fine, fine fiddler and those twin fiddles facing each other as they play are fun to watch live.
One last thing for those of you who don't see the big deal in a lefty having to convert to right handed instruments, why don't you try playing a lefty for a week or so and see how easy it is to adjust. What's the big deal? afterall, if a lefty can learn to play right then a righty should be able to play left no problem. Try it, I dare you and then tell me we should all be the same.

Niles..you are the exception. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Jim Broyles]

I never help my wife cook because she bought all left handed pans. The handles point the wrong direction for me. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Half the nails in my pouch have the heads on the wrong end too. I just throw them across the room to use on the other side.

[ab4usa]

nicely put jason

[Daniel Nestlerode]

Appropo of not much: At a recent family reunion softball game, a cousin said, "Try batting left handed!" #So I did. #Much easier than I thought it would be.

Guitarist Ernie Isely of the Isley Brothers, a righty, taught himself to play left handed. #He's got guitars for each direction now.

I'm not sure what any of this means really, but I suspect that handedness can be overcome. #Since about 90% of the population is right handed, lefties are most often the ones who need to switch hit.

Daniel

[mcH]

I'm not a leftie, but I'm a public school strings teacher and in the classical world, there is no such thing as a left handed violinist--or there didn't USED to be.
Take a look at the two fiddlers in Cherryholmes. One plays with the fiddle on the left shoulder, the other with the fiddle on the right shoulder. I don't know which one you'd say is playing "left handed", but it's odd to watch them both play together.

[sunburst]

...for those of you who don't see the big deal in a lefty having to convert to right handed instruments, why don't you try playing a lefty for a week or so and see how easy it is to adjust. What's the big deal? afterall, if a lefty can learn to play right then a righty should be able to play left no problem. Try it, I dare you and then tell me we should all be the same.
With all due respect, that is like the whole metric system argument. The Problem is converting.
If I started learning left handed, it would probably take me years to get the hang of it, just like it took me years to get the hang of playing righty. Now that I (sort of) know how to play righty, converting to lefty would be too new of a trick for this old dog!

[Chris Biorkman]

I don't think it really holds you back that much playing right handed if you are left handed. My lefty brother plays guitar, banjo, and dobro right handed and has no problem with it. He thinks it actually helps but that might just be his opinion.

However, he does have problems at the dinner table. He always used to insist on sitting on my right growing up and he would bump my elbow constantly. He should have learned to eat right handed as well. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[DryBones]

...for those of you who don't see the big deal in a lefty having to convert to right handed instruments, why don't you try playing a lefty for a week or so and see how easy it is to adjust. What's the big deal? afterall, if a lefty can learn to play right then a righty should be able to play left no problem. Try it, I dare you and then tell me we should all be the same.
With all due respect, that is like the whole metric system argument. The Problem is converting.
If I started learning left handed, it would probably take me years to get the hang of it, just like it took me years to get the hang of playing righty. Now that I (sort of) know how to play righty, converting to lefty would be too new of a trick for this old dog!
John,
With all due respect the whole argument is why should we convert if left is our natural state. Why should anybody do something opposite to their natural disposition? AND why would anybody start up this old controversy again unless they are having a slow night and wanted to cause some trouble. I say we should all just walk away from it. I know I am.

[cooper4205]

I think its a legitimate question, I don't see where the OP was doing any flaming. now lets all calm down, remember its just the internet:mandosmiley:

[sunburst]

I'm certainly not trying to stir up trouble, but I don't see it as converting unless you already play one way or the other. When learning from scratch, you have to train each hand to do something different, and that's the time to make the decision whether to train the right hand to pick or fret and whether to train the left hand to pick or fret. The availability of instruments is a strong argument in favor of learning "righty", and it is a fact that left handed people and right handed people can and do learn to play "the other way", so it is the choice of the individual. Most can learn just fine either way, some cannot.

As to the answer to the original question, I don't know why guitars, mandolins, and banjos (mostly) are more often made "left handed" than violins, pianos, clarinets, trumpets, flutes, etc..

[mandocrucian]

It is my suspicion/belief that ambidexterity increases "intelligence". It increases the amount of neural circuitry in the brain, and adds alternate circuits that "programs" can also run through. Kids with learning problems often have poor cross-hemispherical transmission, and are often phyically clumsy as a result. Cross-lateral physical exercises helps counteract that, and also has been shown to increase attention spans and the capability to absorb ideas and data more readily. (Go to the library and check out Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head (http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Moves-Learning-Your-Head/dp/0915556375/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7594662-5371945?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184111631&sr=8-1) by Carla Hannaford.)

The ranks of the acknowledged historical genii have a much higher percentage of lefties than the 10% of the general population. I would imagine that all of these had become fairly ambidextrous - DaVinci became totally ambidextrous (and trained himself to do so). Did all the extra wiring from having to train their non-dominant side help to push these already smart people to a higher mental level? Pentium 2 to Pentium 3.

Niles H

[swampy]

Way to go Niles! i definetly will check out the book. Having worked with kids with disabilities before, I have noticed a connection with motor skills and intelligence, etc.

