List of musicians who play left-handed
This is a list of notable musicians who play their instruments left-handed. (This does not include left-handed people who play right-handed, such as Duane Allman, Billy Corgan, Mark Knopfler, Barry Gibb, and Paul Simon.)
Contents
Guitarists and bassists
Left-handed people play guitar or electric bass in either one of the following four ways depending on the person: (1) play a right-handed guitar or bass right-handed, (2) play a true left-handed guitar or bass, (3) play a right-handed guitar or bass that has been altered to play left-handed, or (4) turn a right-handed guitar or bass upside down, pick with the left hand, but leave the strings as they were – which makes them reversed from the normal order for a left-handed player. (The fingering is the same for methods 2 and 3.) Any style of picking with the left hand (flatpicking or fingerstyle guitar) is considered playing left-handed.
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Tony Iommi's guitar, a custom-made Gibson SG
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Jimi Hendrix's Les Paul Custom - a right-handed guitar with the strings reversed for playing left-handed
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A left-handed Martin D-28. The internal and external construction is the mirror image of a right-handed guitar.
Left-handed with normal stringing
Guitarists in this category pick with their left hand and have the strings in the conventional order for a left-handed player (i.e. the low string on the top side of the neck). They either have true left-handed guitars or have right-handed guitars altered so the strings are correct for a left-handed player. Some guitarists in this category (e.g. Paul McCartney) play both genuine left-handed instruments and right-handed instruments altered for left-handed playing.
Changing the strings on a right-handed guitar involves several things. The nut of the guitar has to be changed to accommodate the string widths. The bridge needs to be changed to make the lower strings longer than the top strings for correct intonation. On almost all acoustic guitars the bracing is non-symmetrical. On electric guitars altered this way, the controls will be backwards.
Notable players
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- Fred Abbott (Noah and the Whale)
- Nicke Andersson (The Hellacopters, Imperial State Electric)
- Tim Armstrong (Rancid)
- Harvey Dalton Arnold (The Outlaws)
- Perry Bamonte (ex-The Cure)
- Jill Barber
- Courtney Barnett
- Greg Barnett (The Menzingers)
- Eef Barzelay (Clem Snide)
- Justin Bieber
- Beeb Birtles (Little River Band)
- Blare N Bitch (Betty Blowtorch, Butt Trumpet)
- Eric Bogle
- Davey von Bohlen (The Promise Ring/Cap'n Jazz/Maritime)
- Adrian Borland (The Sound)
- Martin Bramah (The Fall/Blue Orchids)
- Jonathan Butler
- Ernie C (Body Count)
- Jo Callis (The Rezillos/The Human League) plays guitar left-handed.
- Calogero - Plays guitar and bass left-handed[1]
- Ali Campbell (ex-UB40)
- Robin Campbell (UB40)
- Sheila Carabine (Dala)
- Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)[2] (played drums right-handed)
- David Cook
- Anton Cosmo (ex-Boston)
- Billy Ray Cyrus
- Mia Levin d'Bruzzi (Frightwig)
- Fyfe Dangerfield (Guillemots)
- Willie Duncan (Spider Murphy Gang)
- Shae Dupuy
- Taylor "Tae" Dye (Maddie & Tae)[3]
- Elliot Easton (The Cars)
- Klaus Eichstadt (Ugly Kid Joe)
- Santiago Feliú
- John Flansburgh (They Might Be Giants)
- Ian Fowles (The Aquabats, Death By Stereo)
- Michael Fry (aka Mikey Demus) (Skindred)
- Paulo Furtado (Wraygunn/The Legendary Tigerman)
- Paul Gray (Slipknot) started out playing right-handed, then changed to left-handed because it was more comfortable.
