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So, what are your opinions on a left-handed person who has never played a stringed instrument learning to play on right handed instruments?
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I am naturally left handed but resolved to play a right handed violin.
I learned the drums left handed in my youth. I never got to “step in” with another person’s drum set since it would take a half hour to reverse everything. A problem.
Playing a left handed violin would be a big problem in a section of any orchestra. I have not experienced any problems so far. Any possible lack of strength for bowing resolved itself in the first few months.
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
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I have a friend who is a lefty who plays the cello right-handed and is militant that lefties shouldn't dream of playing left handed!
Andrew
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Steveduf,
That's Is how I play, from necessity, as I'm missing a digit and the dexterity in two other fingers of my right hand to even attempt it.
There are several extremely good fiddle players who play a right handed instrument left handed
When I was 10 I started taking guitar lessons and the teacher wanted my dad to switch the strings around so when I played the strings I a normal orientation,
In the 49 years since I have never encountered another left handed guitar player at jam that I could look and see how another left handed guitars played like, even in stores until the lost 5 to 10 years rarely did you find a left handed guitar and normally there were low end guitars so unless you modified a good right handed one you had no selection.
When I took up the bass guitar I just use a right handed one and play it left handed no issues at all and in a group with a right and left handed player the singers can stand between and you make a nice compact V group that looks good on stage.
Mandolin same thing just have to adjust you strum direction where you up strum on the first strum beat to chop or play open chords where melody lines are just normal up down strokes
Where right handed people have to stretch to get the G string its the E string for us, the only modification I did to mine was to reverse the tuning pegs directions to give me more room to play a Low 1st finger with out hitting the G tuning peg.
And at our age do we ready care what a few folks think, if were having fun and making music most won't notice when there enjoying the music.
That's how I feel about the situation from personal experience.
Mark
Master the Frog and you have mastered the bow.
Albert Sammons
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@@Mark
thanks
something to think about
instrument selection is huge
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I wouldn't worry there are plenty of pro violinists who are naturally left handed but play violin right handed e.g. Nicola Benedetti who is a world class soloist - it doesn't seem to cause her any problems!
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As long as they don't have some kind of disability that prevents the use of the left hand for fingering, I don't see any real disadvantage that lefties have in learning "right-handed" instruments. The violin requires complex motions in both hands that take some effort to learn. Any extra difficulty lefties have with the bow is compensated for by an advantage on the fingerboard.
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I’m left handed but play the violin right handed. I agree with AndreH that the violin requires complex motions on both hands.
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about dancing in the rain!!
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As they say, most instruments are ambidextrous (I have avoided saying "all", as someone will think of an exception).
There is at least one left-handed piano somewhere in the world. Christopher Seed seems to be the culprit. As I was skimming some of the Google results, I noticed his claims that one side of his body is far more expressive than the other, but, frankly, if this were a less polite forum, I'd have words to say about his fumblings!
Andrew
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Learn to play right-handed. I'm left-handed and Iooked for a left-handed fiddle when I wanted to start. A friend of mine, who's left-handed and plays suggested I learn right-handed for multiple reasons that included finger dexterity in the left hand and wider selection of instruments available. Also, you won't be able to play anyone else's instrument, if offered, and that's happened to me already. If I play air-fiddle, it feels natural to do it left-handed, but fiddle-in-hand feels natural right-handed. Been in it for 2.5 yrs.
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Another left hander here who plays right-handed, and it feels perfectly natural. If you start out right handed, the transition is easy. Of course, I suppose that there are differing degrees of left handedness. For example, as a kid I learned how to bat right handed, so that feels natural. When I started to play golf, same thing, I play right handed.
Dennis
If I don't have time for a short post, I'll write a long post - (adapted from Mark Twain)
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In fact I do have one oddity - I'm right handed in everything, but in football I kick with my left foot.
Andrew
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Gordon Shumway said
In fact I do have one oddity - I'm right handed in everything, but in football I kick with my left foot.
Cross-dominance is more common than people realize. A surprising number of baseball players prefer to bat with one hand and throw with the other.
And sometimes you just learn certain motions differently with the two sides. I'm right-handed myself. When I play soccer I find that I strike the ball much harder with my right foot but pass and shoot more accurately with my left. When I was younger and playing as a striker, I think I scored about three-quarters of my goals with my non-dominant left foot.
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AndrewH said When I play soccer I find that I strike the ball much harder with my right foot but pass and shoot more accurately with my left.
Yes, it is very possible that I strike with my left, but my right foot is more accurate, but it's so long since I last played soccer that I can't remember, lol!
Andrew
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In my wasted youth as a ski instructor, students had a marked preference for direction of turn (caused by leg dominance). I could immediately tell if someone was a dancer or marshal artist since they trained away this trait.
My father insisted that I learn to shoot firearms right handed since military weapons ejected spent shell casings on the right hand side of the weapon (and so in the face of a left handed shooter).
Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.
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@Irv In my wasted youth as a ski instructor
I've only ever ski'd* langlauf ("cross country") on prepared courses, so I have no idea if I had a leg preference.
* apparently, 'skied' and 'ski'd' are both right, but they both look wrong to me!
Andrew
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As many of you have stated, playing a right-handed violin when being a left-handed person, is normal. Left handed violins used to be rare and almost non-existent, more of a custom order type of thing.
In all my years of playing professionally in string orchestras I have only seen one player use a left-handed violin and she had to switch half way through her career after loosing a finger on her left hand.
Both hands and arms are equally important and having a fantastically coordinated dominant left hand for fingering can be advantageous as well.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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I had always wondered about this and how the left-handed player does this.
I am right-handed naturally, and never gave it a second thought. But I admire the dedication and ability of a left-handed violinist! And there are several!
Just a couple questions if some of you might indulge me...
Are left-handed violins stringed differently?
Can left-handed violinists play a violin made for right-handed players?
Do left-handed players hold the violin on the right shoulder?
Thank you! And BRAVO! All you left-handed players!
- Pete -
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pchoppin said
I had always wondered about this and how the left-handed player does this.I am right-handed naturally, and never gave it a second thought. But I admire the dedication and ability of a left-handed violinist! And there are several!
Just a couple questions if some of you might indulge me...
Are left-handed violins stringed differently?
They are strung the opposite of a right hand violin. The E-string is in the position that the G-string is on your violin and vice versa....
The bass bar inside the violin is on the opposite side as is the sound-post as well. The pegs are reversed too so that the G-string peg is the closest to the nut as with a right handed violin but in this case, the opposite side.
Can left-handed violinists play a violin made for right-handed players?
Not without practice and not on the same side. Kind of the way it would be for you to try to play on a left hand violin.
Do left-handed players hold the violin on the right shoulder?
Yes they do.
Thank you! And BRAVO! All you left-handed players!
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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