Calling all lefties - Stringed instruments - Any advice for parents and aunties of left-handed kids?

michelew
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Sat Dec 29, 2012 12:38 am

Hey everyone,

Mark (sorry if I have it wrong) and any other lefties out there, I'm hoping you can give me come advice about instruments for left-handed kids. I've just discovered that one of the kids in my family is left-landed. We gave the kids ukuleles and they are all right-handed ones. I'm planning to either restring one or if that doesn't work because the nut slots are the wrong size, then try to find a left-handed one. I've been looking to see whether there are any manufacturers who make left-handed ukes for kids and a couple of sites are saying that they are very hard to find, especially inexpensive ones and that left-handed kids are better off learning right-handed so they have more options. I can't help thinking that the information was written by a right-handed person.

The info I've read so far is suggesting that left-handed kids should just learn to play right-handed because all of the tab and chord charts are set up that way and they will have a hard time learning without those resources. It also says that if they learn left-handed then they will have trouble finding lefty instruments. I get all of that, but I can't help thinking that making a left-handed kid play right-handed is just torture.

What would you lefties and teachers and parents of left-handed kids recommend? Are kids better off learning right-handed so they can access tab and chord charts (there must be a way of flipping theses electronically) and more instruments, or is it better to find left-handed instruments for them? I'm lending towards the latter. Is there a lesser evil in these crappy options?

Thanks in advance.

Shel

Edit - well the iPhone/iPad chord finder apps for both guitars and ukuleles allow you to set them up for lefties, so that's one myth busted.

Are there any ways of changing the tab? GuitarPro has a left option, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

How hard is it to read the tab upside down?

Thanks again

Shel


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Music Junkie
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Sat Dec 29, 2012 2:19 am

Shel:

I am "SEVERELY" left handed..... ;)

I did not take up the guitar til I was 38, so it is tough for me..... I CAN NOT keep a timely strum with my right hand, so I had to play left handed. I am very comfortable with it in every way other than trying to buy new guitars. The selection at 99% of the stores is sadly lacking....

Neil has chimed in on this before and he recommended to learn right handed ( if I remember correctly). I would say that if the person could keep rhythm going with their right hand, or could learn to, right handed is the way to go. Sounds strange maybe, but I hope it makes sense. The whole world of guitar is really set up for the righty (don't tell me that, as you might crush my spirit.... :woohoo: )

J


cosmicmechanic
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Sat Dec 29, 2012 2:41 am

Michele, my daughter's boyfriend is in a Beatles tribute band (plays Ringo),
and the musician who plays Paul is right-handed but actually learned to play left-handed for the role.

Your question makes me somewhat more curious about that ... seems not an easy task !

And it's a hoot when my (left-handed) 6 year old grandson is here and asks for my ukulele so we can play together :)

So far, I've corrected his natural hold on the instrument, so he holds it as a righty ... still a work in progress,
but I also wonder if it's "right" to force this.

Pierre


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neverfoundthetime
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Sat Dec 29, 2012 5:55 am

I can't add too much to this discussion in terms of musical instruments but I do know a thing or two about swinging rackets with the "wrong" hand and the learning process. Basically, its possible to learn "the other way around" and can produce an advantage or two. Raffa Nadal is not a naturally left handed player, his uncle Tony taught him to play left so as to gain an advantage over other players who are not used to playing lefties as there are not so many of them. Its worked for him but he became a world class player long before his service caught up with him... it was always weaker due to the "unnatural" movement of throwing with the left hand as a natural righty (try it and you'll see how hard it is). It seems that Left/right -edness is hard-wired into the body and brain and to go against the grain is very, very tough going. If started very young, progress will be much better but it is an up-hill slog. The later you start with this process, the harder it will be and it will probably be unsuccessful unless there is a massive amount of motivation and patience behind it. Maybe the best way to understand this is that the brain has to re-wire an entire network across the board in a right-handed biased network system. Very time consuming and more practice intensive than going with the grain.

My vote is stay with the natural wiring. Hope that helps! ;)


AcousticAl
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Sat Dec 29, 2012 6:08 am

Hmmmm......I think in general guitarteachers would recommend playing as a rightie. (Neil does too.)