- Ted Gärdestad
- Ollie Halsall
- Jimi Hendrix
- Imai Hisashi (Buck-Tick)
- "Kuddel" Andreas von Holst (Die Toten Hosen)
- Ben Howard
- Tony Iommi[2] (Black Sabbath)
- Paskal Jakobsen (BLØF)
- Lars Johansson (Candlemass)
- George Johnson (The Brothers Johnson)
- Joyce Jonathan (French pop singer)
- Mendel Bij de Leij (Aborted, System Divide)
- Cameron Liddell (Asking Alexandria)
- Mark "Kazzer" Kasprzyk (Redlight King/Solo)
- Georgina "Georgi" Kay
- Dave Kilminster (former lefty; originally played left-handed until injury, now exclusively plays right-handed)
- Dave King (Flogging Molly)
- Hayley Kiyoko
- Pasi Koskinen (St. Mucus, Ajattara, To Separate the Flesh from the Bones)
- Dickey Lee[4]
- Dave Longstreth (Dirty Projectors)
- Kaizer Von Loopy (Hanzel Und Gretyl)
- Barbara Lynn
- Gregor Mackintosh (Paradise Lost)
- Paul McCartney (The Beatles) first tried playing right-handed, but was making no progress. He saw a picture of Slim Whitman playing left-handed and realized that it was necessary to reverse the guitar, pick with the left hand, and reverse the strings (Babiuk 2001:14).
- Al McKay [2] (Earth, Wind & Fire)
- Mike "Gunface" McKenzie (The Red Chord)
- Buddy Miles
- Mdou Moctar
- Luke Morley (Thunder / The Union)
- Paul Mullen (The Automatic/Young Legionnaire/Yourcodenameis:milo)
- Iggy Pop
- Ragnar Þórhallsson (Of Monsters and Men)
- Mac Powell (Third Day)
- Omar Rodríguez-López (At the Drive-In/The Mars Volta)
- Verónica Romeo
- Cesar Rosas (Los Lobos)
- Lukas Rossi can play the guitar with either hand.
- Greg Sage is a natural right-handed guitarist, decided to play left-handed for the Wipers.
- Evie Sands
- Christian Savill - (Slowdive)
- Craig Scanlon (The Fall)
- Blake Schwarzenbach (Jawbreaker)
- Josey Scott (Saliva)
- Phillip Carol Sirmans (Cranford Hollow)
- Jeffrey Steele (formerly of Boy Howdy)
- Richie Stotts (Plasmatics)
- Bill Svanoe (The Rooftop Singers)
- Dan Swanö (Bloodbath, Edge of Sanity, Nightingale, Ribspreader)
- Audrey Swinburne (Mother Superior, a 1970s British all-female progressive rock band)[5]
- Bridgette Tatum
- Maria Taylor (Azure Ray, Little Red Rocket, Now It's Overhead, solo)
- Simon Taylor-Davies (Klaxons)
- Arnim Teutoburg-Weiß (Beatsteaks)
- Brad Turcotte (Brad Sucks)
- Sylvia Tyson
- Zacky Vengeance (Avenged Sevenfold)
- Mike Vennart (ex-Oceansize, now tours with Biffy Clyro)
- Douglas Verhoeven (In-Quest)
- Vicentico
- Ryan Waste (Municipal Waste)
- Damian Webb
- Evan West (New Hollow)
- Andrew White (Kaiser Chiefs)
- Felix White (The Maccabees)
- Slim Whitman
- Atahualpa Yupanqui
Notes
- Jimi Hendrix was naturally left-handed but his father tried to force him to play right-handed because he believed playing left handed was a sign of the devil. Hendrix took right-handed guitars and restrung them for playing left-handed (Cross 2005:55). Hendrix did continue to write right-handed. Hendrix did learn to play right-handed as mandated by his father, he had to play right-handed any time his father was around (and left-handed, upside down, when his father was not around) or risked losing the guitar forever. Once he started making modifications that allowed him to play left handed with the strings in the proper order, he still had to play right-handed with the old man nearby, so he also learned to play right-handed with the strings upside down. His brother Leon's testimony confirms this in Sharon Lawrence's biography Jimi Hendrix: the man, the magic, the truth and in quotations from guitar players such as Mike Bloomfield in Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child of the Aquarian Age by Dave Henderson.
Left-handed with strings backwards
These are players who play left-handed, but with the strings as on an unaltered right-handed guitar, thus the strings are backwards for a left-handed player (e.g. Bob Geldof). Some players in this category (e.g. Dick Dale and Albert King) had custom instruments that were basically a left-handed guitar with the strings as on a right-handed guitar, since they had learned to play that way.
