The bond with your instrument(s)...

[Raiyn]

I'm left handed, but have never played that way a day in my life. Growing up in a small place, with every other player in my family being right handed, I just learned as I saw. Never knew any different. For years, I didn't even know left handed guitars existed......

I feel like you had an advantage there. You started with a dexterity bonus chording with your left hand.

 

[bchaffin72]

Thanks for replying. I would imagine your fretting is absolutely awesome and it's really great your strumming hand learned to cooperate. Mark Knofler would be proud.

My chording was really great, however, I could never get the strumming hand to play with any type of articulation. It was like I was clubbing the strings without much expression. Finger picking? Just wouldn't happen R/H.

You might be wondering about the time line. When I was in the Army, I took the guitar back up and wasted almost 20 years off and on trying to play right hand. Since going L/H in 1979 I have noticed that if I work at it I actually see improvement where I just hit a plateau and didn't get any better playing R/H.

What's funny is that, while my writing and catch/throw instinct is left handed, many other common tasks I've always performed right handed without thought. Where left handed tools and implements DO exist, I've never felt the need to use them. And, even though it's a bit sloppier from lack of practice, I can write right handed, if I want to. So it's like my left-handedness only applies to a narrow range of things.

I feel like you had an advantage there. You started with a dexterity bonus chording with your left hand.

That's possible. I taught myself, and in a bit of isolation, so I never had anyone else to compare myself to, to know if my struggles to learn were any different than theirs. I just set myself the task of learning and got on with it.

 

[Biddlin]

I just set myself the task of learning and got on with it.

The army doesn't have any left-handed M-4s, everybody learns to shoot. There are less than a dozen left-handed pianos, with at least two different available key layouts. Adaptation is the mark of high evolution.

 

[Raiyn]

What's funny is that, while my writing and catch/throw instinct is left handed, many other common tasks I've always performed right handed without thought. Where left handed tools and implements DO exist, I've never felt the need to use them. And, even though it's a bit sloppier from lack of practice, I can write right handed, if I want to. So it's like my left-handedness only applies to a narrow range of things.

I'm right handed, but I've never been able to use a right handed hockey stick, it never felt right. A lefty stick is way more natural for me.

That's possible. I taught myself, and in a bit of isolation, so I never had anyone else to compare myself to, to know if my struggles to learn were any different than theirs. I just set myself the task of learning and got on with it.

Unknown Hinson is in the same sort of boat as you, when he learned his father had him learn righty.

 

[pedecamp]

Yes I do bond with my guitars, and my amps too, they are my children.

 

[cheshiergrin]

I have a strat my wife bought me that is very special to me even though I don't play it much. The guitars I painted and assembled are also special to me. So yes those guitars I see as mine and are going no where. Other guitars have come and gone.

 

[Didds]

I definitely see guitars as tools, as harsh as that sounds. Though I suppose to any non-musician, that would be an obvious conclusion.
I've only ever owned 2 guitars in my three years of playing, and I haven't been with either of them long enough to form a bond with them. Or maybe I just don't play them enough
Either way, I'd be sad if lost them. Mainly because $1700 (AUD) is a lot of spare money to me and my family. But also because it would render me unable to play guitar. And really thinking about it, I would miss my SG for emotional reasons as well. And I suppose that is a bond. Not an extremely strong one, though said "bond" would no doubt strengthen over time. And I don't plan on getting rid of my SG any time soon

 

[Worblehat]

I started only a year ago and own two electric guitars now. I think I have a very strong bond to them mainly because they are for me a dream coming true. Wanted to play guitar for a very long time. I could never imagine selling them. Amps and pedals may be just tools. But guitars are much more to me.

 

[jjudas]

I bond with my guitars. If I don't bond with one, I don't keep it.

 

[bchaffin72]

The army doesn't have any left-handed M-4s, everybody learns to shoot.

What's fun is when a lefty shoots a right ported semi-auto and get smacked in the face with a hot shell casing! Didn't take me long to stop being left-handed with those,either............

 

[Biddlin]

and get smacked in the face with a hot shell casing!

Happened to my actor friend when he was an extra in an "A-Team" episode. No one bothered to find out if the actors were "gun savvy."

 

[Worblehat]

I bond with my guitars. If I don't bond with one, I don't keep it.

