Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe
and Jimi Hendrix.
A disparate and unlikely collection of individuals, but all share a
common trait - they were all left-handed.
The word 'left' comes from the Anglo-Saxon 'lyft', meaning 'weak' or
'broken'. Many cultures throughout history have treated left-handers
with varying degrees of intolerance, ranging from suspicion at best
to outright hostility and persecution at worst. This prejudice
against left-handers can be traced back to ancient Egyptian tomb
writings and is documented in the Bible - following the Devil is to
take the 'left hand path'. Although left-handedness has been
associated with neurosis and rebellion, it has also been associated
with creativity, genius, sports proficiency and musical ability.
Research over the last twenty years suggests that rather than being
of minor importance, "left-handedness has social, educational and
psychological implications and affects many aspects of health,
well-being, and even life span [1]."
The human brain is divided into two halves or hemispheres. It is
generally thought that the left side of the brain controls the right
half of the body and the right side of the brain controls the left
side of the body, although many respected scientists working in this
field deny that there is a distinct left-handed/right brained mode of
thinking as opposed to a right-handed/left brained mode of thinking.
Generally speaking, the left hemisphere deals with language and
language related functions whereas the right hemisphere deals with
non-lingual skills such as spatial recognition. However, the brain is
an immensely complex organ with constant communication between the
two hemispheres and the functions of right and left hemispheres are
not as neatly differentiated as is often thought.
Musical ability is sometimes thought to be a right hemisphere skill,
the two most often quoted examples being Jimi Hendrix and Paul
McCartney. Indeed, many studies do show more left-handers and
mixed-handers among professional and amateur musicians than among
non-musicians. But when musicians are tested in using the Seashore
Test of Musical Talents there appears to be no difference between
left- and mixed handers than right handers apart from in pitch
recognition where left-handers seem to show an advantage. Similar
systematic tests of creativity have shown that there is no
significant difference between left- and right-handed people.
Sweeping generalisations that left-handers are more musical or more
creative than right-handers often have more more to do with the
oversimplifications and distortions of the populist mass media than
they do with scientific fact.
Prompted by the observation that the proportion of left-handed people
appeared to grow smaller as the age of the general population
increased, American psychology professor Stanley Coren collected data
regarding a person's age at the time of death and their handedness.
After analysing the data Coren concluded that according to his
statistics left-handers have an average life span of nine years
shorter than a right-handed person - an even bigger difference than
the well-documented six year gap in the life expectancies for males
and females.
A potentially controversial and emotive finding (especially if one is
left-handed!), Coren suggested there could be several reasons for
this finding having already known from his research that
left-handedness was related to a number of factors that could be
associated with 'reduced survival ability'. Such factors include
birth or pregnancy complications, slower growth patterns, higher
susceptibility to a number of diseases such as diabetes and epilepsy
and a tendency to certain potentially hazardous behaviour patterns
such as alcoholism and increased criminality - left-handers are more
common in groups of individuals with a history of alcoholism and
criminality than they are in the general population. An possible
external reason for the difference was the difficulties and increased
health risks experienced by left-handers living and working in
environments designed for right-handers.
Although few people are totally left-handed or totally right-handed,
many children are pushed into using their right hand when they would
normally use their left, either at home by their parents or at school
by their teachers. Jimi Hendrix's younger brother Leon recalled:
"When Jimi would play left-handed my dad would holler at him and tell
him only devils and what-not would [play like that]. So when my dad
would arrive home Jimi would turn the guitar over - that was how he
learnt to play... Jimi would turn the guitar over and keep playing,
then when dad left the room he'd turn it back over this way...
[2]."
Although Jimi played guitar left-handed, he would do a number of
other things right-handed, possibly because he was forced to either
by his father or by his teachers. Jimi would write lyrics or sign
autographs with his right hand and would also hold a desert spoon
with his right hand [as can be seen in the Moebius print "Food For
Thought", based on Jean Noel Coghe's print entitled "Food"]. When
greeting someone with a handshake he would use his right hand (Robert
Fripp claimed that Jimi once told him at a party in London, "Shake my
left hand man, it's closest to my heart") and when speaking on the
phone he would hold the receiver in his right hand. However, Jimi
would use his left hand for pitching the ball when playing baseball,
for combing his hair and for holding a cigarette.
