Left Hander forced to learn ukulele and guitar right handed
Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2020 4:31 am
I just need your thoughts regarding left hand guitar players.
I come from a piano- and xylophone-playing family. I am the only right hander in my family (my father, mother and 3 brothers are all left handers).
My wife is also a left hander, and it comes to no surprise that my sons are left-handed.
3 years ago, my sons participated in their school's ukulele program. Both were given right handed ukuleles. I complained to the coordinator that my sons should be encouraged to embrace their left handedness (which is connected to the right hemisphere of the brain - which is the location for creativeness and abstract thinking). I even suggested I will buy or re-string their ukulele to left hand.
The teacher refused, saying:
we don't have left-handed ukulele teachers
we can only buy right-handed ukuleles
I don't have the time to teach two left handers in a class of 24 right handers
this is a world for right handers, your kids need to learn how to live in it
I thought that was the most ignorant and uneducated reasoning from someone who calls themselves educators - more so an educator of music.
But to me music is music, and I let my sons learn right hand way. But I did see them struggle to cope and in my mind it hindered their natural development had they learned left hand and embrace the natural ability of their master hand. I even asked the teacher to sign the registration form with his left hand, he said "why, I write with my right"...to which I rolled my eyes.
QUESTIONS: - any readers experienced the same (either themselves or their kids) learning guitar, bass, ukulele? - am I right in thinking that left handers should be taught to their natural ability and not be forced to be right handed?
Now that both my elder son started high school, he wanted to take guitar or bass lessons with the school....I am now back to my original situation.
Questions: - should we insist that my son be taught left handed? - can a natural left hander (forced to learn right hand ukulele) revert to a left hand style for electric bass?
I come from a piano- and xylophone-playing family. I am the only right hander in my family (my father, mother and 3 brothers are all left handers).
My wife is also a left hander, and it comes to no surprise that my sons are left-handed.
3 years ago, my sons participated in their school's ukulele program. Both were given right handed ukuleles. I complained to the coordinator that my sons should be encouraged to embrace their left handedness (which is connected to the right hemisphere of the brain - which is the location for creativeness and abstract thinking). I even suggested I will buy or re-string their ukulele to left hand.
The teacher refused, saying:
we don't have left-handed ukulele teachers
we can only buy right-handed ukuleles
I don't have the time to teach two left handers in a class of 24 right handers
this is a world for right handers, your kids need to learn how to live in it
I thought that was the most ignorant and uneducated reasoning from someone who calls themselves educators - more so an educator of music.
But to me music is music, and I let my sons learn right hand way. But I did see them struggle to cope and in my mind it hindered their natural development had they learned left hand and embrace the natural ability of their master hand. I even asked the teacher to sign the registration form with his left hand, he said "why, I write with my right"...to which I rolled my eyes.
QUESTIONS: - any readers experienced the same (either themselves or their kids) learning guitar, bass, ukulele? - am I right in thinking that left handers should be taught to their natural ability and not be forced to be right handed?
Now that both my elder son started high school, he wanted to take guitar or bass lessons with the school....I am now back to my original situation.
Questions: - should we insist that my son be taught left handed? - can a natural left hander (forced to learn right hand ukulele) revert to a left hand style for electric bass?