handedness (left or right)

How about left-handed violins? There's no reason you couldn't play one left handed but I've never seen one in an orchestra in the violin section. Maybe they're banned from orchestras as they'd be poking their neighbours eye out with the bow. :D

Now a couple of questions for experienced lefties who play left handed. When you see chord and scale boxes/ diagrams etc shown for right handers, is it easy to make the mental adjustment? Does it become second nature, to the extent that if you saw them written left handed, you'd have to convert them back to the usual right handed way to make sense of them?
I'm asking because when I make software tools/ trainers for guitarists for my web site. I'm always conscious of neglecting left handers. I often wonder if I should make reverse copies of some of them for lefties - or if that would just be a lot of work for little gain.

There are left handed violins, I know a young lady in a bluegrass band that plays one and plays it extremely well.

I play left handed and have no trouble converting chord charts in my head. Lefties are for the most part very adaptable people. Probably because in general we are more intelligent and artistic than righties. :wink:

I play left handed and have no trouble converting chord charts in my head. Lefties are for the most part very adaptable people. Probably because in general we are more intelligent and artistic than righties. :wink:

And it looks cool on the stage too. 8)

While I'm right handed and play a right handed guitar, I don't think as either hand being more important than another. There are instances where the right hand is more important (when strumming a fast rhythm for example, where there are very little actual chord changes) and instances where the left hand is more important (bending strings and playing a very fast legato line). I think the most important thing is how each hand works together, you could have the fastest hands in the world when you use them independently, but it would be hard to sound good without good synchronization.

That being said, I think that it doesn't really matter if you're left or right handed but rather how much you practice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-laAbV07zFQ

On that note, is this guy amberdexterious or does he just have too much time on his hands?

amberdexterious

Wow, that's a good word - I hope it was a deliberate mis-spelling, but even if it wasn't, I think you ought to copyright it... looks good on paper, sounds good too!

I'm more ambidexatrocious*....I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!

:D :D :D

Vic

*Ambidexatrocious - I can make appalling noises with either hand!

Vic you gotta have some confidence man!!!

Ive seen you on some of your posts saying you gotta be good, man you gotta have some confidence, cause when you play with confidence, you sound better!

OK I just wanted to say that lol.

*poof* continue with your discussion...

amberdexterious

Wow, that's a good word - I hope it was a deliberate mis-spelling!

I think he was trying to spell "ambeerdextrous" - drinking with a beer in each hand. :lol:

I'm left handed. I write left handed but do most other things (use a mouse, scissors, etc) right handed, so I figured once again I would make life easier and just play guitar right handed. Strumming doesn't work so well for me and forget about using a pick, I can't do it.

I have always been curious if playing left handed would make any difference, so I recently bought a cheap beginner left handed guitar to try. I figured I am still very new to it, so if I switched now it wouldn't be that much time lost. So far, re-learning the chords hasn't been too bad and my strumming is better left handed. Also, when playing right handed with my former teacher I used to have a hard time looking at what his fretting hand was doing and then translating it in my brain to my left hand. Doing it left handed and being a mirror image to the other player is much easier for me to do. I haven't tried much finger picking yet because I am still trying to get my right hand used to making the chords correctly, but what little I did try seems easier to do right handed.

It's too early to tell but I kind of hope it doesn't work out to be better lefty because then I have to sell my Tele and get a left handed one. Either that or just learn songs both ways and have one of each. :P

How about left-handed violins? There's no reason you couldn't play one left handed but I've never seen one in an orchestra in the violin section. Maybe they're banned from orchestras as they'd be poking their neighbours eye out with the bow.

That's pretty accurate. In a symphony, violins sit two to a "desk" (music stand), and if they aren't bowing exactly the same way, there might be collisions. On top of that, the string section should be phrasing everything the same way every time, or the results can get unpredictable.

So the "concertmaster" - the first chair of the first violin section - makes the technical decisions... for ALL the strings (although some might delegate sections to the first chair cello etc, the concertmaster is still the one responsible). They mark up the master with when to up-bow and when to down-bow... using the same symbols guitarists use for up-stroke and down-stroke. After the score is marked, it's given to the orchestra librarian, who copies the bowing marks and any other performance notes to all the scores before the first rehearsal.

I'm sure there are plenty of left handed symphony violinists. But just like left handed concert pianists, the instrument setup is a given - they just have to adapt.