| Author |
 Topic  |
|
Retro
Ahonui
USA
2368 Posts |
 Posted - 09/05/2007 : 09:41:37 AM
|
A sinister friend of mine wanted to start learning `ukulele recently, and she found a model she liked at Dusty Strings here in Seattle. Free of charge, they flipped the nut (or do I mean the saddle? Sorry.) and restrung it for her left-handed-nessnessness.
First time I picked it up, I found that my brain had very little trouble re-configuring my fingers to play the familiar chords (holding it right-handed) with the left-handed stringing --- but it sure felt weird! Made my cranium tingle in a fashion that used to involve ingestion of questionable substances. |
 |
|
|
noeau
Ha`aha`a
USA
1105 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2007 : 09:49:53 AM
|
| You is a questionable substance!!! Thanks for the detailed stuff reid. Another myth snuffed in the muff. |
No'eau, eia au he mea pa'ani wale nō. |
|
|
|
wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2007 : 11:34:13 AM
|
You've got to admit that for instance, the way Bla plays, makes for a very unique sound. I wouldn't even want him to change a thing.
Good point about having the wherewithal to have a luthier fix it up for you. When I bought my $25 Harmony back in 1967, A#1, I was a poor 15 year old girl living in the ghetto. B#2 I wouldn't even have thought that such a thing could have been done. C#3 I wouldn't have known what the heck a "luthier" is; and D#4 I didn't know it at the time, but I did "jus' press" -- right handed style. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
Edited by - wcerto on 09/05/2007 11:35:09 AM |
|
|
|
Retro
Ahonui
USA
2368 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2007 : 3:32:46 PM
|
quote:
Originally posted by noeau
You is a questionable substance!!!
In so little time, you have clearly learned so much.  |
|
|
|
rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2007 : 3:59:14 PM
|
Nearly all steel string guitars are built with compensated bridges- the slanted saddle Reid mentioned. Re stringing these would change the intonation, and the guitar would play out of tune. The further up the neck you played, the more the tuning would shift. Re stringing is not a good idea on these instruments. The slant is to compensate for the difference in thickness from the treble to the bass strings. Nylon strings don't have such a pronounced difference in thickness, so compensation is rarely, if ever, needed. These are viable candidates for reversal of strings. The real question in my mind is: Since you use both hands to play,and each hand has to learn it's specific job, what's the fuss? It's all in our minds that we think of the instrument as right or left handed. Look at your keyboard. Do the letters have to be re arranged for typing with the other hand? Do you change the gas & brake pedals in a left handed car? I understand the scissors deal. Wanda had a left handed pair that I couldn't do much with. But she couldn't either. She gave them away years ago.If I had used them enough, I'd have trained my left hand to use them. It's all muscle memory, just like the guitar. I recall learning the first chords- I had to use my right hand to move left hand fingers to the new positions at first. Eventually, my left hand learned. I tried to play a left hand guitar several years ago, and found that when each hand was learning all that muscle memory, niether watched the other. It was like day one, all over again. (Deja Vu, all over again?) But shipwreck me some place with a lefty guitar, and I bet I'd learn to play it. Heaven forbid I break a string! You need both hands, but whichever job you give them, if you want them to learn, they will learn.
Paul |
"A master banjo player isn't the person who can pick the most notes.It's the person who can touch the most hearts." Patrick Costello |
Edited by - rendesvous1840 on 09/05/2007 4:00:52 PM |
|
|
|
hapakid
Luna Ho`omalu
USA
1533 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2007 : 6:36:28 PM
|
If you watch the film "Hawaiian Rainbow", you'll see Elias Kuamo'o playing some sweet slack key left-handed with the Ho'opi'i Brothers.
Jesse Tinsley |
|
|
|
wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2007 : 12:51:24 AM
|
Yep, Jesse. Love that Hawaiian Rainbow....we'll make a lei for you....
But you know, when I started this topic of discussion, what really caught my attention was just what seemed to me to be a greater proportion of left handed players in Hawai`i and I was wondering on the reasons for that seemingly greater number of lefties than what I would consider "normal" distribtuion. Of course, that is only an observation of mine, no scientific study or anything..
From readiing all these discussions here, I hypothesize (is that a word?) that the reason I seem to notice more left handed Hawaiian musicians is because I am left handed and because I love Hawaiian music and pay particular attention to it. Kind of like after I got my new car, I noticed so many just like that out on the road.
So - next question -- is my perception that there is a greater amount of left handed Hawaiian musicians real or imagined? |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
|
|
|
thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2165 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2007 : 03:25:38 AM
|
| Yet another overlooked factor of lefties playing a right handed instrument: Fromst Hawaiian musicians I've talked with, I've found that they started playing music in a family context. Most of the family would be righties. With a limited number of instruments, "one size would necessarily fit all", thus the lefty playing a righthanded instrument. |
|
|
|
Topic |
|
Topic Locked
