[ra'ul M]

Originally Posted by noopster

@raul M- I can't believe someone told you he can't teach you to play guitar left-handed. They must not be very good teachers! You do realise that all you need to do is mirror the right-hande player right?

Yes, the teachers were not great. But I being a total noob, could not comprehend the chords with them teaching right handed and me trying to pick it up the other way. Needless to say all others in that class were right handed, so I kinda felt left out!
I can play Smoke In The Water with a flipped guitar! [Took me 3 days]

Originally Posted by download2live

Aren't left handed guitars available?

Of course they are! I was not serious enough to invest in one straight away without even finding a teacher first. I was just fascinated by Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Sir Paul McCartney
Very much like golf, where my first instinct was to go left, but hearing the price of the set made me adapt double quick to the other side

P.S.- Love this thread!

[selfdrive]

Just a quick note to clarify, I aint forcing my son to be right handed in any way. he is fine the way he is. I am only trying to see if there are any solutions I can get from fellow bhpians.

[noopster]

Of course, selfdrive. Whay would any parents want to do that? I have only 2 friends who actually eat left-handed- even if desi parents are liberal enough to "allow" their children to be lefties, apparently that's one sacred cow that shall never be touched!

@raul- You can just restring a regular guitar the opposite way and play it left-handed. Most starter acoustics are symmetrical anyway. Intersting you mentioned you can play SOTW "ultaa"- I knew a brilliant leftie guitarist who could play most common chord/riffs ultaa on the righty guitar. Born out of necessity I guess- there are always righty guitars lying around!

[Holyghost]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Just a quick note to clarify, I aint forcing my son to be right handed in any way. he is fine the way he is. I am only trying to see if there are any solutions I can get from fellow bhpians.

I don't think there is any need to worry. He will keep adapting as he grows.
I was born lefty, No one forced me to change my habits.
I can remember that I used to eat food with left hand. But slowly that changed. I easily adapted to right handed mouse. never faced issues at all.
During my childhood there was a time when I felt awkward in front of crowd. That is when I myself started changing some of my habits, especially eating.

So finally, this is what I am. A pure lefty when writing, batting, bowling and all other things which require too much skill and power. Otherwise a normal right hander when it comes to eating, giving/accepting things etc etc.

Edit: I have to accept the fact that we are indeed creative.

[Volt]

@selfdrive: I have seen more than a couple of 'southpaws' in my natural and extended families and all of them have adapted to the right handed way of doing things. When we were younger I have seen one of my cousins even struggle with something as simple as buttoning his shirt, but eventually as human beings we are all supremely adaptive!

Slightly OT: I never fail to complement a southpaw when I see one "God made a few perfect people, the rest, he made right handed" (not mine, surely!)

[Ragul]

I am in a funny situation - I am almost ambidextrous.

My throwing arm is my left arm but my cricket bowling arm is the right!! And I can't switch and throw properly with my right arm or bowl properly with my left. I can manage Badminton and T.T with my left arm as well but not with the same fluidity and easy reflexes of the right. With training I am sure I can mange both.

Driving too is fun with left hand dominant on steering (non-Power steering Gyspy).

--Ragul

[cranky]

Originally Posted by noopster

@raul- You can just restring a regular guitar the opposite way and play it left-handed. Most starter acoustics are symmetrical anyway.

The 6th and 5th strings would not fit the string slots at the nut for 1st and 2nd when you string it the wrong way.

Also the guitar would not tune right unless the saddle is flipped. The apparent length of the 6th is always shorter than that of the 1st. You can get away with the 3rd and 4th but none of the other strings would tune properly and the guitar would not intonate correctly.

It is not a big job to convert for LH operation. The nut and bridge need to be unglued, the nut flipped and filed and a new bridge with the saddle slot corrected need to be added.

Finally in most cheap acoustics the 6th string would not fit through the bridge pin recess which is cut for a much thinner string.

