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Gerinski View Drop Down
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Points: 5093 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Left-handed musicians
    Posted: August 13 2014 at 07:07
Some people say that left-handed people may be in principle more adept to creative and artistic talents (their proportional predominance in some sports has nothing to do with intrinsic better potential but only with statistical and practical advantage).

However, while the general average of left-handed people seems to be around 10%, I would say that the number of left-handed musicians I know of, at least in Prog and Rock in general, seems to be much less than this. Out of my head I can think of Paul McCartney, Hendrix, Tony Iommy, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Phil Collins, Rod Morgenstein or Ian Paice, but at any rate surely not 10% of the musicians I know.

Probably with some instruments such as keyboards it is hard to spot them since nearly all of them play right-handed instruments, left-handed pianos and keyboards are very rare or non-existing altogether. Some others may play right-handed instruments out of practicality, even if left-handed guitars and basses are not that rare anymore and drum kits can be assembled in any direction for the same cost. Perhaps the lack of left-handed teachers for them plays a role too?

Any thoughts on the subject? (BTW I'm right-handed Wink)
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Points: 26133 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 08:38
I don't have any reason to believe that the incidence of left-handedness would be any different in musicians compared to the population as a whole.  The apparent discrepancy you see could be explained by factors you already mentioned -- a) left handed people may be harder to spot solely from their musical life, as the only real visible evidence would be their drum setup or if they use a left handed guitar; and b) even if they are left handed, they may have been trained in such a way that allows them to play "as if" they were right handed - e.g. with a standard guitar.  In fact, in both guitar and drums, both hands are more or less equally active when playing, so agility is needed for both anyway.
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Gerinski View Drop Down
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Points: 5093 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 09:23
^ I would say that in nearly every instrument both hands need to be highly active, I don't think that's the point.
In a certain sense you could say that for much guitar playing the left hand needs to be a lot more active and precise than the right hand, which just strums or picks the strings without having to care so much about precise positioning of each finger.

Handedness comes intuitively, when you strum a beat, say a typical drumming beat or guitar strumming, with which hand do you start the beat?

Could the lack of availability of left handed instruments somehow deter left-handed people from learning to play an instrument?


Edited by Gerinski - August 13 2014 at 09:27
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Points: 770 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 12:04
Ollie Halsall was a great left handed guitarists. Sorry to put no insight in to the conversation, but the man deserves a shout out.
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Points: 13389 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 12:11
There are left handed musicians who play their instrumens as right handed. 
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Points: 12794 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 12:18
I'm left handed and not talented. Case closed.
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Points: 1195 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 12:27
Originally posted by octopus-4 octopus-4 wrote:

There are left handed musicians who play their instrumens as right handed. 

I'm a lefty, and I play guitar righty just as described here. More like acclimated to playing righty because none of my friends had lefty guitars.
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Points: 26133 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 12:39
Originally posted by zachfive zachfive wrote:

Ollie Halsall was a great left handed guitarists. Sorry to put no insight in to the conversation, but the man deserves a shout out.
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Gerinski View Drop Down
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Points: 5093 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 12:47
Originally posted by PrognosticMind PrognosticMind wrote:

 
I'm a lefty, and I play guitar righty just as described here. More like acclimated to playing righty because none of my friends had lefty guitars.
But if you think purely intuitively, regardless of the way you have learnt to play guitar, when you hear music and its bars and beats, would you intuitively start the bars with a right-hand stroke or with a left)-hand stroke?
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Points: 1195 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 12:57
Originally posted by Gerinski Gerinski wrote:

Originally posted by PrognosticMind PrognosticMind wrote:

 
I'm a lefty, and I play guitar righty just as described here. More like acclimated to playing righty because none of my friends had lefty guitars.
But if you think purely intuitively, regardless of the way you have learnt to play guitar, when you hear music and its bars and beats, would you intuitively start the bars with a right-hand stroke or with a left)-hand stroke?

I wouldn't (and don't) think in terms of the guitar, but rather in terms of drumming. 

I'd typically start the beat with my left hand, but I can use both hands to keep time and polyrhythms with something like, say, pencils lol.
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 13:05
The idea that lefties are more creative is a myth and related to the left-brain/right-brain myth.


"A survey of 17 professional orchestras in Britain reported that 13% of the musicians were left-handed, slightly, but not hugely, above the national average. "

[no idea where the results of that survey were published, that's just a random fact found on the internet. Actual data is quite hard to find, even the "national average" seems to be a wildly variable number ranging from 10 to 15%]

Paul McCartney wasn't the only left-handed Beatle (technically the other one was left/mixed-handed, but he played drums right-handed [oh what a give-away]).

Fripp is left handed but plays right-handed, as is David Bowie, and John Wetton. They are out there, but as you say, harder to spot.
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Points: 5093 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 13:39
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

The idea that lefties are more creative is a myth and related to the left-brain/right-brain myth.
I may agree that the issue is still controversial, but certainly not a myth. There are certainly studies pointing to different directions, but the concept of right-left hemispheres governing different areas of the human personality and behavior is still the mainstream respected view. However they form only a basis, which can be altered by many other factors.
 