[andermuffins]

As to the answer to the original question, I don't know why guitars, mandolins, and banjos (mostly) are more often made "left handed" than violins, pianos, clarinets, trumpets, flutes, etc..

The general types of motion that each hand goes through on the piano, flute, clarinet, bagpipe, etc. are fairly similar to each other. Admittedly, on the piano the right hand might be playing a more complex line, but it's still hitting the same type of keys with the same general sorts of motions as the left.

For the fretted instruments, I have decided for that in my own (righty) case, that while fretting appears at first to be the more complicated and difficult skill, the fact that the fretting hand is usually braced around the neck makes its task much easier. The picking hand must find its way around while (ideally, to me) being braced on the instrument somewhere up on the forearm and still find the right little, narrow string and strike it just so to make a pretty tone. Since pretty much all the nuance, tone and rhythm come from the picking hand, it seems like that one needs to be pretty strong.

As to the violins, maybe people get their eyes poked out in the orchestra if there's a lefty packed in there http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif and I have no idea about trumpets.

[bryce]

A good friend of mine plays fiddle bowing with left hand. The wierd part is he plays a right handed fiddle. He also plays giutar,banjo, and mandolin upside down.(right handed instruments played left handed). I guess its all where you start from. David

[Chad Thorne]

I can speak to this. I played guitar and fiddle righty many years until an injury to my left arm, with nerve damage, obliged me to stop. I can pick or bow with my left hand but not fret/stop strings. I learned to play lefty and now play gtr., bass, mando and fiddle lefty, on lefty instruments.

When my son, a true lefty, wanted to start to learn guitar I urged him to start righty, mainly because finding instruments and learning material geared to lefties is such a PITA. He now plays guitar, righty, wonderfully well.

So handedness can be - well, I don't like to say "overcome," but certainly less of a barrier than we might think right out of the gate, though some lefties do report having no success at trying to play righty. The only thing about an insistence on, say, violinists being right-handed that irritates me is the undisguised arrogance and elitism of it, especially in the classical world. The only reason I've ever heard for that insistence is that "we need all the bows going in the same direction." Please...

If you're interested you might take a look at the website of Ryan Thomson, a.k.a. "Captain Fiddle," http://home.tiac.net/~cfiddle/. He posits that playing fiddle lefty is a better way to do it and everybody ought to! (By the way he interviewed me for his book. You know, in case you're interested #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif )

[jmcgann]

McCartney, man, McCartney! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Calvin]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Yuletide]

It is my opinion, and the opinion of many others, righty and lefty, that you don't play right handed or left handed. You play both handed. You have to train each hand to do it's job on the instrument, either picking/bowing or fretting/stopping.
That's pretty much always been my take on it. When I started playing guitar, I played it "right handed" because that's how I was told to play it. It felt terribly awkward, even though I'm right handed. But I have no doubt that if I had flipped it around and tried to play it lefty, it would still have felt awkward. It felt awkward because I was trying to do something for which my body hadn't been trained.

I guess what I was getting at with the original question was not any suggestion that lefties shouldn't play left handed instruments, but rather WHY is a right handed guitar right handed and a left handed guitar left handed? What is it about the things we do with our hands on guitars or mandos that makes it more natural to play them one way rather than the other? What facility do we need to strum/flat pick/finger pick that makes it easier to do that with our dominant hand that what we do with our subdominant (just kidding) hand? Is what's usually called "left hand technique" somehow less demanding?

[Mandolusional]

i'm a lefty who tried guitar right handed back in highschool, and interestingly the dexterity to do it was not an issue and was perhaps easier than playing lefty for me. However, psychologically it irritated me to play right-handed. Now I play left-handed mandolin and I don't feel that vexation. Another reason I'm glad to play left-handed, one I wouldn't have thought of when I began, is the calouses that develop on the fretting hand. I don't know I'd want that numbness on my dominant hand fingertips.

[picksnbits]

I guess you'd have to trace back through the history of stringed instrument development to answer why strumming is done by the dominant hand and fretting by the other.

If the first stringed instruments were bows (as in bow and arrow) stood up on a hollow log and plucked, then you can kinda see why the plucking would have been done with the dominant hand. That's not much different than a wash-tub bass and you can see that you'd just naturally do the plucking with your dominant hand there too.

[Big Joe]

Back to the original question as I read it. The reason there are left handed guitars and mandolins is becuase they have to be braced differently from right handed. Since the bracing helps with the tone and the way the tension is applied across the plane (headstock to where the strings attach), just changing strings will not give the same results as having the correct instrument. Since a piano is not braced differently for different handedness it would not need a right handed or left handed fiddle. I have seen lefty fiddles though. The brace is on the other side from a right handed fiddle. That is much easier to change than mandolin bracing though.

If you are talking about F style mandolins ther are some obvious alterations that have to be done with that whole scroll thing if you were to play it upside down also. It would really through your balance off.

I know lefties who play right, and righties who can play left, so I don't know that has anything to do with anything. One can learn to make the physical adjustments IF they really want to. However, not everyone would want to. I certainly don't want to learn to play left. I have enough trouble playing right http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif ! Just my opinion.