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Posts: 121
Joined: Jan. 11 2009
From: England (West Yorkshire/Lancashire)
Left-handed flamenco guitarists?
Just an idle thought I had earlier today - I can't remember seeing a celebrated left-handed flamenco guitarist? I'm sure there must be some...or, like women being culturally prohibited from playing the didgeridoo, are they prevented from taking up the guitar? ;-)
FEMALE flamenco guitarists is perhaps another thread - my father is from Cyprus and my sister told me that girls aren't allowed to play the bouzouki!
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to MarcChrys)
Checkout Myrddin! I also play lefthanded actually. Most leftys dont. I think because most lefty students are told that it makes no difference which way, or even that they have an advantage playing right handed. At least in my case this is complete bullcrap, i "knew" from the first second i held a guitar that is much more problematic for me to play with right and grab with left.
Its actually not a big problem in terms of guitar. The bridge must be build symmetrical of course, but thats the case with most guitars. I cant really test the playability of a guitar, so if im really interested I have to let the strings changed.
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to MarcChrys)
I'm left handed but play right handed ever since I picked up a guitar. Just seemed the most natural to me (I'm probably not 100% left handed but more like 70/30 or something). Of course I realize that I might not be able to reach true virtuoso status. But I've been making good progress either way. When I was playing electric guitar, I had a hard time getting my picking speed up to par and was long stuck at a tempo of 120, and never got a lot faster in all the years (3) that I played it. With flamenco guitar, which I've played just for barely a year, my picado is now easily faster than my electric guitar picking! That was an amazing moment for me and it showed me that I am not at a extreme disadvantage, though I do have some problems (arpeggios are a bit harder for me, I think). Still, I feel as if I just have more potential to unearth.
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to MarcChrys)
I'm the same as Munin.. left handed but I play right handed. The problem for me is that it seems all my rhythm is in the wrong hand. Practice will transfer it, but I feel my journey will be longer this way...
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Posts: 121
Joined: Jan. 11 2009
From: England (West Yorkshire/Lancashire)
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to MarcChrys)
How weird! All these lefthanded people playing righthanded! I (As a righthander*) can't imagine playing LEFThanded, would feel all wrong. Hats off to you guys :) However, I DO remember - aged 11 - my sister teaching me the guitar and enquiring, after several minutes of my blundering incompetence, 'are you sure you wouldn't find it easier the other way round?' :(
* Though for some weird reason I use my mouse in my lefthand, bat lefthanded at cricket and am left-footed at football - maybe THEY got to me early :)
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to MarcChrys)
I dont know...its not any eazyer or any harder then it is for righthanders...then again i never played with the left hand...couldnt even imagine it...but i ...eat, writte, kick the ball with left foot..if i armwrestle i use righthand...if i was boxing right hand would be my powershot ( lol not that i do any of this i am acctualy sitting here trying to imagine how i work)
Posts: 121
Joined: Jan. 11 2009
From: England (West Yorkshire/Lancashire)
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to Florian)
Yes, probably best NOT to be seen punching the air, kicking out randomly and armwrestling with yourself - might end up in the Psychiatric Rest Home for Deranged Flamencoists :)
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to MarcChrys)
Well, I´m mainly left handed but in total mixed handed.... And I learned to play with the guitar head to the left from the beginning on. It´s no problem.
The reason to learn it like that was, I couldnt play 99,999% of any avalible guitars if I would have learned lefthanded.... Its pretty useless IMO. You cant jam on a guitar of your friends... or test guitars in shops. Selling is hard as well.. And learning from seeing all like through a mirror would make me tired..
Posts: 2007
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to MarcChrys)
I'm left handed and play left handed. It's a curse. You never get to check out guitars. The three flamenco guitars I own are right handed ones restrung. I didn't get to play them before buying them. I know nothing about how different guitars feel and sound because I never get to play different ones. You can learn to strum a few chords upside down, but that is not enough to get a feel for an instrument. The only upside is that no one ever asks to borrow your guitar.
Maybe one day I'll get a guitar made for me. That would be cool.
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to Doitsujin)
Forgot to mention, I am also mixed handed. I dont think there is a problem in playing right handed, but one has to know which side to pick. My concern is that most people are not really aware of it or dont even think of trying to play lefthanded (thats one reason why there are few leftys, another is testing guitars etc). They think it makes no difference, but in reality i think there is almost noone who can play the guitar with one hand exactly good as with the other. Everybody has his preference, and some even play lefthanded although they are righthanded.
I have sold two guitars now with no problems. They were normal righthanded guitars, with a normal setup. Actually it feels weird for me to watch a LEFThanded player, because im so used to see righthanded players all the time.
you cant jam with your friends guitar buuut... you can sit right to him so that you can see what he plays, and he can see what you play.
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to XXX)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Deniz you cant jam with your friends guitar buuut... you can sit right to him so that you can see what he plays, and he can see what you play.
