[carol m]

Please re-adjust your ears for the following:
Cano's Andante in A minor. Played left-handed after one week.

It is interesting to me that I am making all the 'beginner' mistakes. For example, ignoring the flubs, the things I need to work on are

• Keeping rhythm regular
• Not cutting off the notes while I look where to put my fretting finger next. Interestingly, I find I am doing this also to avoid touching other strings with my fingers while I 'find' the correct fret/string.
• Keeping volume/attack even for every note (unless the piece calls for a difference)

As far as the playing technique goes,

• I know I have to get the left hand (plucking fingers) alternating properly I -M-I-M etc instead of whatever finger I can get to the correct string in time for the next note.
• Also increasing the placement accuracy of the fretting fingers so I don't have to 'see' where to place my fingers (just needs lots of practice to improve muscle/spacial memory).
• Also increasing strength and accuracy of fretting fingers to get a clean and clear note every time.

For any newbies out there, this is a really good beginner's piece because it is only ever one note at a time, uses all 6 strings,and can be played slowly and still sound like music (I hope )

As far as the guitar itself goes, I seem to have a citar effect going there with the top E string at times. This may have something to do with the fact that it is sitting in the quite large groove at the nut where the low E string once was. This makes the action too low on this string (and too high on the low E string). I'm going to look for a local supplier of lefty nuts and bridges tomorrow. Otherwise I may get that one you told me about in England, Chris.

There you go Chris. Gauntlets away, sailor!!!! Lets see what you've got!!

[Fong]

Thanks for that worked out the other notes now.

Follows the first pattern then goes up to the E then back through the pattern ending on a C.

I can't actually remember how the rest of it goes. I uploaded a 10 sec clip of how it sounds when I play it, just incase anyone was interested.

[starsailor]

Sounds good Fong, I'm practising it left handed, mine doesn't sound quite as good as that yet.

[Fong]

I tried it left handed just for a laugh.

I didn't find the picking or the holding down the strings that difficult, i suppose because I do a lot of finger picking style both sets of fingers are quite strong, but I did find that my right hand was in a terribly uncomfortable position wrapped around the neck.

Also I wasn't about to restring a guitar so had a difficult stretch to play a C Chord.

Oh and there are no dots on the bottom of the guitar neck, so was struggling to find the 5th fret

[starsailor]

Cool, I have the same problem with the right hand and also getting the whole position for playing right, it all felt quite unnatural, another problem I had was that my finger tips on my right hand are quite calloused now and don't have as much feeling in them as the left ones, I might use a pick as I can't grow my nails because I'll ruin my fretting hand for when I'm playing right handed, a bit of a catch22.

[carol m]

Originally Posted by Fong

Thanks for that worked out the other notes now.

Follows the first pattern then goes up to the E then back through the pattern ending on a C.

I can't actually remember how the rest of it goes. I uploaded a 10 sec clip of how it sounds when I play it, just incase anyone was interested.

Yes, the first 8 notes are the same, and then it is different from the Cano piece I uploaded.

[carol m]

Originally Posted by starsailor

Cool, I have the same problem with the right hand and also getting the whole position for playing right, it all felt quite unnatural, another problem I had was that my finger tips on my right hand are quite calloused now and don't have as much feeling in them as the left ones, I might use a pick as I can't grow my nails because I'll ruin my fretting hand for when I'm playing right handed, a bit of a catch22.

It certainly feels un-natural. I have filed down my right hand nails (they will always grow back) and I'm letting the left hand nails grow, seeing as I can't really play the normal way for any decent amount of time. I still could try the slide in open tunings on my 'real' guitar as I haven't restrung that one, but for the moment I'm enjoying playing lefty (and I don't have a slide). I think I would still have to grip with my right to play slide though, unless I played lap-steel style.

I have baby callouses on the right already!

The dots are missing, but some bits cut from 'post-it notes' do the job OK. I'll try and work out the tabs for the Cano piece later today.

[clefless]

Give it a week or two, and you will rarely miss the fret position markers anymore. I finally acquired a proper left handed classical this year at Christmas (lapatrie concert) and it is almost strange having them there after 4 months without.

