Hunter 532 - Posted - 03/17/2024:  06:42:07

I play banjo left handed and wish I would had switched to right handed. trying to find a left handed banjo is almost impossible. As a right handed player you have so many more choices and more of a chance to find the model you want. Beginners learn to play right you will not regret it.

Joel Hooks - Posted - 03/17/2024:  07:01:56

When this comes up (and it does often), I always ask, “how do you play banjo with one hand?”

stanleytone - Posted - 03/17/2024:  07:35:31

You can always ge a lefty neck built for any banjo. As for a natural lefty learning to play right handed, speaking fr myself, thats like telling a righthanded player to learn left handed. Could i have learned righty? Maybe, but it would have taken me 3 times longer and i dont think id be as good as i am now. There are people that play right handed banjos left handed. Every lefty has to make that choice of how to go.

Texasbanjo - Posted - 03/17/2024:  08:11:13

I'm a lefty and have always played right handed. What make s the difference? Both hands have to do something so does it matter whether one hand is picking or fretting? I don't think so.

Let's face it, it's basically a right handed world so the more we learn to make use of our right hand, the better off we are.

If you play a banjo "normally", then you can often ask a banjo picker if you can pick his/her banjo to see how it feels and sounds. A lefty playing left handed can't do that.

Also, as you learn to play other instruments, if you play them "normally" once again, you can switch off with other pickers at jams and festivals.

SirenSong - Posted - 03/17/2024:  08:29:59

Left-handed and will always play left-handed. I started with ukulele and was not getting anywhere until I got a left-handed instrument; only then did it feel natural and I began making progress.

When I added banjo I never gave a thought to learning right-handed, because I already knew playing lefty was a much better fit for me.

True, I will never ask to play someone's righty banjo that I like the sound of. I truly enjoy the front porch pickin' that I'm currently doing, and may possibly enjoy going to a jam someday, but I prefer to be a hermit and just do my thing.

And another bonus - all those gorgeous banjos in the marketplace ads? I know I am not in fear of blowing my budget because I can say to myself, "whew! not a lefty!"

banjowannabe - Posted - 03/17/2024:  08:47:23

One of the issues with handedness is that, like a lot of human traits, there are people who are strongly one way or the other - and there are most of us that are kind of in the middle. That's true for color perception, balance, ability to hear pitch or rhythm, etc.., etc., etc.. So if you're strongly left handed it's probably a lot more difficult to learn to play right-handed than if you have mixed dominance (which a lot of us do). I can do some things left-handed but usually do them right handed. It's not too hard for me to switch. But for somebody strongly left-hand dominant, it is probably very difficult to learn to do it right handed.

FenderFred - Posted - 03/17/2024:  09:15:38

quote:

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Originally posted by Hunter 532

I play banjo left handed and wish I would had switched to right handed. trying to find a left handed banjo is almost impossible. As a right handed player you have so many more choices and more of a chance to find the model you want. Beginners learn to play right you will not regret it.

---

I have a friend who is left handed let me tell you nothing holds him back. It's true there is a limit to the number of left handed banjo's available in music shops but I bet if you contacted a banjo builder they could easily make you a high quality instrument. 

Fracker - Posted - 03/17/2024:  11:18:18

My grandson is three years old, almost four. He is a lefty. He likes to sit with me and play an old cigar box ukulele I built years ago. He Just naturally plays it right handed. I've tried to turn him around in deference to his left handedness, but he turns it back. And he's actually able to play a few chords on it, he doesn't change chords though. He plays whichever suits his fancy at the moment. Anyway, I'm just letting him find his own way. He's three years old. I think that he sees everyone else playing it right handed and he's doing the same as they're doing. He does everything else left handed though.

Edited by - Fracker on 03/17/2024 11:19:11

monstertone - Posted - 03/17/2024:  14:09:30

Being a southpaw is an uphill battle, all the way. The only right-handed thing you might say came natural for me was scissors. But then, at age two or three, I didn't know any better. Although Mother knew I was left-handed, she put them in my right hand & said cut along the dotted line. Monkey see, monkey do. At one time or another, I tried to make the scissors work left-handed. Not only do they not fit comfortably in one's left hand, they will not cut, and worse yet, unable to see the dotted line without very uncomfortable body contortions!