Sounds reasonable! If I had a guitar that I don't bond to I would probably never pick it up to play. So there would be no reason for keeping it.

 

[kiko]

Mine watches tv with us.

I though mine was the only one that does that. :)

 

[Voxman]

I'm attached at the hip to gear I have! Always been too

 

[deMelo]

It depends.

I do bond with all the guitars I own, but some are more special than others.

Never could love my Gibson SG the way I love my Strat.

The rest of the gear is completely unimportant to me. I couldn't care less if I lose an amp or any other piece of gear.

 

[Norlin SG]

The army doesn't have any left-handed M-4s, everybody learns to shoot. There are less than a dozen left-handed pianos, with at least two different available key layouts. Adaptation is the mark of high evolution.

I shoot a R/H rifle L/H because even though a R/H rifle favors R/H shooting I'm a better shot by sighting and squeezing the trigger L/H.

So, being a poor shot by conforming to how R/H people hold a rifle is higher evolution for me because I might die on the battle field sooner? Just so you know, handedness is not just some inconvenience like dandruff..................

When I was in the Army I qualified on the M-14 and M-16 with R/H rifles and even with how brutal the Drill Sargent's were in the guise of training, they never once told anyone they should shoot wrong handed. The designers of the M-16 made the spent round eject out straight so that it wouldn't hit you in the helmet if you shot L/H.

 

[rotorhead]

I do bond with mine, to the extent than you can with an inanimate object.

The bond for me happens when I dig in and learn it's tones and sounds it and I are capable of making together.

 

[rotorhead]

I shoot a R/H rifle L/H because even though a R/H rifle favors R/H shooting I'm a better shot by sighting and squeezing the trigger L/H.

So, being a poor shot by conforming to how R/H people hold a rifle is higher evolution for me because I might die on the battle field sooner? Just so you know, handedness is not just some inconvenience like dandruff..................

When I was in the Army I qualified on the M-14 and M-16 with R/H rifles and even with how brutal the Drill Sargent's were in the guise of training, they never once told anyone they should shoot wrong handed. The designers of the M-16 made the spent round eject out straight so that it wouldn't hit you in the helmet if you shot L/H.

Colt then revised the M-16 into the A2 version which added, among other things, the built in brass deflector which altered the path of the ejected shell slightly forward. It seems many lefties complained about the spent brass ending up inside their neckline and leaving burn marks, causing odd situations at home they had to explain lol.

Jk on that last part. But yeah, that little deflector helped a bit.

 

[Biddlin]

Just so you know, handedness is not just some inconvenience like dandruff..................

No, but very few dandruff sufferers constantly ask for accommodation of their condition, although you have given me ideas for products directed at dandruff sufferers. Seriously, I think Lefties make a big deal out having to adapt compared to say someone who is short and needs to use a step ladder to change light bulbs. Are you typing on a left handed keyboard? In reality, did you have more trouble learning to drive a car than your right-handed friends? (And you didn't need to switch to rh drive, did you?)

 

[Norlin SG]

No, but very few dandruff sufferers constantly ask for accommodation of their condition, although you have given me ideas for products directed at dandruff sufferers.

Your responses are pretty typical for a lot of unfounded bias right handed and some L/H people spew as fact.
So who are these people that are constantly asking for special considerations or claiming they have some sort of condition or handicap?
The only people that have issues with people being/playing left hand seem to be right handed people that have a bias based on nothing that resembles reality.

Seriously, I think Lefties make a big deal out having to adapt compared to say someone who is short and needs to use a step ladder to change light bulbs.

Once again, you are trying to prove a point with an assumption about lefty's you made up.

Are you typing on a left handed keyboard? In reality, did you have more trouble learning to drive a car than your right-handed friends? (And you didn't need to switch to rh drive, did you?)

• Didn't you get the memo? There is no such thing as a left handed keyboard.
• Another memo you missed: Cars, keyboards, mice, airplanes, trains, ships, ATM's, firearms, pencils and the list goes on and on, and those things are deigned to be operated as handedness neutral as practical.

Paul MacCartney was asked why he played left handed, and he answered "because I am left handed". To Sir Paul, I think the question was every bit as stupid as asking him why he didn't play guitar with his feet.