Playing right-handed as a lefty?

g'est

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I'm left-handed but have always played the ukulele as a right-handed person would. I'm sure there are lots of people here who have done the same. :D

Do you guys think it's a lot harder to learn this way? Or isn't there much of a difference?
 
As a leftie, it feels much more natural to me to play left-handed. I tried to learn to play the guitar right-handed in my youth and it put me off stringed instruments for years - basically until I bought a cheap uke and restrung it to suit me.

*** Any right-handed people posting to say that it shouldn't make any difference (or even more bizarrely, that it should be easier) should be made to play left-handed for a month :p ***
 
Yeah, I just tried playing left-handed, but it somehow feels really unnatural. Way more awkward than starting to play the ukulele in the first place. :D

To be honest, the first time the thought of playing left-handed crossed my mind was when I had already been playing for a year.
 
Yes, I'm a lefty but play like a right-handed person. Actually, I like it better this way, as I think I need more coordination, strength, and speed for fretting than for strumming or picking (I play softly most of the time anyway). I have tried playing lefty-style for a short time and felt that I'm lacking the coordination for fretting in my right hand. Probably a matter of practicing/getting used to, but I quickly changed back to "normal". Easier to find instruments this way, too (e.g. with a cutaway, electronics, etc.).
 
Actually, I like it better this way, as I think I need more coordination, strength, and speed for fretting than for strumming or picking (I play softly most of the time anyway).

That's exactly as I feel. :)
 
I once played in a band with two left-handed guitar players, one left-handed fiddler, they all played right-handed.
The drummer was a lefty too, he switched his drum kit mirrored.

They never made me feal weird for being right-handed :)

Oh, and everytime I need to remind myself what it is like to start learing an instrument, I switch to left-handed playing and feel like a complete beginner again.
 
I'm left-handed, but never even tried to play that way. I started on piano (still my main instrument), which doesn't have a left-handed possibility.... When I had classical guitar lessons for a very short period as a kid, the only alternative was right-handed playing. So I'm ok with it.
 
*** Any right-handed people posting to say that it shouldn't make any difference (or even more bizarrely, that it should be easier) should be made to play left-handed for a month :p ***

The argument that playing right handed should be easier for lefties because your fretting hand is then your dominant hand has always made me chuckle. By the very same logic, every right hander would be restringing left handed as it would be easier!
 
I'm a Lefty who plays Righty ( standard) . Are there any Great stringed instrument players who play Left handed ?
 
Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, and Tommy Iommi are/were lefties who played that way. Hendrix could play all kinds of ways, righty, righty flipped lefty with the treble strings up, lefty stringed lefty...

Anyway, I'm a lefty who plays right handed. 20 some odd years ago when I picked up the guitar, my teacher suggested that I learn to play right handed because finding quality instruments would be easier. I tried lefty ukulele when I started and it just felt too awkward.
 
Hendrix was born lefty. His dad forced him to write and play as a right hander because of some superstitious non-sense that folks were still believing. He still preferred playing lefty.
 
Chalk me up as another lefty playing righty. I tried lefty when first starting the uke, but could not convince my right hand to fret properly. I've tried it a few times since with the same result. I really have no clue how right handed people manage to fret.

Unfortunately I've got some nasty arthritis in my left hand and it's making it a real pain to play. I've gotta take several days off for every hour of playing I do. So I'm thinking of trying to flip the uke again as I think strumming with my left won't cause as much trouble. I shudder at the thought of retraining myself though.
 
No matter if it is right or wrong-----in this situation, right or left-------the longer we do it...the better we become at it.
There is a fellow here in Salem who has lost part of a finger. When he cannot fret a chord the uke flips to the other way around and it is played another way. Habit is hard to break......even such a thing as simple as lacing your fingers across each other, one hand will feel more comfortable on top of the other...folding arms over each other same way....consciously change it for six weeks, and at the end of that time doing it the original manner will feel strange..
If you think you cannot do it, you are right. If you think you can, you are right. It probably is more important what goes on between your ears than what goes on between your hands. Only when we change how we think can we change how we act.
 
Ooh, lots of lovely lefties! I think some people are more (slightly) ambidextrous than others, I'm a lefty but play the ukulele right handed, I also played the cello right handed and use my right hand to hold a tennis racket. But I know left handed people who can't comfortably use their right hand to do anything, and vice versa.
 
Let me throw in this little digression...
A couple of years before his death, Bob Brozman played the Blues in Hell festival in Hell, Norway. I also had a gig there, and in the artist lounge Brozman entertained the rest of us with some incredible guitar tricks. We were all sitting around a big table, watching Brozman play stunning stuff on an old National steel. Then, mid-song, he tossed the guitar around, grabbed it left-handedly, and continued playing flawlessly before he matter-of-factly swung it back to right-handed playing again. Nobody could believe what they saw. On stage, he was also breathtaking; a master musician.
 
After a year or so of teaching the after school uke program, one of my younger students (8 or so) who has been in the program from the start and is quite good asked "Mark, is there such thing as a left handed uke?" "Yes, why do you ask?" "Because I'm left handed and this feels sort of weird!" ;) I told him that I too am left handed, and have played all my stringed instruments right handed for the last 40+ years. I may have to set one up left handed for him, hand it to him and watch his 'lil brain explode :). Curious if it will help him in the long run ... might be worth a try.
 
Not surprised that nobody mentioned this guy.

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I believe he played a standard ukulele just turned upside down. Though in this picture it appears to be strung south paw.

~one must remember to tiptoe when walking through any tulips with me~
 
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