Yeah, trying to teach someone chord shapes is easier when they're lefty, they can sit facing you and just mirror what you do...
Posts: 35
Joined: Nov. 16 2008
From: Kemble, England
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to MarcChrys)
im afraid im another left hander who has always player guitar right handed and could never imagine playing left handed(i have tried and was officially rubbish!) It seems to me that flamenco is particlarly condusive to making left handed players play right handed because many of the teachers(as we all know) wont accept anything other than their way, so left handers seem to always have to conform! I dont think this is a bad thing as has been mentioned already, i can now try out any guitar and have an entirely normal guitar life. A large quantity of respect should go to left handers who stuck it out and play left handed though!
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to MarcChrys)
Imagine visiting a luthier, looking at all the guitars he made, burning with desire to try them. Then you remember, you are left handed. No one in where I live would trouble themselves to let me try a guitar I think of buying. I have one guitar only, a fabricated one and I couldn't even try it myself before buying it.
This is how it feels to be left handed. Advantage is, if you don't like people to try your guitar out or if you don't want someone specific to touch your guitar, you make a sad face and say "Aw man, I am left handed you know. You can't possibly try my guitar. What a pity" and problem solved. You come across to those people from time to time. It helps being a lefty.
Posts: 15725
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to Marciano)
I am curious if there are any left handed pianos?
Anyway, you have to be dexterious with both hands, but after all you find many gypsies that play with guitar reversed. Half the Gipsy kings play lefty. They all can play the normal guitar UPSIDE DOWN! One of the family members I jammed with, Mario Reyes, could play righty, but prefered to play thei guitar lefty upside down....then after all when we reversed the strings for him on a regular guitar, he was truly at his best!
Posts: 3497
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to Ricardo)
The great blues and folk singer Elizabeth Cotten played the guitar left-handed with the strings upside down. It was, and still is, known as "Cotten Picking." Elizabeth Cotten wrote and recorded the well-known folk song "Freight Train." Bill
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RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to MarcChrys)
Doesn’t reversing the strings on a guitar go against all that we hear in the luthery section about doing mysterious things to the braces on the base or treble side or using bracing patterns with a treble restrictor. Some luthiers will make you a left handed guitar. Do they do much more than stick the golpeador the other way round? Do the strings really know which side they are on? We need answers!
Posts: 2007
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to RobJe)
I'm having a lefty made for me soon. Been on the waiting list for a while, so I'm hoping it happens this year. As I wrote above, I have a few guitars that have been re-strung with no apparent negative effect. But recently I bought a right handed handmade guitar and when I switched the strings the strings no longer sat in the middle of the fretboard. I had a local maker do a rather inelegant looking repair(certainly not because of any lack of skill on his part) and now the guitar plays pretty well. Apparently making a lefty flamenco guitar does require some makers to do various things differently, enough that the terms of the purchase are more restrictive than commissioning a right handed model.
quote:
ORIGINAL: RobJe
Doesn’t reversing the strings on a guitar go against all that we hear in the luthery section about doing mysterious things to the braces on the base or treble side or using bracing patterns with a treble restrictor. Some luthiers will make you a left handed guitar. Do they do much more than stick the golpeador the other way round? Do the strings really know which side they are on? We need answers!
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to MarcChrys)
quote:
Doesn’t reversing the strings on a guitar go against all that we hear in the luthery section about doing mysterious things to the braces on the base or treble side or using bracing patterns with a treble restrictor. Some luthiers will make you a left handed guitar. Do they do much more than stick the golpeador the other way round? Do the strings really know which side they are on? We need answers!
Rob
I depends on which Luthier you ask. My guitars are neutral. Not lefty. Not Righty. I used to build lefty or righty, but it resulted that there was no difference. Many of those saying that you have to build a guitar left handed have NEVER built a neutral just as many of the things being said in the lutherie section is being said by people who has never built a guitar. I´m personally trying to only open my mouth about things I know about and if I cross that border or come close to it, I try to remember to say that I´m on unknown ground
One of the Manuel Bellido flamenco guitar that I have tried and that I liked the most had an assymetrical lefty classical bracing. The guitar was strung up as a righty and had a bridge compensation where the bass string had a slightly longer compensation than the treble. meaning it was built to be a flamenco righty guitar with a lefty classical bracing. Wheater the mirrored bracing was an error, i dont know, but the guitar was definately not an error. It was very flamenco. That guitar made me think. Maybe there´s to much babble amongst luthiers.
Flamenco guitars need very little compensation and very little if any difference in the bridge compensation between bass and treble. If needed, the compensation can easily be made in the saddle.
RE: Left-handed flamenco guitarists? (in reply to MarcChrys)
I'm left handed but play right handed ever since I picked up a guitar. Jose Luís Rodríguez also is left handed but plays right handed and it's great guitarrista.
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and it showed me that I am not at a extreme disadvantage, though I do have some problems (arpeggios are a bit harder for me, I think). Still, I feel as if I just have more potential to unearth.
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