This blog post is authored by a guest writer, John O’Shea. John is a guitarist and teacher of guitar living in Dublin, Ireland. The post is an edited brief excerpt of a longer article John is preparing for publication. I am grateful to John for agreeing to share his comments and expertise with the readers of In Your Hands. John’s impressive professional biography can be found at the end of the post.
Playing the guitar the standard way—right-handed.
Historically, string instruments across continents, eras and styles have overwhelmingly favored the left hand for placing the notes. It is commonly thought among guitarists and teachers that the left hand is more “straightforward” whereas right hand movement is more complex. In images of string playing (such as shown here), the clear majority have the neck of the instrument in the left hand.
Luckily, in the modern world the average guitar student can walk into a music shop in any city in the world and acquire a reasonable left-handed instrument. In the community of musicians, there are substantial numbers of those playing both left-handed and left-handers playing right-handed (standard). For a closer look at left-handed instruments, we can turn to one of the oldest guitar companies to help us understand why they may have come about.
Christian Frederic Martin travelled to America from Germany in 1833. Coming from a long line of cabinet makers, he had been apprenticed to famed guitar maker Johann Georg Stauffer in Vienna. Nearly 200 years later the company he started remains one of the most respected and well-known brands in the industry. The earliest record in the company archives of a left-handed model is 000-18 built in 1927. Why this guitar was made is unfortunately not recorded but the date may give some indication as to the reason; 1927 was the year Martin standardized steel strings across their range. Before then, the company had built mostly gut-string models which could be more easily converted for left-handed playing. If someone wished to play left-handed reversing the gut strings on the instrument was all that was required. This reversal cannot be accomplished with steel strings because the greater range in string gauges requires more variation in other aspects of the instrument to compensate for the steel strings. Martin themselves say, that as a company, they have always built to customer demand and this likely was the impetus for building the first left-handed models. Of the 120,000 instruments Martin makes on average a year, roughly 6,000 are left-handed models. If this is representative of the overall guitar-playing community, then about 5% of guitarists play left-handed or about half of the general population estimate of left-handers at 10 to 15%.
Left-hander Paul McCartney plays left-handed with the neck of the instrument in the right hand.
A word to teachers of the guitar—if you have ever encouraged a left-handed student to play right-handed (standard) and are concerned you may have done something untoward you can breathe easy. Studies have shown that left-handed students are overrepresented among string players and pianists. Thus, being left-handed is not an obvious disadvantage. While playing standard will probably always be more convenient, if you have a student playing left-handed or have encouraged one to play left-handed, right-handed conversion would not be worth the regression it would cause. Actively preventing them from playing left-handed goes beyond making an informed recommendation and is not profitable for either party.
Left-handed resources are an amazing development of the 21st century. If you are playing guitar left-handed, you can get left-handed pedagogical materials, accessories, and most importantly high-quality instruments. The list of successful musicians playing both standard and left-handed is extensive and impressive, particularly among electric guitarists. Left-handed players will likely remain a solid minority within the community in the future, whichever road they choose.
John O’Shea holds a first-class honor’s degree in classical-guitar performance from the TUD Conservatory of Music and Drama. He was the first Irish guitarist to graduate on scholarship with a Master of Music from the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles. At USC John studied with world-famous guitarist Scott Tennant and under the tutelage of Maestro Pepe Romero. He has many years of experience teaching and performing on both sides of the Atlantic both as a soloist and as a member of the Dublin Guitar Quartet. He has performed as soloist and featured player for UL Orchestra, the Irish Composer’s Collective, Limerick Sinfonia, the Irish Chamber Orchestra and the RTE Concert Orchestra. John currently runs the guitar department at Limerick School of Music where he teaches solo instrumental lessons and guitar ensemble. His first guitar Method- ‘How to become a Classical Guitar Superhero’ is due for release in early 2023.