List of musicians who play left-handed

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This is a list of notable left-handed musicians who play their instruments naturally. This does not include left-handed people who play (or played) right-handed, such as Joe Perry, Mark Knopfler, and Gary Moore.

Guitarists and bassists[]

Paul McCartney playing a true left-handed guitar (a Gibson Les Paul).

Left-handed people play guitar or electric bass in one of the following ways: (1) play the instrument truly right-handed, (2) play the instrument truly left-handed, (3) altering a right-handed instrument to play left-handed, or (4) turning a right-handed instrument upside down to pick with the left hand, but not altering the strings – leaving them reversed from the normal order. (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.

Guitarists[]

• 

  Tony Iommi's guitar, a custom-made Gibson SG

• 

  Jimi Hendrix's Les Paul Custom – a right-handed guitar with the strings reversed for playing left-handed

• 

  A left-handed Martin D-28.

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[]

Hendrix on stage in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1967

Tony Iommi playing a true left-handed guitar (a Jaydee Custom S.G.)

Jonathan Butler at the Newport Beach Jazz Festival, 2011.

Left-handed with strings backwards[]

These are left-handed players who play naturally, but with the strings organized to emulate an unaltered right-handed guitar, thus the strings are backwards for a left-handed player. The guitar is held left-handed with the high string on the top side of the neck (e.g. Bob Geldof). Some players in this category (e.g. Dick Dale and Albert King) had left-handed guitars with the strings as on a right-handed guitar, since they had learned to play that way.

Notable players[]

Dick Dale playing a customized left-handed guitar with the strings backwards.

Bob Geldof playing a right-handed guitar upside down (a Gibson).

Dan Swanö live at Nosturi

• Amber Bain (The Japanese House)
• Babyface
• Dywane Thomas Jr.
• Cormac Battle (Kerbdog)
• Buddy Miles
• Wallis Bird
• Doyle Bramhall II^[1]
• Chase Bryant^[5]
• Glen Burtnik (Styx/solo)
• Eddy Clearwater
• Junior Campbell
• Michael Card
• Jimmy Cliff
• Elizabeth Cotten (Ruggere 1980:48ff)
• Andrew Cox (The Fauves)
• Dick Dale^[1]
• 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. His left-handed brother taught him that way.^[6])
• Bob Geldof (The Boomtown Rats)
• Jimi Goodwin (Doves)
• Ed Harcourt
• Benn Jordan
• Jacek Kaczmarski
• Andy Kerr
• Albert King^[7]
• Little Jimmy King
• Peter LeMarc
• Anika Moa
• Barry Winslow (The Royal Guardsmen)
• Morgan
• Coco Montoya^[8]
• Malina Moye
• Mic Murphy, (The System)
• Kurt Nilsen (Winner of the World Idol competition after winning the first season of the Norwegian Idol series)
• Paul Raymond
• Nicolas Reyes
• Gruff Rhys
• Kris Roe (The Ataris)
• Jim Rooney
• Doctor Isaiah Ross^[9]
• Otis Rush^{[1] [10]}
• Graham Russell (Air Supply)
• Lætitia Sadier (McCarthy, Monade, Stereolab)
• Evie Sands
• Seal
• Dan Seals
• Bill Staines
• Dan Swanö (Bloodbath, Edge of Sanity, Nightingale, Ribspreader; plays drums right-handed)
• Wayman Tisdale
• Dave Wakeling (The English Beat, General Public) (right-handed, but learned to play left-handed)^[11]
• Karl Wallinger (World Party)
• Bobby Womack
• Melvin Williams^[12]
• (Musical artist of vocaloid)

Unclassified left-handed players[]

Bassists[]

Paul McCartney playing a left-handed Rickenbacker 4001 bass

Drummers[]

A drum kit for a left-handed person is set up so that percussion instruments drummers would normally play with their right hand (ride cymbal, floor tom, etc.) are played with the left hand. The bass drum and hi-hat configurations are also set up so that the drummer plays the bass drum with their left foot, and operate the hi-hat (or, if using two bass drums, plays the second bass drum) with their right foot. Some drummers however have been known to play right-handed kits, but play leading with their left hand (e.g. playing open-handed on the hi-hat). This list does not include drummers who are naturally left-handed while playing drums purely right-handed such as Ringo Starr, Stewart Copeland, Dave Lombardo, Travis Barker and Chris Adler.

Violinists[]

The violin can be learned in either hand, and most left-handed players hold the violin under the left side of their jaw, the same as right-handed players. This allows all violinists to sit together in an orchestra.

• 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 standard set-up.)
• Charlie Chaplin (wrote right-handed)
• Ornette Coleman
• Rudolf Kolisch
• Ashley MacIsaac

Ukulele[]

• Paul McCartney
• Tiny Tim (played guitar right handed)
• Ian Whitcomb

Trumpet[]

• Sharkey Bonano
• Freddie 'Posey' Jenkins
• Wingy Manone
• Paul McCartney

French horn[]

The French horn is a naturally left-handed instrument, with the right hand only used to shade the pitch sharp or flat. Right-handed horns exist but are comparatively rare.

Trombone[]

• Slide Hampton

Banjo[]

• Elizabeth Cotten
• Cheick Hamala Diabate
• Paul McCartney

Mandolin[]

• Cheyenne Kimball
• Paul McCartney

Bansuri[]

• Hariprasad Chaurasia, right-handed, started his career playing the bansuri, a side-blown flute, right-handed, and switched to left-handed playing

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Cross, Charles (2005), Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix, Hyperion, ISBN 0-87930-662-9
• Babiuk, Andy (2001), Beatles Gear, Backbeat Books, ISBN 978-0-7868-8841-2
• Ferguson, Jim, ed. (1979), The Guitar Player Book, GPI Publications, ISBN 0-394-17169-1
• Ruggere, Steve (1980). "Left-Handed Guitar: A Look at the Players, Problems, & Products". Guitar Player. 14 (5 (May 1980)): 48–50.
• Stetin, Troy (2001), Left-Handed Guitar: The Complete Method, Hal Leonard, ISBN 978-0-7935-8788-9
• Engel, John (2006), Uncommon Sound: The Left-Handed Guitar Players Who Changed Music, Left Field Ventures, ISBN 2-9600614-0-3, archived from the original on 2007-02-08

External links[]

• Left-handed guitarists and drummers
• Famous Left Handed Guitarists and Bassists
• Video about left-handed guitar playing