Left or Right Hands; latest contribution by John Compton, 29th April 2007
Published: 2007 Author:
A member wrote to EGTA and sparked off an interesting debate on the relative merits of playing right handed or with the left hand as the plucking hand. The responses it elicited are absorbing:
In the guitar teaching world is there a consensus of opinion about whether left-handed beginners should re-string guitars or learn the same way round as right-handers?
I always advise them to learn in the right-handed manner, as does a left-handed colleague who plays right-handedly, but I sometimes have parents who think this is a form of tyranny rather than a beneficial practice. It would be useful to be able to quote a more authoritative source on the subject.
Ray Black
How many left handed violinists/cellists/clarinetists/flute players, etc, etc..... play the wrong way round? Does Steinway make left handed pianos?
I always find this left handed guitar thing a completely bizarre argument that no other instrumentalist ever quibbles about, they just get on with it and reap the benefits of having much more control over the more strenuous end of things at the beginning than the rest of us do. In any case both hands tend to be equally involved in the process of playing a musical instrument, so why all the fuss? The same could also apply to driving a car, which seems very left hand-centric to me bearing in mind where the gear lever, hand brake, radio and heating controls are positioned, but no one even thinks about that one.
Wendy Jackson
Although I am left-handed myself and play right-handedly, I can't second Wendy's remarks with utter confidence. Like nearly everyone else, I don't have enough personal experience to say either way.
There are a number of orchestral string players who play the other way round -- I've occasionally noticed this watching orchestras on television, when there are close ups. Terje Moe Hansen, professor of violin at the Malmø Academy of Music in Norway -- he has recorded with guitarist Sven Lundestad -- strongly advocates playing left handed to those who are more comfortable that way. As for the piano, take a look at the work of Christopher Seed at www.lefthandedpiano.co.uk! So I don't think it's true to say that it's yet another weird guitar thing.
One reason why many left-handers play right-handed, and very well (like my colleague Ricardo Iznaola), could be because left-handedness is not really comparable to right-handedness. Left-handers are only very rarely mirror images of right handers. Our brains assign activities more evenly, so that often it takes a bit of experimentation to find out which is the more comfortable hand for ostensibly similar activities: I chop food with my right hand but saw with my left; I play cricket right handed but tennis left handed; one of my friends writes with her right hand but draws with her left; and so on. I experience the most difficulty in deciding with delicate tasks. Ambidexterity in left handers is also strongly encouraged by the many tools and household implements that are designed for the right hand, such as scissors and can openers. On starting the guitar I was actually encouraged to play left-handed, but I felt strongly right away that the ordinary way round was the right one for me.
I've always felt intuitively that the customary way is definitely right handed and not a matter of chance or cultural variation, like which side of the road you drive on. It's not a question of which hand works harder, but which hand produces the sound. Just my opinion. One defining guitar activity that no one can avoid is holding down a chord and strumming: since the non-dominant hand prefers to hold things steady -- however much strength it takes -- while the dominant hand does the motion, that might account for the conventional playing position. To what extent plucking and fretting is comparable to strumming is very debatable, but my feeling is that the left hand is more passive than the right in the majority of playing situations. If there's anything in this, then the conventional playing position might feel really awkward only to a child whose aptitude is a mirror image of the average right handed child. According to which study you read, that might be between 1 and 3% of all so-called 'left handers' who come to you for lessons. How to tell them apart from the other students you have who can't seem to progress very far?
To sum up the argument above, the vast majority of left handers will not mind playing the usual way. They will enjoy both advantages and disadvantages compared with their right-handed peers (I've never given my left-hand technique much thought, but I work on simple right- hand exercises every day). Just a few may well prefer to play left- handed, like Paul McCartney. Parents should be reminded, though, that which hand you use to write with is not a completely reliable test of handedness.
Of course it's tempting to point out that there are no well-known classical guitarist who reverse the playing position, but I think that fact could be used to support almost any point of view.
John Duarte told me that he had seen some left-handed players improve their playing quite a bit by changing over. Not that I necessarily trust his authority, but I pass it on for what it's worth. He cited a couple of pupils by name (sorry, I don't remember the names now), and said that it took them about a year to reach the level at which they had got stuck, after which they quickly passed beyond it.
My tentative advice is to assume that the pupil will want to play right handed; it would be wrong to impose a reverse position on the child just because they pick up a pen with their left hand. But if they show a strong preference for playing the other way round, then why not let them? It shouldn't make any difference to those who argue that there's no difference, so you win either way. If they ever get to be concert artists, they'll need to commission the guitar they want from a trusted luthier (something right-handed people have been known to do...).
I never can resist a spot of controversy... I've witnessed a number of debates on this subject and noticed that people get quite passionate about their logic and interpretation of the available evidence, tending to consider the arguments of the other side worthless.
To answer the question in the terms it was asked:
In the guitar teaching world is there a consensus of opinion about whether left-handed beginners should re-string guitars
or learn the same way round as right-handers?
Yes: the majority of teachers believe the conventional way is the only way that need ever be tried.
it would be useful to be able to quote a more authoritative source on the subject.
No scientific study has been done, but those who believe it makes no difference can do their own by reversing the stringing and playing position of all their beginners.
Jonathan Leathwood
Thanks Jonathan, for your insight into the left-handed debate. It's good to hear the argument from the horse's mouth, so to speak, and interesting that you decided the conventional way was the right choice for you. I believe that left-handed people, because our right-handed society, acquire a degree of ambidexterity, and can often be more co-ordinated as beginners as they don't have to worry about getting their left hands to do what they want; I also haven't come across any that have had a problem with plucking. Conversely, I have taught some right-handers who seem to have very little idea that they do actually possess another set of fingers and have real difficulty coping with the concept of co-ordinating the two hands correctly to produce the notes!
(perhaps that's more down to lack of aptitude)
Although you quote instances of other instrumentalists playing the "wrong way round", they really are very much in the minority, and certainly in Britain, I would be surprised if there was anyone currently employed in a professional orchestra who played like this.
Logistically it could be a nightmare if, for example, two cellists sharing a desk were to bow towards each other! The platform simply wouldn't be big enough to accommodate the players with all the extra room required, and there could be injury! This is probably why conventional technique has become the accepted norm.
Apparently, one of the Doppler brothers (who were both flautists and identical twins) did play the other way round, but this was more for the visual mirror effect of the stage show than for anything else, and I believe he was quite unique - no one else has been tempted to follow his example.
I guess that really it's down to personal preference and can't really argue against the points you made, but I do think that all students should be encouraged to play in the conventional way unless they experience a major problem. It hasn't exactly held you or Ricardo Iznaola back so perhaps left-handers should learn to enjoy the advantages their ambidexterity can bring instead of worrying about the difficulties. Let's face it, we all encounter obstacles at some point when we learn an instrument, so the left-handed amongst us really aren't so different from the rest of us after all.
Wendy Jackson