One theory of left-handed brain structure is that there are three
different types. The first and least common is a right-handed brain
structure but 'flipped over', although this has all the disadvantages
of being left-handed and none of the potential advantages. The second
brain structure is characterised by greater interconnection between
the hemispheres which enables greater free-associative ability. The
third structure is one which favours ambidexterity. Although Jimi was
not totally left-handed which might suggest the third type of brain
structure, his astounding imagination and creative ability would
suggest the second type of brain structure. As Alan Douglas commented
in "Q" magazine:
"... You have to understand that his head was always filled with
music. You could be in a conversation and all of a sudden his eyes
would glaze over and you're talking to yourself. He was gone,
completely possessed by the ideas that were flowing through him all
the time. It might happen to him while he was eating dinner. He'd be
poised with his silverware in his hand for five minutes. After a
while, when you knew him well enough, when that happened you'd just
learn to walk away and leave him alone until he came back. The flow
was enormous and constant. This could happen 10 times in a three or
four-hour period [3]."
Jimi Hendrix almost always played a right-handed guitar with the
strings re-strung for a left-hander, mainly because there were very
few left-handed models available. Jimi recalled that after he got his
first guitar, a right-handed model, "I didn't know that I would have
to put the strings the other way [around] because I was left-handed,
but it just didn't feel right. I can remember thinking to myself,
'There's something wrong here [4].'"
Jimi's father Al encouraged Jimi to play the 'normal' way, but when
his father's back was turned Jimi would revert to playing
left-handed. "I changed the strings [a]round, but it was way out of
tune when I'd finished. I didn't know a thing about tuning so I went
down to the store and ran my fingers across the strings on a guitar
they had there. After that I was able to tune my own [5]."
Changing the strings around on an acoustic or electric guitar
normally means the nut has to be reversed to accommodate the
different string thicknesses. On a guitar with a one-sided headstock
such as a Fender Stratocaster this increases the string length of the
low "E" between the nut and the machine head which means this string
is more liable to jump out of its nut slot - Jimi sometimes partially
cured this by wrapping the low "E" the opposite way round the machine
head. Alternatively, Jimi might file the nut of a right-handed guitar
to enable left-handed stringing, as he did with his right-handed 1969
Gibson Flying V sold by auction at Bonhams, London, in 1994.
Playing a right-handed Stratocaster model upside down means the
volume and two tone controls are on the top half of the guitar, as is
the vibrato arm and pickup selector, making them accessible whilst
playing. Jimi's manipulation of volume, tone and pitch whilst playing
can be heard in "Third Stone From the Sun" from Are You
Experienced? and can be seen on video during the intro of
"Wild Thing" from the 'Jimi Plays Monterey' video. Jimi depresses and
releases the vibrato arm with his right hand after adjusting the
volume control with his left hand for a howling siren-like effect.
Although this effect is not impossible for a right-hander playing a
right handed guitar, it is arguably easier with Jimi's stringing. In
the middle unaccompanied section of "I Don't Live Today" from the
'Jimi Plays Berkeley' video, Jimi again manipulates the vibrato arm
with his right hand and can clearly be seen changing the pickup
selector switch with his left hand. Jimi then turns up the volume
control of the guitar with his left hand resulting in a tone verging
on feedback before going into the song's closing riff.
A disadvantage of reversing the strings on a single cutaway or offset
guitar, such as a Stratocaster, is that access to the the top of the
fretboard is hampered. Jimi surmounted this problem with his
unusually long fingers - the left horn of Jimi's 1968 black Strat is
partly worn away due to Jimi striking the guitar with his rings as he
played in the upper reaches of the fretboard.
The pickups on a Stratocaster guitar are "placed in optimum positions
for maximum tonal variation... [6]" with the bridge/treble pickup
angled so that the bottom string is 'picked up' from further away
from the bridge than the top string for increased bass response on
the lower strings. On Jimi's reversed guitars, this arrangement would
have been the other way round, although one can hardly say that this
adversely effected the tone from Jimi's bridge pickup. Nevertheless,
this fact must have effected Jimi's sound to a certain extent when
using the bridge/treble pickup.
Other left-handers adopt a different approach to playing the guitar.
Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler: "I'm left-handed but I play
right-handed. They tried to teach me violin at school for two or
three years - right-handed - so by the time I was 15 I was into the
habit of playing that way round. It has some advantages - it
obviously means my strong hand is on the neck for a good vibrato. I
can pull or bend three strings all at the same time quite easily
[7]."
Another left-hander, Steve Morse shares a similar point of view and
even claims this way round is the 'best' way to play: "But I play
left-handed: my left-hand is fingering the guitar. I think that's the
best way to play [8]."
