List of musicians who play left-handed explained

This is a list of notable left-handed musicians who play their instruments naturally. This does not include left-handed people who play (or played) right-handed, such as Joe Perry, Mark Knopfler, and Gary Moore.

Guitarists and bassists

Left-handed people play guitar or electric bass in one of the following ways: (1) play the instrument truly right-handed, (2) play the instrument truly left-handed, (3) altering a right-handed instrument to play left-handed, or (4) turning a right-handed instrument upside down to pick with the left hand, but not altering the strings – leaving them reversed from the normal order. (The fingering is the same for methods 2 and 3.) Any style of picking with the left hand (flatpicking or fingerstyle guitar) is considered playing left-handed.

Guitarists

Left-handed with normal stringing

Guitarists in this category pick with their left hand and have the strings in the conventional order for a left-handed player (i.e. the low string on the top side of the neck). They either have true left-handed guitars or have right-handed guitars altered so the strings are correct for a left-handed player. Some guitarists in this category (e.g. Paul McCartney) play both genuine left-handed instruments and right-handed instruments altered for left-handed playing.

Changing the strings on a right-handed guitar involves several things. The nut of the guitar has to be changed to accommodate the string widths. The bridge needs to be changed to make the lower-note (thicker) strings longer than the higher-note (thinner) strings for correct intonation. On almost all acoustic guitars the bracing is non-symmetrical. On electric guitars altered this way, the controls will be backwards.

Notable players

Left-handed with strings backwards

These are left-handed players who play naturally, but with the strings organized to emulate an unaltered right-handed guitar, thus the strings are backwards for a left-handed player. The guitar is held left-handed with the high string on the top side of the neck (e.g. Bob Geldof). Some players in this category (e.g. Dick Dale and Albert King) had left-handed guitars with the strings as on a right-handed guitar, since they had learned to play that way.

Notable players

Unclassified left-handed players

Bassists

Drummers

A drum kit for a left-handed person is set up so that percussion instruments drummers would normally play with their right hand (ride cymbal, floor tom, etc.) are played with the left hand. The bass drum and hi-hat configurations are also set up so that the drummer plays the bass drum with their left foot, and operate the hi-hat (or, if using two bass drums, plays the second bass drum) with their right foot. Some drummers however have been known to play right-handed kits, but play leading with their left hand (e.g. playing open-handed on the hi-hat). This list does not include drummers who are naturally left-handed while playing drums purely right-handed such as Ringo Starr, Stewart Copeland, Dave Lombardo, Travis Barker, Eric Carr, and Chris Adler.

Violinists

The violin can be learned in either hand, and most left-handed players hold the violin under the left side of their jaw, the same as right-handed players. This allows all violinists to sit together in an orchestra.

Ukulele

Trumpet

Trombone

Banjo

Mandolin

Bansuri

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: TICE . Etab.ac-caen.fr . December 21, 2015.
  2. Web site: Left Handed Guitarists — The Left-Handed Guitar Players That Changed Music. https://archive.today/20130127232343/http://www.lefthandedguitarists.com/lefty_detail.php?id=216. 27 January 2013. dead. 13 December 2012.
  3. Web site: This Is Hardcore: Wipers — Is This Real?. Laurent Barnard2015-02-26T16:00:00 560Z. Louder. loudersound.
  4. Web site: Chase Bryant Talks Brantley Gilbert and ZZ Top, Performs 'Take It on Back' [Watch] |website=Tasteofcountry.com |date=September 3, 2014 |access-date=December 21, 2015].
  5. Web site: Eric Gales and The Gales Brothers. https://web.archive.org/web/20120220083522/http://personal.mco.bellsouth.net/m/u/murf01/e-gale/e-gale2.htm. dead. 20 February 2012. 20 February 2012.
  6. Web site: Guitarplayer interview . 2017-09-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045036/http://www.guitarplayer.com/miscellaneous/1139/coco-montoya/12955, . 2016-03-04 . dead .
  7. Web site: DOCTOR ROSS. 18 November 2013.
  8. Web site: British guitarist analyses the legendary Otis Rush live in 1966!. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211214/EZKwucXoMvA . 2021-12-14 . live. www.youtube.com.
  9. Web site: Dave Wakeling of The English Beat. 8 February 2007. www.sandiego.com.
  10. Web site: Melvin Williams launches World Tour - 'Where I Started From'. 25 October 2017.
  11. Web site: Steve Hewitt – Free listening, videos, concerts, stats and pictures at . Last.fm . December 21, 2015.

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