I'm thinking of learning the banjo but I am left handed and would be holding the banjo in reverse to most people I see playing at sessions. Is it harder to learn left handed and is it possible to get a left handed banjo or has it to be custom made.
i don't understand this. In my opinion, there is no "handedness' to string instruments, as both hands are used to play. The left hand on the fingerboard would leave me to think that being left-handed is an advantage.
But if you are to insist, one usually plays 'Left-handed" instrument, built that way. But, I have seen a fiddle player play "backwards," using a regular violin, but with the chinrest on the other side, raising the bow arm to reach the E string. Very bizarre, I know, but she was an accomplished violinist/fiddler.
One does not just string an instrument "backwards," because of how the instrument is built.
john carty is left handed but plays banjo and fiddle right handed. finbarr dwyer is left handed but plays right handed fiddle the other way round (e string is the bottom string, not top). so doesn't matter. easy to convert banjo to lefty - move arm rest, flip bride, little work on nut. that's it. pretty much.
There is a lot of 'handedness' to some string instruments, owing to the internal construction for bass/treble tone production, bridge intonation, etc.
Banjo, on the other hand, can be strung 'backwards' without any major problems, except possibly replacing the nut for the different gauges of string on each side.
Wyogal, I guess you're not any sort of string player then ?
Never exchanged any jokes about why Jimi Hendrix' 'A' string always sounded a bit weak ? Or why ordinairy guitarists can't do 'Cotton-picking' ?
Yes, there's no good reason why you can't play a stringed instrument the 'wrong' way round, except that they're made different........
it's not just "handedness" - there's also "braindedness" to consider. If you're right-banjoed and right-brainded, you should be fine. Otherwise, get the lefty.
Why would you say that, GP? I am a string player, taught strings, too. I have a son that is left-handed but has no problem playing guitar the "regular" way. I know that for most string instruments, one cannot just string it the other way because of how the instrument is made. I didn't know that one could string a banjo "backwards" though. I meant that I don't think it takes a right handed person to play a guitar or fiddle (or cello or viola or bass) the regular way. Look at an orchestra, would you tell me that they are all right-handed because they are all holding their instruments (more or less) the same way? of course not! I know that the instrument has a certain way of set up because of it's construction. I'm just saying that it doesn't favor right or left handed players.
wyogal, I consider it the same as skateboarding - you're left-footed or right-footed, and it's not always the same as your handedness. One feels natural - you could probably make yourself do it the other way, but that would be cheating.
"Airport" is right ~ it has more to do with the brain than with the "hand-id-ness." Frankie McCormick, now living in NY by way of Tyrone is one of the best banjoists in the US ~ and a "lefty." If you would like his input, contact me off-line, and I will provide his contact info.
I am also left-handed but I play righty. I started on folk guitar in the 60s, emulating my right-handed older siblings, and didn't pick up tenor banjo until 20 years later. It worked out pretty well, but honestly, from a picking standpoint, my left hand, as totally untrained in picking as it is, can still pick circles around my right hand until I'm warmed up.
I would vote for lefty to learn lefty. The instrument is very easy to adapt for that.
As I was riding home from work tonight I started developing a theory that if you're an adult starting an instrument you should go with what you know (i.e., left-hander, left-handed instrument). But if you're youngish and still have some plasticity in your brain, you should try both ways and see what fits. BarryM says left, and he's got a point, but I say go right if you can - that way you can always borrow an instrument.
The majority opinion among classical string players(for what little that is worth) is that being lefty playing righty is a big advantage. Having the fine motor control in the hand that most needs fine control of the fingers helps A LOT. It probably doesn't make as much difference for a picked instrument, but still the motion involved in picking is more large muscle related: hand and arm rather than fingers.
And don't underestimate airport's point about being able to play someone else's instrument. If you play the tenor banjo, you already play OM, Bouzouki, and have a handle on the little mandolin. It's always good to be able to play more instruments than you own.
I still think there's a 'handedness' to instruments - my best mate at school wizzed ahead on guitar because he played it right-handed although being left-handed, so his left hand was doing all the complicated stuff with great ease, while I was still struggling. My advantage came when I started doing all the fancy finger-picking, and he was left behind to strum.
Why we finger with the 'wrong' hand and pick/bow/strum with the 'right' is beyond me.
