Left, right, left, right…
Have we been marching the wrong way all along?
I'm sure this must be well-trodden ground, but a recent post on left-handed guitars spurs me to share an odd thought I had when I first started learning nearly two years ago.
In my limited experience, the single most difficult aspect for beginners is trying to press the correct strings with the correct fingers to play their first chords. Right-handed people practise and practise something that feels completely unnatural long enough to get used to it. Even experienced players struggle to improve their finger work on the fret: touch, speed, accuracy, vibrato, bends and dare I say ‘dexterity’ (pun intended)
To make things interesting- let’s do this with our non-dominant hand
How did this come about?
Think about where the guitar came from.
Its earliest form would have been a piece of string (animal gut, plant material…) that made a ‘twang’ when plucked.
Cool
Then someone notices that different length ‘strings’ produce different notes-
Hey presto! The harp, lyre, whatever you want to call them is invented.
Of course, everyone holds the instrument with their non-dominant hand and does the complicated stuff (plucking and strumming) with their dominant one.
So far so good, until-
Some other bright spark notices that if you can shorten the string by pressing it down on a piece of wood (or neck) allowing a lot more notes to be produced
Naturally, everyone was used to plucking with the dominant hand, so the other was used to manipulate the length of string. It just would have been nonsensical and weird to switch and do it the other way around.
Instruments and the playing techniques have become more complicated, but we continue playing and teaching the same way ever since and it would feel completely unnatural for anyone who had learnt something one way to find it easier doing it the opposite way around. The 'reasoning' for keeping the status quo being: imagine trying to do something difficult (accuracy, rhythm, speed) with your BAD hand!
My son is left-handed and, like many left-handed people, he is more comfortable using his non-dominant hand than the rest of us, primarily because we live in a world that is designed for right-handed people.
He has chosen to play right-hand guitar and base.
I envy him.
Before, everybody piles in and explains how important the right hand is for speed, accuracy and touch/feel, especially later on when you have mastered the basics, I am aware of this and agree- But as Justin always points out, do it slowly and correctly first, then things speed up naturally with practise. Think of all those unfortunates who have given up in the early stages, just because it is so unnatural/difficult to get your fingers to be able to play a couple of chords and enjoy making music in the first place.
Ave Caesar, morituri te salutamus
Topic: Southpaw (Read 2662 times)