Notable players
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- Babyface
- Cormac Battle (Kerbdog)
- Wallis Bird (Irish female guitarist; plays right-handed guitar upside down)
- Ed Blaney (The Fall)
- Doyle Bramhall II[2]
- Chase Bryant[6]
- Rusty Burns (Point Blank)
- Glen Burtnik (Styx/solo)
- Eddy Clearwater
- Junior Campbell
- Michael Card
- Jimmy Cliff
- Elizabeth Cotten
- Dick Dale[2]
- Ed Deane
- Cheick Hamala Diabate (RH instruments with original stringing and custom LH instruments with backwards stringing) also banjo and ngoni
- Lefty Dizz
- Eric Gales, naturally right-handed but plays left-handed.
- Bob Geldof (The Boomtown Rats), right handed player, but did play with strings upside down
- Jimi Goodwin (Doves)
- Ed Harcourt
- Johan Hedberg (Suburban Kids with Biblical Names)
- Benn Jordan
- Jacek Kaczmarski
- Andy Kerr (Nomeansno, The Hanson Brothers)
- Albert King [7]
- Little Jimmy King
- Chris Marchiel (Powerglove)
- Anika Moa (New Zealand singer, songwriter)
- Morgan
- Coco Montoya
- Malina Moye
- Mic Murphy
- Hans Nesbitt (Steel Tree/The T43 Projects/Jessie Castro Produced/Elizabeth Cotten study)
- Kurt Nilsen (Winner of the World Idol competition after winning the first season of the Norwegian Idol series)
- Aisyah Rauf
- Paul Raymond
- Nicolas Reyes (Gipsy Kings)
- Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals)
- Kris Roe (The Ataris)
- Jim Rooney
- Otis Rush[2]
- Graham Russell (Air Supply)
- Lætitia Sadier (McCarthy, Monade, Stereolab)
- Edgar Scandurra (Ira!)
- Seal
- Dan Seals
- Bill Staines
- Dan Swanö
- Dave Thomas (Blonde on Blonde)
- Wayman Tisdale
- Dave Wakeling (The English Beat, General Public)
- Karl Wallinger (World Party)
- Bobby Womack
Unclassified left-handed players
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- Gordon Anderson aka Lone Pigeon (The Aliens)
- Michael Angelo Batio (plays a double-guitar ambidextrously)
- Baatin (Original P, Parliament-Funkadelic)
- William Beckett (The Academy Is...)
- Christian Bland (The Black Angels)
- John Butler (Diesel Park West)
- Robin Campbell (UB40)
- Ali Campbell (UB40)
- Scott Hedrick (Skeletonwitch)
- Shirlie Holliman (Pepsi & Shirlie)
- Jez Lowe, actually right-handed but plays guitar left-handed.
- Jon Oliva
- Ade Firza Paloh (Sore Band)
- Peter Plate (Rosenstolz)
- Emily Robins (In The Elephant Princess, she is a band member and plays guitar left-handed)
- Arif Sağ (plays bağlama left-handed)
- John Schumann
- Simon Taylor-Davis
- Andrew "Whitey" White (Kaiser Chiefs)
- Lari White
- Wendy Wild
- Rick Willson (Diesel Park West)
- Michael Zakarin (The Bravery)
Bass guitarists
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- Jarkko Ahola (Teräsbetoni)
- Martin Eric Ain (Celtic Frost)
- David Amezcua (Awolnation, Under the Influence of Giants)
- Eric Axelson (The Dismemberment Plan)
- Todd Bell (Braid)
- Brian Betancourt (Hospitality)
- Greta Brinkman (L7, Debbie Harry Band, Unseen Force; Plays with strings reversed)
- Kathy Bull aka Francesca Griffin (Look Blue Go Purple, Cyclops)
- Adam Burton (Arcane Roots)
- Rosemary Butler (Formerly Birtha; now backing and solo vocalist)
- Gerald Casale (Devo; plays strings backwards)
- Floyd Pepper Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem
- Ken Casey (Dropkick Murphys)
- Stuart Chatwood (The Tea Party)
- Jason Christopher (Sebastian Bach)
- Seffy Efrati (Blackfield, Aviv Geffen) plays with the strings backwards
- Nick Feldman (Wang Chung)
- Stephan Fimmers (Necrophagist, Pestilence)
- Kathy Foster (The Thermals)
- Ed Gagliardi (Foreigner; naturally right-handed, played left-handed)
- Jimi Goodwin (Doves; plays both guitar and bass with strings backwars)
- Karl Green (Herman's Hermits)
- Paul Gray (Slipknot) started out on a right handed instrument but flipped it over and re-strung it to a true left hand style instrument and found that being left handed, playing left handed was much more natural and then moved on shortly after to playing actual left handed guitars and basses.