Has anyone tried whacking the goat wrong-handed ?
im left handed but play a right handed banjo in the left hand position ialso play the fiddle but in the right hand position ,lot of people cant fathom out it out but the notes are in your brain your brains just got to tell which finger to go where, either hand!!
MairinD.... did you ever check Frankie out close up? I always knew he was lefty but when I sat right next to him last month he had not restrung or used a left banjo, but it was a right, strung properly and he was playing it upside down! High strings up! When I asked him about it he said he plays it that way AND plays left-strung too so he can teach either way.
BTW...The great Frankie will be teaching at Catskills Irish Arts Week if anyone wants to take a workshop:
That video clip just confuses things even more. She is playing a right handed fidle upside down.
This style of playing means a player cannot be copied by or learn from a right handed player. I am a box player and I play a left handed box which is a mirror image of a conventional box but as least the notes are in the same place and I can follow a right handed player.
I've come across a fair bit of indifference from traditionalists who mocked me for playing this way and that I should " play the instrument properly (right handed) or not play it at all".
As a lefty it's not that we use a different hand to do things but I certaintly see things in a different perspective than most ordinary people (ie right handed). The best description I've come across of being left handed is to imagine a regiment of soldiers that are marching in unison through fresh snow. Us lefties hit the bits that they don't.
Left handed Banjo playing
Left handed Banjo playing
I'm thinking of learning the banjo but I am left handed and would be holding the banjo in reverse to most people I see playing at sessions. Is it harder to learn left handed and is it possible to get a left handed banjo or has it to be custom made.
# Posted on June 9th 2008 by jim.defish
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
i don't understand this. In my opinion, there is no "handedness' to string instruments, as both hands are used to play. The left hand on the fingerboard would leave me to think that being left-handed is an advantage.
But if you are to insist, one usually plays 'Left-handed" instrument, built that way. But, I have seen a fiddle player play "backwards," using a regular violin, but with the chinrest on the other side, raising the bow arm to reach the E string. Very bizarre, I know, but she was an accomplished violinist/fiddler.
One does not just string an instrument "backwards," because of how the instrument is built.
# Posted on June 9th 2008 by wyogal
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
p.s. just did a google (yes, google is my friend, usually go there first before I ask) and found lots of info on left-handed banjos.
# Posted on June 9th 2008 by wyogal
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
john carty is left handed but plays banjo and fiddle right handed. finbarr dwyer is left handed but plays right handed fiddle the other way round (e string is the bottom string, not top). so doesn't matter. easy to convert banjo to lefty - move arm rest, flip bride, little work on nut. that's it. pretty much.
# Posted on June 9th 2008 by WorzelGummidge
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
My buddy plays a nice old Gibson tenor, he strings it lefty and plays it lefty, he did what you said there, Worzel.
# Posted on June 9th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
There is a lot of 'handedness' to some string instruments, owing to the internal construction for bass/treble tone production, bridge intonation, etc.
Banjo, on the other hand, can be strung 'backwards' without any major problems, except possibly replacing the nut for the different gauges of string on each side.
Wyogal, I guess you're not any sort of string player then ?
Never exchanged any jokes about why Jimi Hendrix' 'A' string always sounded a bit weak ? Or why ordinairy guitarists can't do 'Cotton-picking' ?
Yes, there's no good reason why you can't play a stringed instrument the 'wrong' way round, except that they're made different........
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
it's not just "handedness" - there's also "braindedness" to consider. If you're right-banjoed and right-brainded, you should be fine. Otherwise, get the lefty.
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by airport
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
I am ambihorrendous--equally inept with both hands....
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by Will CPT
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
Why would you say that, GP? I am a string player, taught strings, too. I have a son that is left-handed but has no problem playing guitar the "regular" way. I know that for most string instruments, one cannot just string it the other way because of how the instrument is made. I didn't know that one could string a banjo "backwards" though. I meant that I don't think it takes a right handed person to play a guitar or fiddle (or cello or viola or bass) the regular way. Look at an orchestra, would you tell me that they are all right-handed because they are all holding their instruments (more or less) the same way? of course not! I know that the instrument has a certain way of set up because of it's construction. I'm just saying that it doesn't favor right or left handed players.
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by wyogal
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
LOL W-CPT! At least you're not a banjingoist
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by airport
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
wyogal, I consider it the same as skateboarding - you're left-footed or right-footed, and it's not always the same as your handedness. One feels natural - you could probably make yourself do it the other way, but that would be cheating.
