Why is it that the standard guitar is strung for playing with the left hand working the frets and the right hand doing the picking or strumming. The left does the most dextrous work, esp. when playing chords, but also when picking. Or so it seems to me. I’m a converted (catholic school) leftie, so it’s hard for me to make a comparison.
I’ve also noticed that it seems to be pretty easy for a lefty to play a standard right handed guitar.
Any opinions?
Peace,
mangeorge
Work like you don’t need the money…
Love like you’ve never been hurt…
Dance like nobody’s watching! …(Paraphrased)
I’d disagree about the left hand’s job being more dextrous. The right hand typically has to pick or strum several times for each change of chord, or note. Also, I find that getting the fingertips of the left hand into position takes less attention than intricate picking.
Stephen Stephen’s Website
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I think Stephen has a point…but I just got my guitar and tried fretting with the right - it felt just a little awkward, but I think I could go either way on it, and perhaps it has a lot to do with how you learned. Maybe depends on how dexterous you are with the left hand - I’m left-handed for many things, but I write with my right.
Because…
The right hand is in charge of the rythum part of playing and the guitar is a “rythum instrument.” For instance if you can master the right hand and only know a little about the left hand you are still a “guitar player.” Whereas if you don’t master some sort of rythum on the right hand even tho you can fret fairly well with the left… you still wouldn’t be able to make to make much music.
Left handed guitar players play the guitar in more ways than one. For instance some string the guitar in reverse and play just like a regular rightie while some leave the strings like they are for a rightie and fret the chords upside down or backwards.
confusing ain’t it?
Well don’t pick at it or it’ll just get infected.
…
I can read music, but not enough to hurt my playing.
Chet Atkins
This is a common misconception on the part of people who do not play, or at least are new to playing guitar.
I’ve been playing six years - which while not a long time is certainly long enough to assure you with absolute certainty that the strumming hand requires more dexterity than the fretting hand - regardless of which style you are playing. Learning to fret all the common chords is relatively simple - its just a few months work before you can do it reliably and quickly. The same with any kind of melodic techniques such as string bends and hammer-ons. The difficult part is keeping rythem right on, hitting only the strings you need to be hitting for a chord, using the palm to correctly mute strings as you change cords, keeping the up-down alternation that is so critical and so on. Also the more advanced electric techniques such as thumb-harmonics I could not conceive of doing left-handed.
I think the variation in how lefties handle the guitar is due to the fact that when they started they probably did not have the luxury of a left-handed guitar and maybe not even an instructor who was sure what to advise for them.
Kudos to aha and Cooper for their creative spelling of the word “rhythm”.
The guitar was originally intended to be a plucked instrument, much like the harp. I don’t think the “right-hand rhythm” theory holds any water. The guitar as a rhythm instrument is, relatively speaking, a new concept. Besides, any apt musician should be able to keep equal time with either hand.
The dexterity Stephen spoke of is probably correct. Playing a classical piece on a flamenco guitar is much more demanding on the picking hand than the chording hand.
well me and cooper is musicians not spellers…
And I think the rhythm instrument concept does hold water…maybe the lyres or harps or whatever preceded the invention of the guitar were meant to be plucked only but that fell by the wayside some time ago. Certainly one of the redeeming values of a guitar is that it can be plucked, but one does not get an optimum performance ( at least from a standard flattop guitar) until it has been both plucked and strummed…( in some cases even beaten) I underline the importance of the right hand by this example…
Some amazingly successful musicians have placed emphasis on the right hand only. Richie Havens and Barry Gibb for example tune their guitars to a natural chord like E or A etc. Then by just “barring” the neck …not using their fingers per se… but keeping rhythm with their right hands…they play with excellant results.
The truth is…a guitar wouldn’t be a guitar without using rhythm AND plucking so it is all rather a moot point and maybe suitable for the great debates section.
As far as the equal dexterity in both hands theory…I think that might be close to true of a premier drummer…other than that, who the knows for sure if dexterity is absolutely equal in both hands. Most natural musicians just play without bringing that question to mind.
As far as the flamenco guitar…wouldn’t the same be true? Wouldn’t the dexterity on the right or left hand vary from individual to individual? I think it is that very thing that creates " style" otherwise there would be no Goyas or Segovias.
…
Of course that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.
Dennis Miller
Why is it that the standard guitar is strung for playing with the left hand working the frets and the right hand doing the picking or strumming.
Hmmm, after thinking about it and actually playing,
Could it be, that in most common chord forms, the heavier and harder to hold down strings, fall under the strongest fingers?
Think of it like this,
Thumb and forefinger grip.
The strongest on either hand, right?
Number two strongest grip?
First and second, opposed to thumb.
Number three, third against thumb.
That stringing, and that tuning, allow the strongest grip to be used, when necessary,
the required dexterity can be learned by either hand.
Learning the hand that is not normally used, is the problem. It’s only 100% half mental, as Berra said, the other part is purely physical.
With practice, the odd and unfamiliar, become commonplace.
Then you’ve got to come up with something new, and on your own.