- Glenn Hampton (Rigor Sardonicous)
- Jimmy Haslip (Yellowjackets; plays strings backwards)
- Colin Hodgkinson (Back Door)
- Melvin Honore (Mel) (Cerebral Ballzy)
- Lee Jackson (The Nice)
- George Johnson (The Brothers Johnson)
- Gerald Johnson (Steve Miller Band; Plays with strings reversed)
- Awan Garnida Kartadinata (Sore Band)
- Eyadou Ag Leche (Tinariwen; plays instruments strung backwards)
- Michael Libramento (Grace Potter and the Nocturnals; plays both guitar and bass with strings backwards)
- Joe Long (The Four Seasons)
- Alan Longmuir (Bay City Rollers; plays both guitar and bass with strings backwards)
- Nathen Maxwell (Flogging Molly)
- George McArdle (Little River Band)
- Paul McCartney (The Beatles/Wings/solo) plays with strings in correct order, both guitar and bass; plays drums right-handed
- Joe McGuigan (Gama Bomb)
- Robbie Merrill (Godsmack)
- Marc Metal (Johnny Rocket and the V-Twins)
- Josh Newton (Every Time I Die)
- Patrick Olive (Hot Chocolate; also plays percussion)
- David Pahoa (The Plimsouls)
- Doug Pinnick (King's X)
- Scott Reeder (Kyuss/The Obsessed/Unida; plays with strings reversed)
- Dave "Shapes" Rimmer (Zodiac Mindwarp)
- Christopher Dale Ryan (Deer Tick)
- Brad Savage (Band from TV)
- Danielle Nicole Schnebelen (Trampled Under Foot)
- Jeff Schmidt (Bass Soloist, plays with strings reversed)
- Phillip Sirmans (Cranford Hollow)
- Steve Smith (The Vapors)
- Jacob Sproul (Rose Hill Drive)
- Jeffrey Steele (Boy Howdy; see guitarists, above)
- Wayman Tisdale (his basses had the strings in reverse order)
- Evan West (New Hollow)
- Kevin Whelan (The Wrens)
- Paul Wilson (Snow Patrol)
- A. W. Yrjänä (CMX)
- Pete Wright (Crass)
- Janus Zarate (Vernian Process)
Drummers
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- Nicke Andersson (Entombed)
- Daryl Atkins (Arcane Roots)
- Oli Beaudoin (Neuraxis, Kataklysm)
- Carter Beauford (Dave Matthews Band) plays on a right-handed drum kit, frequently open-handed.
- Rich Beddoe (Finger Eleven)
- Mike Bordin (Ozzy Osbourne, Faith No More) uses a right-handed setup, but with his primary ride cymbal on his left.