Good luck with your experiment. I've heard of other people that continued playing opposite handed after an injury. you have a leg up as well, you already know the chord positions, the notes, the fretboard, the theory, etc.. You just have to learn to apply it partially in reverse.

[carol m]

Here are the tabs for the Cano piece I posted at the top of this thread. If you want, you can repeat the last 2 lines before finishing. Its the easiest piece I know for beginners, so give it a go if you are just starting out. Its also a very nice piece to play (well I like it anyway).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------0----1----------1---0---------------------0----1-----3-------------3------1-----0----
-------2-----------------------------2------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--0--------------------0--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------0--------------------------0----------------------


------------------------------------------0-----1----------------0----------------------------------
---------------0----1-------------3-----------------------------------------------------------------
--------2--------------------------------------------------------------------1-------2--/-----------
----------------------------0-----------------------------2--------------------------------------------
--0-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------0---/------
----------------------------------------------------------------------0-----------------------------


------0----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------3----1--------------0----------------------------1----0-----------------0------------------------
-------------------------------------2----1--------------------------2-----------------------------------------
-2------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2---/----------------
------------------------------------------------------0------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------0---------------------------------------------------0--------------------------------


-------------------------------------0-----1-------------0-------------------------------------------------------------
-----------0---1--------------3---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----2---------------------------------------------------------------1--------2---/-----------------------------------------
-------------------------0--------------------------2----------------------------------------------------------------
-0------------------------------------------------------------------------------------0----/------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------0-----------------------------------------------------

[carol m]

Aunt Dotty, Neil, Fireblade and Knight - thanks for the encouragement. And also clefless, a true lefty instead of us wannabees! Thanks

And Kenny, you've really got the slide thing happening, good work

[eddiez152]

Carol m,
Sorry I am just cathing up to this thread. That is very impressive indeed. You are doing super. The thinking in reverse and assembling the music. More over, you are playing and thats super.
Explain again why you have made the change to the left hand guitar. Your determination is priceless.

[carol m]

Hi Eddie, about 4 or 5 years ago I was playing a long piece (by F.Sor) with lots of extended barre chords until my left hand could barely hold a coffee mug securely (yeah, stupid I know). I had to stop playing altogether for 3 years or so. About a year ago I started to play again but couldn't play more than about 10 mins every other day without stirring it up again. A couple of weeks ago I overdid it again, and Starsailor suggested we both have a go at playing lefty.

And its brilliant. I can 'play' as long as my soft right hand finger-tips (and time) allows. I don't care that it's going right back to the start again because at least I am playing.

There are also a lot of advantages over being a real beginner in many ways, because at least I know a bit about how to play, I just have to get my fingers and brain to comply. What I thought originally was a crazy idea has turned out to be fantastic. THANKS CHRIS!!!

[carol m]

In other news, I have ditched the old and crappy nylon string guitar, and re-strung my 'proper' nylon string guitar over to lefty. The bridge came out really easily, but I couldn't get the nut out without damaging the guitar. But even like this it still plays pretty well, at least down near the nut.

Then I thought I would ring up the local music store on the off-chance they would have a lefty conversion kit for my new cheapy acoustic/electric - like that one in London, Chris. And the guy says........"We don't have any, but there's a new place down the road that does that sort of thing and its called Sydney Guitar Setups!!" They said, sure bring it in - and believe it or not this place is about 3 km from where I live. The gods must be smiling on me!!!

[starsailor]

Nice one Carol, that's a great result, I'm over the moon that you're getting on so well, I'm toiling in your wake a bit but I promise to catch up, thanks for the tab, I'll practice that, it's easier with the tab I have a couple of simple ones that I used when I started playing as well.
I must admit though that I get a lot of enjoyment out of seeing you getting on so well, you're a great example of triumph over adversity and inspiring to others so kudos to you.

Best Wishes

Chris

[eddiez152]

Carol m

Thank you for your cringing up the setup shop. I see they have a PLEK
machine there. I looked one up in our area and gonna check it out.

eddie