Left-handed: Sinistral (Latin).

Last night I was taken aback by a comment made by my Guitar 1 professor (yes, I am taking guitar lessons).


Here's how the story went:


Professor: "I'd like to make a commentary really quick about my view of left handed guitar players"


Class: (looks at me...the ONLY left-handed guitar player in the class)


Me: "Is it really a  commentary if you're only talking to me. You should just start the sentence with "Ashley, this is for you"".


Professor: " I think that left handed people should really try to play the way right-handed people play. They would be more naturally good at fretting whereas right-handed players have to learn to manipulate their fingers harder, it would be easier for left handed people".


Me: ""If that was sound logic, then you should be able to play my LEFT-HANDED guitar with great ease since you would be "manipulating" you right hand and that should be more "natural" for you.


Professor: Well, I just think it's easier for left-handed people to learn things right-handed. I have a daughter that was born left-handed and we really tried to force her to do things "normal".


Yes, normal. As in right-handed.


Me: (shocked at this point): Well, I was raised by Hippies who apparently were just crazy enough to. let me be. left. handed.






By the way, oh-so-brilliant-professor:


A study for the National Institute of Sports and Physical Education in Paris found that left-handers have faster eye-hand coordination with their right hand than even right-handers do.


A driving-school-commissioned study suggests that "left-handers have a natural advantage" when they get behind the wheel. The findings show that 57 percent of left-handers pass their driving tests on their first attempts, 10 percent more than right-handers.


Recent research has also found that left-handed people often perform better than right-handers at fast or difficult tasks involving lots of information or stimuli. According to these studies, port-siders show superiority in playing fast computer games, talking while driving in heavy traffic and flying jet fighters, activities that require both hemispheres of the brain to speedily process information.

(Source)

In addition, here are a list of guitar players who played left-handed quite successfully:


Sir Paul McCartney
Jimi Hendrix
Billy Ray Cyrus
Kurt Cobain
Mac Powell
Iggy Pop


And most recently, my favorite Voice contestant, Javier Colon.




So. There.

(Source)