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With left-handers using the dominant right side of their brain, they may be more creative than right-handers and music is something where left-handers seem to have a natural advantage. However, set against that are the practical difficulties of obtaining left-handed instruments and finding teachers that can help you to play them left-handed!
Most instruments require the right hand to be more dexterous (which isn’t a pun!). The digital piano is an obvious example, but even a trumpet is difficult to play left-handed.
We are producing a series of articles about how left-handers get on with various instruments and would be very interested in your comments and feedback – please add any thoughts or experiences you would like to share as comments at the bottom of this page.
Left-handed music links
Uncommon Sound – The left-handed guitarists that changed music
Left-handers and wind instruments
Our survey on school experiences – Music
We did a wide-ranging survey on lefthanders’ experiences at school (click here to see the full survey results) and there were certainly some interesting comments about music and instruments.
Of the people who play guitar, 49% said they play left-handed (strumming the strings with the left hand) and the same percentage, 49% said that they had been allowed to make their own choice of which way to play.
These were not the same people – it is just a coincidence that they both come to 49%! A closer look at the answers shows that roughly half of the people who play right-handed were forced to play that way (even though they are naturally left-handed).
Interestingly (and a bit confusing!) half of the people who play left-handed also said this this method was not their own choice. From looking at their detailed comments, they seem to have made this answer because, being left-handed, they had no option but to play that way rather than that they were coerced to play that way by someone else.
| I have a son who is also left-handed and wanted to play guitar. We considered it easier for him to learn the right-handed way as there are not many left-handed instructional books available at the local music store and the likely availability of a music teacher that could teach left-handed. |
| I naturally hold a guitar backwards, but since the guitar was made for right-handers, I learned that way. |
| ok, it’s not actually guitar but the upright bass, which is made with the sound post off centre so the larger strings are receiving more support, to restring a bass would collapse the body, I could have a custom made but that may cost $5000 at the VERY least |
*** Click here to see the full list of comments about guitars and stringed instruments ***
38% of people said that being left-handed made some musical instruments more difficult to learn and play. These were some of their comments:
| Most instruments require the right hand to be more dexterous (which isn’t a pun!) The piano is an obvious example, but even a trumpet is difficult to play left-handed. |
| Balancing a flute without hitting the next person was sometimes a challenge, but actually pretty funny for the teachers. |
| Actually, it made playing cello easier, because (once you get past the beginning stages) the left hand actually requires more fine-motor coordination. |
*** Click here to see the full list of comments about musical instruments ***
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I’ve been playing the drum for two years. I still have to take my exam. My tutor is left-handed as well. Sometimes I still think I still have much to learn. Being in the minority is not easy but I love music and love my drums and that’s what counts.
i’ve been playin guitar for 36 years. i originally wanted my guitar strung lefthanded, but my music teacher told me i’d be able to chord faster being lefthanded, and right hand’d be used for strumming/picking need not be as fast, as a rule.
Whoever told you that you could change chords faster is talking rubbish. Another gem is that playing right handed is an ‘industry standard’. The truth is your pick (or fingerpicking) hand does most of the work. Think about it, if it’s an advantage to play with your dominant hand on the fretboard then right handers are playing the wrong way round. I am left handed and teach left handed beginners guitar; my starting point is that it feels natural to hold a guitar with the neck to the right rather than ask which hand a person writes with.
I am learning to play guitar. I tried for a few months to play “right-handed” but struggled with the awkwardness of holding the guitar and trying to form the chords with my left hand. Finally I bought an eledtric guitar with 3 pegs on each side and simply re-strung it, moved the screw for the strap and have had a great deal of comfort and success now. I have had sever al right handed players tell me it is easier to learn to play right handed given that I have never played before, they really couldn’t know that to be true. I can tell you I was about to give up my dream of learning to play. Not anymore! I plan on purchasing a TRUE left handed made guitar in the near future.
I play a few musical instruments and have found being left handed a distinct advantage when learning the piano. My right hand could do the melody because it had the more dominant sound but my left hand was okay because it didn’t require so much looking at on my part; being the dominant hand it was easier for me to learn to play the bass line than for right handers.
And some wind instruments seem to me to be set up for left handers. The drums, well, I learned those too but you can set them up either way.
Being able make music was more important than the handedness….although I can’t do stringed instruments as I can’t work out which way I want to play them.
Similar to one of the comments in tan above, I learned to play the acoustic guitar strumming/ picking with my right hand & the left hand forming the chords & notes. I found it was MUCH better that way, as I found it more challenging to get my hand & fingers positioned on the neck of the guitar than to pick/strum the strings. I wondered why any right-handed person would want to play the guitar that way!
I totally agree; I’ve been playing guitar and other string instruments for 10 years. I’m left-handed and have found that advantageous when forming the chords on a right-handed guitar. I also fingerpick almost exclusively, and find that it is easier for my right hand to adjust to fingerpicking patterns.
Some left handed people do play right handed the late Gary Moore and Steve Morse are examples. Yet Jimi Hendrix played left handed and he learnt from other guitarists from around Seattle; unless Seattle is the world centre for left handed guitarists then it’s safe to assume that Jimi learnt mostly from right handed players. Paul McCartney tried to learn guitar right handed but got nowhere until he switched: I skipped trying to learn right handed, but it’s only during the last ten years that I actually made any progress. A few left handed players are in fact right handed. The only rule is to play the way that feels natural to you.
I am left-handed and learned to play drums right handed because at that time there was no one to tell me otherwise. I just watched other drummers and unfortunately for me they were all right handed and set there kit up that way. To explain. A right handed drummer, playing a standard five-drum kit, sets his kit up in the following way.
Hi-hat on the left, played with left foot, bass drum on the right, played with right foot. The snare drum is directly in front of the drummer, between his knees and the small and medium toms are attached to the bass drum as follows:
From left to right in a curve starting with small tom, medium tom and finally the floor tom. As the name implies it rests on the floor on three steel legs or (sometimes on modern kits) a stand, in which case it is called a “floating” tom.
If you looked at the set-up in a mirror you would see how a left-handed drummer would set his kit up.
Playing drums properly requires a very high degree of independence of limbs. In other words you should be able to perform four different actions, or rhythms, with all four limbs simultaneously without any of your limbs being influenced by the other. It’s a bit like rubbing your belly and tapping your head – only much more difficult, and it takes a lot of practice! As far as handedness is concerned the top drummers in the world can perform with both hands with near equal skill.
I have taught both right handed and left-handed people to play drums and I always encourage left-handers to use the left-handed set-up as the most natural for them.
I agree with you 100%.
I am left handed and I play the Organ. I was told that it was more difficult fot a left handed person to learn an instrument.
Did they tell you why? It may well be the case with orchestral instruments but in my opinion it makes no difference with keyboard instrument as it can be technically demanding for both hands.
I have always played the piano for church services and find that my right hand does some creative things with chords/accidentals whilst my right hand bashes out the melody. So in my case, this is an advantage not a disadvantage.