[shankar.balan]

im a lefty born. my Mum is ambidextrous. My Dad is a dominant Lefty. But in his younger days they tried to change him over to being right handed. This is absolutely incorrect practice. So many years ago when I was sent off to boarding in a convent school and one of the Nuns there tried to change me over, my Dad had a polite word and put a stop to it.
Today I write with my left, eat with my right, wear my watch on my right hand, play all racquet games (if ever) with my left hand. Bat left handed (again if ever I play cricket). Can bowl or throw with either hand- same distance- same accuracy level.
Play Golf right handed because when I was first introduced to the game many years back there was no access to left handed sets of clubs or else they were very rare indeed. When I took it up properly some years ago I just went the right handed way. I shoot either a bow and arrow OR a gun left handed.
My natural hand will always be my left but I guess I am semi ambidextrous.
Incidentally my wife is also left handed/ semi ambidextrous - she writes with her right hand but eats with her left hand. Mostly her left hand is the dominant one.
Its a funny old life isnt it?

[Sutripta]

My case mimics Spitfire (and a few others).
Write, TT, Badminton - RH
Don't play cricket.
Simple things like opening doors, operating taps - LH.
Throw, and catch with my LH (usually)
Shave - Right side with my RH, left with my LH!
Keyboard - RH. Very strange.

Don't even think about it nowadays.
Power tools don't 'feel' right. And those can be dangerous.

In our education system, fast writing speed gives a decided advantage. Discriminates against lefties.

Sutripta

[shankar.balan]

I manage pretty well with drills and things. no worries.
and fast writing speed? I can probably out write a right hander with neat and legible handwriting too!

what used to be irritating is sometimes we used to have those chairs with integrated writing surfaces in school. those were always made for right handers except for a few.
it is a total irritant that practically everything is configured for the RH people - even to the extent of zips on trousers and buttons on shirts.
but what to do?
gotta learn to live with it or become ambidextrous like some of us have done.

Originally Posted by Sutripta

Power tools don't 'feel' right. And those can be dangerous.

In our education system, fast writing speed gives a decided advantage. Discriminates against lefties.

Sutripta

[ajmat]

I am a lefty

In the UK, I had a teacher who tried making me a right hander (yes - over there)

As a 10year old, came over to India and gots ridiculed, looks of disgust (children can be cruel) about eating which my left hand, the next question was "which hand do you use for....?"

To save a lot of hassle, if I eat with my hands, i use my right, but if i use a single fork or spoon, i use my left, if I use a normal fork and knife, I use them as per right hand convention.

Exams were a pain, since you were always elbowing the neighbour and he could view your answers

I play golf as a right hander, like Shankar, i was given a right hand set, if I needed to revert, it would mean a total relearn process.

I dare not work in an Arab country as plenty of faux pax (pun intended ) will happen

[_raVan_]

I would say, let the nature take its course. If he is left handed, let him be brought up that way. Moreover, I have heard that if you try to make the opposite hand dominant, it will result in a bit of stammering of speech. Dont know how true this is.

[shankar.balan]

hi ajmat
because im left handed when I play golf I tend sometimes to pull the ball over causing a certain amount of natural draw.
so I ve got to be careful and compensate with a slightly modified set up when I tee off.
but despite being a lefty and playing right handed golf I manage a reasonable game though Im still a high handicapper.

Originally Posted by ajmat

I am a lefty

In the UK, I had a teacher who tried making me a right hander (yes - over there)

As a 10year old, came over to India and gots ridiculed, looks of disgust (children can be cruel) about eating which my left hand, the next question was "which hand do you use for....?"

To save a lot of hassle, if I eat with my hands, i use my right, but if i use a single fork or spoon, i use my left, if I use a normal fork and knife, I use them as per right hand convention.

Exams were a pain, since you were always elbowing the neighbour and he could view your answers

I play golf as a right hander, like Shankar, i was given a right hand set, if I needed to revert, it would mean a total relearn process.

I dare not work in an Arab country as plenty of faux pax (pun intended ) will happen

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

I have seen many of my left handed friends hold the pen with a bent wrist so their fingers are pointing at them.

I forgot to mention that the paper is also nearly upside down.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by _raVan_

I would say, let the nature take its course. If he is left handed, let him be brought up that way. Moreover, I have heard that if you try to make the opposite hand dominant, it will result in a bit of stammering of speech. Dont know how true this is.

Well, I did have a stammering problem. I have had to work on it quite a bit, but I guess it still shows up at times.
As with a lot of us, I was a convert to right handedness as well. I am not sure if it is linked though.

Originally Posted by sgiitk

I forgot to mention that the paper is also nearly upside down.

Yeah, almost like a crab grip coming around from the top of the paper. Very difficult to copy when sitting behind such a guy during an exam