- Dan Carle (After the Burial)
- Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) alternates between left-handed and right-handed playing
- Phil Collins (Genesis, solo)
- Scott Columbus (Manowar)
- Jonny Cragg (Spacehog)
- Joe Daniels (Local H)
- Tommy Decker (Spineshank)
- Jon Dette
- Micky Dolenz (The Monkees) right-handed, but plays a modified left-handed kit
- Dominator (Nils Fjellström) (Dark Funeral)
- Shawn Drover (Megadeth, Eidolon) plays open-handed
- Joe Easley (The Dismemberment Plan)
- Joe English
- Joshua Eppard (Coheed and Cambria)
- Fenriz (Darkthrone)
- Ginger Fish (Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie)
- Tim Fogarty (El Ten Eleven)
- Mike Gibbins (Badfinger)
- Cameron Greenwood (Terrorvision)
- Zachary Hanson (Hanson)
- Buddy Harman
- Ian Haugland (Europe)
- Steve Hewitt[8] (Placebo)
- Dominic Howard (Muse)
- Tom Hunting (Exodus)
- Mark Jackson (VNV Nation)
- Steve Jansen (Japan, The Dolphin Brothers, Nine Horses)
- Pierre Langlois (The Black Dahlia Murder)
- Dave Lombardo (Slayer)[citation needed]
- Derrick McKenzie (Jamiroquai)
- Buddy Miles
- David Milhous (Lippy's Garden) right-handed and plays a complete left-handed kit
- Rod Morgenstein (Dixie Dregs, Winger, Jelly Jam, Platypus)
- Steve Negus (Saga)
- Jerry Nolan (New York Dolls, The Heartbreakers)
- Ian Paice (Deep Purple)
- Pat Pengelly (Bedouin Soundclash)
- Simon Phillips plays a right-handed kit.
- Mick Pointer (Marillion, Arena)
- Brett Reed (Rancid)
- Chloe Saavedra (Chaos Chaos aka Smoosh)
- Neil Sanderson (Three Days Grace)
- Robert Schultzberg (Placebo)
- Tiger Si (Black Spiders)
- Al Sobrante (Green Day)
- Vincent Tattanelli (Nine Days)
- Michael "Moose" Thomas (Bullet For My Valentine) plays on a right-handed kit, but leads with his left hand
- Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M.)
- Javier Weyler (Stereophonics)
- Dennis Wilson (The Beach Boys)
- Robbie Yeats (The Dead C)
Notes
- Ringo Starr is naturally left-handed but was taught to write right-handed. His drums are set up for right-handed playing, but he leads with his left hand.[9]
- Christopher Guanlao of Silversun Pickups is left-handed but plays a right-handed set primarily in "open style" (opposite to cross handed) and has his ride cymbal to his left.
- Josh Eppard of Terrible Things and Coheed and Cambria also drums open-handed (left-handed on a right-handed kit) but writes right-handed.
Violinists
The violin can be learned in either hand, and most left-handed players hold the violin under their left chin, the same as right handed players. This allows all violinists to sit together in an orchestra.
- Julie Andrijeski
- Ian Rey Bañez
- Richard Barth
- Paavo Berglund (A well known Finnish left handed conductor who also played violin, often joining orchestra players for chamber music just for fun. Due to the value of his violin collection he did not want to change his instruments and had trained himself to play left handed on violins with a normal set-up)
- Charles Chaplin
- Ornette Coleman
- Terje Moe Hansen [10] (Norwegian classical virtuoso and pedagogue)
- Rudolf Kolisch
- Jurgen Kussmaul (violist)
- Ashley MacIsaac
- Rivka Mandelkern
- Katrina Nicolayeff née Pearce (champion folk fiddler, plays "over the bass" with strings reversed)
- Ryan J. Thomson [11] (naturally right-handed, but learned to play left-handed after developing focal dystonia that made right-handed bowing impossible)
- Nic Norman Tugaff (Philippines) Mormon violinist
- Martin Weiss (French jazz violinist who plays in the style of Stéphane Grappelli)
Ukulele
Trumpet
Trombone
Banjo
Mandolin
Bansuri
- Hariprasad Chaurasia, right-handed, started his career playing right-handed, switched to left-handed playing
Muppets
Many Muppets whose arms are controlled by rods play instruments left-handed. This is because most right-handed puppeteers control the puppets' heads with their right hands leaving their left hands for playing.
- Floyd Pepper, bass guitar (Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem)
- Janice, guitar (Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem)
- Kermit the Frog, banjo
- Scooter, guitar
References
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- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 (Stetin 2001:5)
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- ↑ [1][dead link]
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- ↑ (Ferguson 1979:121)
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Bibliography
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