I do have a couple of students who are lefties, but are playing a righthanded guitar. (one plays just fine, but when playing air-guitar, she automatically plays as a lefty again, funny actually!) But also a few lefties who play as such and have no problem reading tab etc. You just need to get used to that, I mean the reading upside down thing. It often takes a second, but that's it.

Then again, what would a leftie do when he wants to play, for example, the piano? You sure can't flip thát one? :laugh: You get my point?

Then again again :P , Chris makes some very good points here too.

I'd say, try it out, you already gave him a ukelele, just see how it goes.

Ness :)


michelew
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Sat Dec 29, 2012 7:50 am

Thanks everyone.

Our lefty is seven and she's doing OK with learning a couple of chords playing as a rightie. She's having fun which is the main thing of course. But, she does seem to be picking up the uke and switching hands too and then she gets a little confused about what the chord looks like. Of course it probably doesn't matter to some extent with a uke, playing upside, but I'd like to give her a good start.

A rightie it is for the moment. We've had a bit of a chat about it. We'll see how she find it.

I'm right-handed, but from time to time I deliberately do things with my left hand (like using a mouse - for ages) ... Because I'm just like that....and it drives people crazy when they pick up my mouse and everything is weird. :) my brain adapts and overtime I've learned to do more things with my left hand like using tools. At first i need to think about it and then it becomes automatic. But, that's a choice and I can revert back to my right whenever I like. ...

Nessa - thanks for giving me your teacher's perspective. I was hoping you'd taught lefties at some point. It's interesting to hear that you've seen both and that they can overcome the challenges in front of them. I guess they need to find a way. Good advice. Ta :) and I hear you on the piano.

MJ - I thought you were a lefty too, but I was getting confused. Thanks for your advice. It's good to hear it FROM a lefty.

Chris - I absolutely hear you on the hard-wired thing. Part of me thinks learning an instrument is hard enough, why make it harder by forcing them to play in a way that is unnatural to them.

Pierre - Good luck with your grandson.

I must have missed the thread that discussed this topic last time. So thanks Neil too.

We'll see how we go.

Shel


songman52
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Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:00 am

Michelle, another advantage to playing "the other way" from most is that few people will noodle with your guitar. One of our lead players in our band is left-handed. Naturally, we give him a lot of grief about being backwards, but it really keeps people from picking up his guitars (which he doesn't really like them doing without asking).
As for selections, Southpaw Guitars in Houston has a slew of options. That's where he also gets those hard-to-find left-handed capos, picks, instrument cables and other accessories!

Jerry


michelew
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Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:50 am

Thanks Jerry. Good points all. And those left-hand strings must be a bummer to find too. :)

M.


Catman
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Sun Dec 30, 2012 6:38 am

Shel,

My left-handed nephew started playing a couple of years ago, at about 13. He learned to play leftie (against my advice at the time), but nowadays he says that he regrets not learning to play rightie--mainly because he can't pick up any old guitar that is lying around and play. It's very frustrating when there five right handed guitars at the camp fire, all of them being played worse than you can, and you can't pick one up and show them how it's done!

I think that the left-right bias in the wiring is individual; there will be some who can't change side, others who will find it fairly easy. I would suggest at least starting out right handed, but keeping a close watch to see that it's not becoming an obstacle.

And by the way, I have a rightie friend at work who does the left-handed mouse thing too. But he keeps a right-handed mouse attached to his computer for the times that somebody else needs to use it. You're not alone...

-David


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neverfoundthetime
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Sun Dec 30, 2012 7:42 am

Seven years old, eh, Michele? That's good news as all the possible options are wide open. Maybe the trickiest bit is that its an adult who will have to make the left/right decision for now as the child may find it unsettling to decide on her own. I'm betting she will tend to lefty instrument if given the choice. Brain research shows that children grow and grow synapses and neural pathways at a massive rate until the age of 10-12 when a process of pruning will take place and the less used, less stable connections and pathways will wither and fade leaving the more stable and better used ones. So there is massive growth of brain potential (in physical terms) until 10-12 then its a consolidation of what's still actively used and a loss of what's not used or needed. So if she's going to become a righty against the grain, she's got 3 - 5 years to get ahead of the curve... but I'm pretty sure that in the same time she'll make better progress as a lefty.


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