Hi!
I`ve just begun playing cello. I`m 20 years old, and very eager to learn how to play this beautiful instrument. I`m lefthanded and I`ve tried using the bow with both left and right hand. It feels most natural when I use the left hand. Is it possible to swap the strings so I can play with my left hand? I`ve heard that it`s hard to learn to play with the "secondary" hand when you get old.

Jonas, Denmark

Is it possible? Yes, but why would you want to do that? It would look, and feel abnormal for you to do that, and also, if you ever go to get a teacher, it`d be impossible to learn anything. If you learn the traditional way, and learn the bow correctly with your right hand, then it will be no problem. Switching the strings around would be like turning the keyboard on the piano around for the same reason. No one else would be able to feel your instrument, or help you in any way! Oh man, please, don`t do that.


Titus

ok, thanks !!!

I am left handed, but play the violin and cello right handed. Part of this reason is because it is not suitable to just switch the strings. There is structual things involved with your instrument to consern yourself with. To name a few are the bass bar and the location of the sound post. This is a kin to throwing a right handed bowling ball with the left hand.

Hvor i Danmark bor du? Hvis du bor i København og har brug for hjælp med at finde en lærer eller en god violinbygger kan jeg godt give dig en hånd med det...

Jeg giver de andre ret i at det er fjollet at "vende" instrumentet om!

Kærlig hilsen, Nicolaj

ya i`m also playing the cello and violin both, with the left hand pressing on the strings. its natural. i`m also right handed. its only like a mental barrier if you feel weird...

I don`t know the answer. I know Gliga do proper left handed violins, but I don`t know about left handed cellos- are they so symetrical you can just use the same instrument both ways? At the very least if you were going to change the strings round, you would have to turn the bridge round also, as that is not symetrical. I agree with the posts on this thread suggesting you learn the same way as everyone else- your left hand is responsible for note playing, intonation and vibrato, which many would say is at least as important as bowing. However I have seen a long left handed thread somewhere or other where there were many left handed violinists arguing furiously that it is unnatural to play right handed, despite the fact that such left handed players as Yehudi Menuhin and Roger Coull were quite happy and successful playing right handed.

My cello has a bass bar just under the "C" string. If I were to just switch the strings and bridge It would sound horrible. There are left handed violin and cellos made for us lefty`s. I am happy I play right handed. I could play most anybody`s instrument and they mine. If I limited myself to just playing left handed then I would be for the most part on my own, unable to feel and play music from friends instruments. When it becomes time to purchase another instrument it will not only be more expensive but the pickings are more limited. Don`t get me wrong, I`m not a conformist. I don`t usually give in easily especially when it comes to being different. I like being as different as possible but I also know which battle to fight and which ones to back away from. This battle is one for the loosing; I have nothing to gain by staying lefty while playing my violin or cello. If you think about it, playing notes and vibrato takes a touch and it`s done with the correct hand; if you play right handed. If you play lefty you would be forcing everything. Not to mention that your instrument most probably won`t play right unless it`s made for us lefties.
Danny

I have a old and weak cello, if I switched the bridge and strings, the cello would COLLAPSE and cave in!!! If someone left handed wanted to hold the bow in the left hand and the cello in the right hand, the that person would have to purchace a left handed cello(with the bass bar on the left side of the cello and the strings going from ADGC TO CGDA), which almost nobody makes if anybody at all. Right handed cellos can only be played with the right hand holding the bow. But none of that matters because it doesn`t matter if you are left or right handed because nobody left or right handed has ever had any trouble playing the cello.

I`ve been playing instruments left-handed for about 16 years now. For a lot of instruments this is easy enough by switching strings, but the structure of the fingerboard is wrong for it. You`d have to find a maker that does them left-handed. As far as the comments about not being able to learn, and teachers being ineffective, that`s completely wrong. I`ve taken lessons and it`s never been an issue with any of my teachers.

It`s a shame that they don`t make left handed cellos (that I know of). There really is a difference in playing with y our pre-ferred hand. I`ve heard many arguments to the contrary (by righties of course) and none of them hold true.

I imagine Gliga make them, if you really want to play left handed.

Liz

Ok, first off, I am a "righty" and I will argue that to play the cello, or any instrument for that matter, with the strings turned, just for convenience, is like watching a piano player with the high notes of the piano on the left side. 99% of my valuable instruction has been from my teacher taking me hand, and showing me the technic. It is impossible to teach something you don`t understand, and if you play cello the way it was meant to be played, you can`t have a full understanding of what the technic would be turned around. There are too many quirks to the technic, both right, and left hand, to have any stringed instrument be interchangable. Like, have a left-handed person use right-handed scissors in their left hand...... IT DOESN`T WORK!!!

Questions, disagreements, feel free to contact me. My e-mail address is open to anyone.



Titus

I would have to disagree. I am left handed and I play a right handed cello and violin. I could have a Luther make a left handed instrument. I could understand what an instructor is doing right handed on his/her own instrument and I cold emulate that very technique. This is what we lefties have been doing from the day we were born. I just don`t see the advantage to getting a special instrument made unless you absolutely can`t play it right handed. I also feel you can not just swap the strings. It just doesn`t work that way; most stringed instruments are made right handed. Furthermore if you are in an orchestra you might look silly playing "backwards". In a jazz quartet you probably would look very cool.
Danny

If it`s such an advantage for left handed people to fret with the left hand, why hasn`t some right handed person ever figured this out and used his/her right hand to finger the violin/cello, etc? Are they all just not smart? Or is it because it would absolutely not feel natural? If you are left handed and feel natural holding the instrument in a left handed fashion, then that`s the way you should play. Make the effort to find a factory made left handed model and don`t listen to anymore righties tell you what a real advantage you have. They sure don`t seem to see it as an advantage so why should you?

It`s not an advantage to pay more than twice as much for a "custom" made instrument. Again it is not possible to play a right handed instrument strung backwards. Play the music with the right hand and work the notes with the left. If you are truly a left handed musically inclined person then the fingering will be easier right handed (with the left hand). The music will come as you teach your right hand to play what your left already knows. The passion for the music is within you not your left or fight hand.
Danny