From baseball mitts to golf clubs, it never ends, even the courses are laid out to favor right-hand golfers. At nine years of age, I taught myself to play harmonica, right-handed. Not only was that how the book showed to hold it, but the numbers were on that side. Before I knew it, Mother sent me off to school with the family violin, right-handed, of course. Lack of interest, that didn't take.



My first banjo was a $20 pawn shop special. Righty/lefty never occurred to me, until my first lesson, when advised left hand 5-string banjos are as rare as hens teeth, & expensive custom-builds. Furthermore, having never played a stringed instrument, neither hand knows what to do. You're here for a lesson, with a right hand 5-string banjo, you may as well give it a go. The rest is history.

Edited by - monstertone on 03/17/2024 14:20:49

Joel Hooks - Posted - 03/17/2024:  14:19:25

Seriously, could someone explain how they play banjo with only one hand?

banjoak - Posted - 03/17/2024:  16:11:40

quote:

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Originally posted by Texasbanjo

I'm a lefty and have always played right handed. What make s the difference? Both hands have to do something so does it matter whether one hand is picking or fretting? I don't think so.

 

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Picking and fretting are not doping equal/interchangeable tasks.

The picking hand is comparatively doing more work and/or finer detailed work; rhythmic articulation/expression, nuance, fluidity, precision and speed. As many advocate, that hand is more important in playing. Makes sense to put that into dominant hand. 

The idea of dominant hand, for most people is naturally more comfortable, more efficient, quick, speed, dexterity, precision; better at finer muscle motor skills for subtler nuance detail task/work.

Not that can't train non-dominant hand to do those that; but for many (esp beginners), might extra struggle to match the dominant hand; require much more effort, be even less comfortable; cause limits; or might not reach same level or potential. 

Mad Hornet - Posted - 03/17/2024:  16:12:52

I'm a lefty and it worked great for me as a baseball pitcher. When I took up banjo I figured as Sherry said that I still have to use both hands so what was the difference? I pick righty.

But I do remember somebody on here (Rob MacKillop maybe???) posted a very interesting essay about why lefty's should pick lefty. His arguments were compelling for sure but by then I was already three years in I wasn't about to relearn everything all over again.

Laurence Diehl - Posted - 03/18/2024:  09:54:22

I’m righty and I’m trying to imagine playing left handed. It wouldn’t be like starting over. It would be worse.

Jack Baker - Posted - 03/18/2024:  13:02:28

Hi Laurence,

Earl in my 20s I got a case of Trigger Finger in my picking right hand. One of the best hand surgeons in NYC operated on it and it worked great for about 6 mos and then locked again. Well, I went back to the Doc and suggested another operation and the Doc just said we have to keep trying and I said OK. In 6 mos. it locked up again and this time my middle finger got scarred and attached to my index. It was worse than ever. I was really upset that I'd have to get a real job somewhere. So I went back for a 3rd operation and same results but now ny index, middle and thumb all scarred from the operation.



So I began to try to play it as a lefty and I was really frusted and It confused my natural Gyro sensors and I lost my balance for about a year. In two years I managed to become efficient enough to play gigs in Central Park with Bill Keith and Marty Laster, a known mandolinist. I never got near the speed I used to have; I got pretty fast but not up to the Geniuses out there who could blow me away.



So I thought I've got to make a better living somehow so I hired a few well know teachers in the area to teach Fiddle and Mandolin. Rents were cheap then so I rented 3 room in a shabby building but fixed it up to be at least decent for Students....So Yeah it's just awful Bill Keith interviewed me in BNL. That on my Website somewhere.....I feel people's pain believe me.....Jack   p.s. I believe that few of my Teachers who worked for me back then, post on BHO now...

Edited by - Jack Baker on 03/18/2024 13:06:28

Laurence Diehl - Posted - 03/18/2024:  14:34:07

Kudos to you Jack. I think I might have given up.