Left Handed Hogwash?

[theCOOP]

I'm left-handed. Playing 'right handed' just makes sense to me, dominant hand fretting and all...

[BCVegas]

This is a very interesting topic to me. I'm a beginner at the mandolin and am left-handed. The thought of getting a lefty mandolin never occurred to me, because I had a bad accident with a power saw in my youth and picking with my still mangled left thumb just wouldn't be possible.

Lots of good insights here.

[bigskygirl]

This is a very interesting topic to me. I'm a beginner at the mandolin and am left-handed. The thought of getting a lefty mandolin never occurred to me, because I had a bad accident with a power saw in my youth and picking with my still mangled left thumb just wouldn't be possible.

Lots of good insights here.

If you're just starting try lefty, it may work out for you. I know a few and have seen several people with missing, damaged fingers...it doesn't stop them.

[Timbofood]

So BCVegas, my read is that you bought a righty, am I correct?
I say it's a good decision, you can play anyone else's "something cool" at the drop of a hat! The opportunity to play something you've only been told stories about is in your grasp. No waiting to fall into a left handed one.
Those that have committed to the left hand design, more power to you. I'm glad I was too cheap to try to find one forty odd years ago!

[Emmett Marshall]

Those that have committed to the left hand design, more power to you. I'm glad I was too cheap to try to find one forty odd years ago!

[bigskygirl]

[David L]

A true left-handed keyboard would have the bass strings all the way over on the right, gradually going up to treble on the left. Although the most logical solution in keeping with the discussion above would be to forgo chirality altogether and create a mirror image arrangement, with bass right in the middle, going both ways toward treble on both the right and left extremes of the keyboard.

That is the way Kalimbas are arranged. They are diatonic and alternate left and right going up the scale.

[Randi Gormley]

OK, it's been a page or two and I can't remember who said it, but I found the idea that most people (barring typing) who don't play instruments seldom use individual fingers fascinating. Most of the people I know are either typists or musicians, so my observation is pretty limited to strangers who may have hand issues I'm unaware of ... but I wonder if the idea that using individual fingers or both hands simultaneously doing different things (as most musicians do) may be another argument for teaching musical instruments in schools. All those cross brain/coordination connections being strengthened and all. And I wonder, now, whether having played instruments since I was relatively little and being a typist as an adult has actually created strengths and abilities in my non-dominant hand that wouldn't have happened otherwise. I'm pretty much right-handed, but I've never had problems using my left hand when playing instruments or typing and I'll use my left hand to give my right a break if I'm doing any physical task, from washing windows, raking leaves, shoveling snow or whatnot.

My sister and cousin are both left-handed. My sister writes upsidedown -- physically turns the paper upsidedown to write so people standing in front of her can read what she's doing without effort. She bowls right-handed. She played her clarinet and her recorders with correct (right?) fingering and, afaik, never tried to use the opposite hand position. My cousin plays classical guitar -- right-handed. She uses her left for most other tasks. I'll have to ask her if she's ever considered a left-handed guitar.

[BCVegas]

So BCVegas, my read is that you bought a righty, am I correct?
I say it's a good decision, you can play anyone else's "something cool" at the drop of a hat! The opportunity to play something you've only been told stories about is in your grasp. No waiting to fall into a left handed one.
Those that have committed to the left hand design, more power to you. I'm glad I was too cheap to try to find one forty odd years ago!

I bought a righty mandolin, correct. There's no chance I could have enough control with my mangled left thumb. I didn't even consider a lefty mandolin.

[Timbofood]

That is the way Kalimbas are arranged. They are diatonic and alternate left and right going up the scale.

And you use both hands!

[allenhopkins]

That is the way Kalimbas are arranged. They are diatonic and alternate left and right going up the scale.

English-system concertinas are chromatic, alternating left and right hands as you go up the scale. Lower notes closer to you, higher notes farther away. Buttons are in four parallel rows on either side of the instrument; the two interior rows are "white keys of the piano" natural notes, the two outer rows "black keys" sharps/flats.

Playing a "C" scale on the English goes left index, right index, left middle, right middle, repeat. Ring fingers cover "black keys" sharps/flats, and the index fingers "double" to cover not only "white keys," but "black keys."

Hardest instrument I learned, and after 25+ years, I still make lotsa mistakes... But, clearly no dominant hand, and both hands perform the same motions.

Thumbs, by the way, pull the bellows open, and the heels of the hands press it closed.

[Caleb]

Someone may have already mentioned him, but Doyle Bramhall II plays left-handed guitar with the low strings on the bottom. It looks very unnatural but he manages to make it work (understatement).