Like they said, a minute to learn, a lifetime to master.
Well, sit down and play finger-style and you’ll learn why. Lute & guitar were most often played in days of yore without plectrum or pick. The right hand does the majority of the work and the majority of people are right-handed, therefore. . .
As has been pointed out, this assumption is incorrect. The picking hand does the vast majority of work in both fingerpicking and strumming.
Of course, there are techniques that are equally or more demanding on the fretting hand (chord soloing ala Tal Farrow, long legato passages, and tapping come to mind),
but these are exceptions generally learned after playing much simpler styles.
I have noticed it is easier for a lefty to play my guitar than mine his, and my only guess is that he runs into a lot more right-handed instruments than I left-handed ones.
(Sample size: 2 lefty guitarists)
Steve Vai (right handed) was once asked how the first song he learned sounded when he played hit. He said (roughly) “The same way it would as if I played it now. If I picked up my guitar and played it left-handed.”
Since I personally consider Vai somewhat above an “apt” musician, I would suggest most musicians can’t “keep equal time with either hand.” In fact, I know several drummers who can’t keep equal time with both hands.
I don’t think common chord fingerings have anything to do with handedness, as the picking hand usually has the superior grip, and “standard” tuning isn’t really all that standard.
The only guitarist I can think of off hand that is truly ambidextrous is Micheal Angelo (of Nitro). By this I mean, plays equally well (or shitty if you don’t dig the genre) with either hand.
The real reason is the same reason Englishmen drive on the left. Knights always had minstrals following them around, singing things like: “Brave Sir Robin bravely fled…” To keep the guitars from colliding, they had to hold the necks with the left hand. Likewise, the right hand had to be kept low, and close the the body in case their dagger was needed to fend off angry critics.
I have to agree with the OP and disagree with Cooper and Astroglide. I’ve been playing 15 years. I’m a natural-born, 100% righty, but when I looked at guitars I thought, something ain’t right here. So I play lefty. I keep rhythm plenty fine. And I picked up barre chords and jazz chords – and chords in general – a lot faster because I was using my stronger hand for the harder work. (Granted, I’m mainly strumming here, but once you get used to it, even finger style ain’t that hard with the “wrong” hand.)
The biggest problem has been all the teachers who stare at me with confused looks on their faces, trying to transpose my fret to the one in their heads. I just tell them, pretend you’re looking in a mirror…
I am ambidextrous, but favor right more than left. How can that be? All ambidextrous people use one hand more than the other, simply because they were taught to.
When starting bass guitar, I had a little difficulty but it really doesn’t take that long to become proficient with your opposite hand. A few weeks, I could play anything. Maybe I am the exception, but it REALLY isn’t that hard. Did you ever stop to think about typing, hmm? How long does it take to become proficient in your other hand for that? Not very long at all. Why would it be different for guitar?
It is interesting that everyone has a theory as to why guitarists play with the left hand on the neck; unfortunately, everyone is wrong at least to some extent. You guys probably know by now that I have a degree in classical guitar and in so doing, I had to learn the history of the instrument. The guitar does not stand alone on its hand positions. It is even related to all woodwind instruments. In woodwinds it was traditional to hold the instrument with the left hand on top and the holes/keys were made to fit that contour (going all the way back to the recorder, although this tradition was long before that too). The guitar like all other stringed instrument is designed to be played with the left hand fretting mostly out of tradition but also because, overall, for what all the stringed instruments are designed to do, it is the one that fit most naturally. The “left-handed guitar” by and large is a twentieth century invention. It was invented mostly by untrained musicians who found it easier to play “left-handed”. To this day in the classical world, if you are left-handed you still play in the traditional right-handed fashion. Very few classical guitarists even attempt to play left-handed even if they are. I can only think of one example and he was a student who eventually switched over to playing right-handed. Even so, one will be hard pressed to find a “left-handed” classical guitar. They exist but are very rare because the dexterity required in either hand in learning to play the instrument is about equal so it is easy enough to learn how to play with the proper right-handed technique, thus not many people learn to play backwards (i.e. with their left hand). So all in all, the guitar was designed following a long tradition of woodwind and stringed instruments luthiership which enabled ease of playing and a standardized form of making the instruments.
HUGS!
Sqrl
Gasoline: As an accompaniement to cereal it made a refreshing change. Glen Baxter
Thanks, Sqrl, for the straight dope. I guess we all go so excited about having a rational explanation we forgot the historical reasons.
I must take exception, as others have, to the poster who suggested that the left hand is doing the really hard work.
As I have stated here before, Leo Kottke is the best guitar player in the world. And, as I have also stated, others may disagree but they are wrong. I play the guitar for my own entertainment but I sometimes wonder what it would take to become as capable as he is. My conclusion is that if I practiced all day, every day for the next forty years I might begin to master his left hand technique, but that no matter how long and how hard I worked, I will never be able to match his right hand.
Having scientifically proven my point, I now retire from the field.
Let’s see. I lathered and I rinsed. But did I repeat?