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Points: 10215 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 13:44
I'm left-handed and I learned to play the guitar right-handed because I had no left-handed teacher. It took me longer to play decently but now I have no problem with it.


Edited by Meltdowner - August 13 2014 at 13:45
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 13:58
Originally posted by Gerinski Gerinski wrote:

Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

The idea that lefties are more creative is a myth and related to the left-brain/right-brain myth.
I may agree that the issue is still controversial, but certainly not a myth. There are certainly studies pointing to different directions, but the concept of right-left hemispheres governing different areas of the human personality and behavior is still the mainstream respected view. However they form only a basis, which can be altered by many other factors.
 
Err.. no it isn't. It is true that there is a degree of lateralisation of brain function with the hemispheres of the brain that deals with different processing functions - for example the left side of the brain controls the motor functions of the right side of the body and vice versa. However, there is absolutely no correlation between that lateralsiation to the psychological aspects of personality and behaviour or whether humans of a particular personality type has a left or right brain dominance. Studies have shown that people do not have a one-sided dominance. It is a myth that simply won't go away because it is an easy metaphor to categorise people with. 



Edited by Dean - August 13 2014 at 13:58
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HolyMoly View Drop Down
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Points: 26133 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 14:02


So this album is meaningless now. Shocked
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Points: 4671 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2014 at 23:19
Originally posted by HolyMoly HolyMoly wrote:



So this album is meaningless now. Shocked
But it does appear that both sides may be left handed.
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Points: 7946 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 14 2014 at 16:32
Originally posted by Gerinski Gerinski wrote:


Originally posted by PrognosticMind PrognosticMind wrote:

 
I'm a lefty, and I play guitar righty just as described here. More like acclimated to playing righty because none of my friends had lefty guitars.
But if you think purely intuitively, regardless of the way you have learnt to play guitar, when you hear music and its bars and beats, would you intuitively start the bars with a right-hand stroke or with a left)-hand stroke?

I'm left handed. I play guitar right-handed. If right handed playing is really right handed playing. I don't subscribe to this. The more dexterous activity is done by the fret hand, which is left hand with the conventional holding of a guitar. I don't understand the question about the left-handed stroke. Only one hand strums on a guitar by necessity. But I have always been a very left hand active with guitar. So, I am very prone to using hammers, pulls, slides, bends and trills to produce notes. If I hit a glitch in my playing, it will more than likely be my picking hand that is responsible. I have struggled quite a bit in the past to incorporate some of Zappa's picking style into my own playing. I consider Zappa very right hand active, and the metrical control that he has over picked notes is something I still regularly attempt to add to my arsenal, but I'm much better at complex metrical control (adding variety in note duration, adding triplets and so on) with my fret hand. Also, the only guitar newbies I've seen pick up the guitar the opposite (supposedly left handed) way have been right handed.

Edited by HackettFan - August 14 2014 at 16:36
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SteveG View Drop Down
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Points: 20504 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 14 2014 at 16:37
^Same deal as Mark Knopfler who I think is a genius. By the way, there were plenty of left handed guitarists that played right hand guitars after inverting the strings but a few left the strings as they were and actually played the guitar completely backwards and upside down. I can think of two. Can you think of any?

Edited by SteveG - August 14 2014 at 16:38
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Points: 1195 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 14 2014 at 17:31
Originally posted by HackettFan HackettFan wrote:

Originally posted by Gerinski Gerinski wrote:


Originally posted by PrognosticMind PrognosticMind wrote:

 
I'm a lefty, and I play guitar righty just as described here. More like acclimated to playing righty because none of my friends had lefty guitars.
But if you think purely intuitively, regardless of the way you have learnt to play guitar, when you hear music and its bars and beats, would you intuitively start the bars with a right-hand stroke or with a left)-hand stroke?

I'm left handed. I play guitar right-handed. If right handed playing is really right handed playing. I don't subscribe to this. The more dexterous activity is done by the fret hand, which is left hand with the conventional holding of a guitar. I don't understand the question about the left-handed stroke. Only one hand strums on a guitar by necessity. But I have always been a very left hand active with guitar. So, I am very prone to using hammers, pulls, slides, bends and trills to produce notes. If I hit a glitch in my playing, it will more than likely be my picking hand that is responsible. I have struggled quite a bit in the past to incorporate some of Zappa's picking style into my own playing. I consider Zappa very right hand active, and the metrical control that he has over picked notes is something I still regularly attempt to add to my arsenal, but I'm much better at complex metrical control (adding variety in note duration, adding triplets and so on) with my fret hand. Also, the only guitar newbies I've seen pick up the guitar the opposite (supposedly left handed) way have been right handed.

^ This is exactly how I've always felt; more power on the fretting hand. My reach is absolutely nuts, and my dexterity across the frets just makes way more sense to me. I'm glad I'm not the only lefty-righty who thinks like this LOL.


Edited by PrognosticMind - August 14 2014 at 17:34
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 14 2014 at 18:12
Originally posted by SteveG SteveG wrote:

a few left the strings as they were and actually played the guitar completely backwards and upside down. I can think of two. Can you think of any?

Dick Dale, Doyle Bramhall II, Dan Swano
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