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by airport
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
in other words... Just because one is left-handed, doesn't mean they play the instrument the other way around.
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by wyogal
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
"Airport" is right ~ it has more to do with the brain than with the "hand-id-ness." Frankie McCormick, now living in NY by way of Tyrone is one of the best banjoists in the US ~ and a "lefty." If you would like his input, contact me off-line, and I will provide his contact info.
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by Ceolagusrince
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
I am also left-handed but I play righty. I started on folk guitar in the 60s, emulating my right-handed older siblings, and didn't pick up tenor banjo until 20 years later. It worked out pretty well, but honestly, from a picking standpoint, my left hand, as totally untrained in picking as it is, can still pick circles around my right hand until I'm warmed up.
I would vote for lefty to learn lefty. The instrument is very easy to adapt for that.
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by BarryM
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
As I was riding home from work tonight I started developing a theory that if you're an adult starting an instrument you should go with what you know (i.e., left-hander, left-handed instrument). But if you're youngish and still have some plasticity in your brain, you should try both ways and see what fits. BarryM says left, and he's got a point, but I say go right if you can - that way you can always borrow an instrument.
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by airport
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
The majority opinion among classical string players(for what little that is worth) is that being lefty playing righty is a big advantage. Having the fine motor control in the hand that most needs fine control of the fingers helps A LOT. It probably doesn't make as much difference for a picked instrument, but still the motion involved in picking is more large muscle related: hand and arm rather than fingers.
And don't underestimate airport's point about being able to play someone else's instrument. If you play the tenor banjo, you already play OM, Bouzouki, and have a handle on the little mandolin. It's always good to be able to play more instruments than you own.
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by justjim
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
Thanks for your comments guys.
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by jim.defish
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
justjim, if that is the case why haven't all the rightys started playing lefty over the years?
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by grego
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
I still think there's a 'handedness' to instruments - my best mate at school wizzed ahead on guitar because he played it right-handed although being left-handed, so his left hand was doing all the complicated stuff with great ease, while I was still struggling. My advantage came when I started doing all the fancy finger-picking, and he was left behind to strum.
Why we finger with the 'wrong' hand and pick/bow/strum with the 'right' is beyond me.
Has anyone tried whacking the goat wrong-handed ?
# Posted on June 10th 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
many instruments are asymetric. Their evolution was probably influenced by ergonomic as well as acoustic matters.
Most players are right handed, so there must be a damned good reason that righties fret these evolutionary triumphs with their left hands.
So why should a left hander consider playing the banjo right handed? I wouldn't, although I do play the accordion right handed.
# Posted on June 11th 2008 by millionyears_bc
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
im left handed but play a right handed banjo in the left hand position ialso play the fiddle but in the right hand position ,lot of people cant fathom out it out but the notes are in your brain your brains just got to tell which finger to go where, either hand!!
# Posted on June 11th 2008 by myparasgon
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
MairinD.... did you ever check Frankie out close up? I always knew he was lefty but when I sat right next to him last month he had not restrung or used a left banjo, but it was a right, strung properly and he was playing it upside down! High strings up! When I asked him about it he said he plays it that way AND plays left-strung too so he can teach either way.
BTW...The great Frankie will be teaching at Catskills Irish Arts Week if anyone wants to take a workshop:
http://www.east-durham.org/irishartsweek/07staff.htm
getting close, and i know people are still finding rooms up there, so sign on and have some fun!
# Posted on June 12th 2008 by irisnevins
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
Check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gcOhO8PWfs
# Posted on June 12th 2008 by wyogal
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
That video clip just confuses things even more. She is playing a right handed fidle upside down.
This style of playing means a player cannot be copied by or learn from a right handed player. I am a box player and I play a left handed box which is a mirror image of a conventional box but as least the notes are in the same place and I can follow a right handed player.
I've come across a fair bit of indifference from traditionalists who mocked me for playing this way and that I should " play the instrument properly (right handed) or not play it at all".
As a lefty it's not that we use a different hand to do things but I certaintly see things in a different perspective than most ordinary people (ie right handed). The best description I've come across of being left handed is to imagine a regiment of soldiers that are marching in unison through fresh snow. Us lefties hit the bits that they don't.
# Posted on June 14th 2008 by southpaw
Re: Left handed Banjo playing
as a lefthanded banjo player i find it easier to use a left handed banjo as its awkward to ajust to using a right handed one.........
# Posted on July 12th 2008 by steff1066