Some left-handed guitarists play right-handed guitars without
restring so the bottom string is nearest the ground such as deceased
blueswoman Elizabeth Cotten and up-and-coming blues rocker Eric
Gales. Gales picked up this way of playing from his brother,
guitarist Manuel Gales (aka Little Jimmy King), a former member of
Albert King's band and now a solo artist. Eric Gales other brother
Eugene, who plays bass in the Eric Gales Band, also plays a right
handed bass left-handed and without restringing. Session guitarist
Guy Isidore's favourite guitar is a right-handed Strat which he plays
left-handed - his credits include Marc Bolan, Phil Lynott, Peter
Green, and more recently Seal.
Jimi was similarly able to play a right-handed guitar without
restringing the instrument. In his formative years Jimi would often
jam with bands, Leon Hendrix recalling one such instance when the
only guitar available to Jimi was a right-handed one. "At the place
["Birdland"] where Jimi used to gig sometimes, well, he got his
guitar stolen. He needed a guitar so the group that was playing that
night, he asked to, like, borrow one and so they were gonna let him
play on the last number. And the guy says, 'I'm not gonna let him
play my guitar' cause he's left-handed. Jimi says, 'OK, I'll play it
right-handed.' The guy says 'Okay.' So Jimi gets up on the stand, the
band start pushing him, doing a slow blues. There's Jimi playing
away, note-for-note, upside-down [for him], plucking away...[9].'
Much to the chagrin and surprise of the band's guitarist, Jimi was
able to play fluently with his left hand on the fretboard whilst
plucking with his right hand.
Although this obviously wasn't Jimi's preferred way of playing,
former Free guitarist the late Paul Kossoff recalled a similar
incident. Kossoff was working in a British music shop when Jimi
entered the shop with Chas Chandler. Kossoff: "There weren't any
guitars strung left-handed, so he took this right-handed Strat and
turned it over so that the low E was on the bottom. He started
playing some chord stuff like in "Little Wing" and the salesmen
looked at him and couldn't believe it [10]."
Former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt recalled how Jimi offered
his musical services on a right-handed bass when Wyatt was recording
a demo of "Slow Walkin' Talk" (released on Calling Long
Distance... ). "[Jimi to Robert] 'I could try the bass line on
that, you wouldn't have to use it...' And he got Noel's bass, and you
have to remember he [Jimi] is left-handed, so he's playing bass the
wrong way around... He heard it once including the changes, the
breaks and all that, and it was staggering [11]."
Other left-handed guitarists play left-handed instruments but
restrung as if for a right-handed person so that the bottom string is
nearest the ground but the guitar's controls are on the lower half of
the guitar. These include the late Albert King who played a restrung
left-handed custom Flying V and fellow bluesman Otis Rush who now
plays a restrung left-handed Strat having previously played
right-handed instruments without restringing. Dick 'King of the Surf
Guitar' Dale played a right-handed Strat left-handed without
restringing but unlike Jimi he didn't find having the controls on the
top of the guitar to be an advantage: "the knobs kept hitting me; I'd
accidentally turn them [12]."
Dale asked Leo Fender to build him a left-handed Strat which he
restrung so the bottom string was nearest the ground. In yet another
variation on these permutations of left- and right-handed
instruments, the Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature Stratocaster has a
left-handed vibrato system on an otherwise 'normal' guitar. Designed
after Vaughan's 1959 Fender Stratocaster which had a left-handed
vibrato system, Vaughan's choice of vibrato system was influenced by
Otis Rush and Jimi Hendrix. Vaughan would make particular use of the
left-handed vibrato system in his version of Jimi's "Third Stone From
The Sun" as can be seen in the 'Live at El Mocabo' video. Ironically,
the Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature guitar is not available as a
left-handed model!
Of course, some left-handed players simply opt for left-handed
instruments played in the standard fashion such as Paul McCartney
with his two Hofner 500/1 basses as used with the Beatles in their
early years and his Rickenbacker 4001S bass as used on post-1965
Beatles recordings and with Wings. The late Kurt Cobain played a
left-handed Fender Mustang, commenting on the difficulty of finding
reasonably priced, high-quality left-handed guitars. Fender have
always made left-handed models of some of their guitars but this was
initially only in response to special orders direct to the factory.
The situation has improved since then but not by a great deal with
many guitar manufactures producing only a small percentage of their
range as left-handed guitars. The main reason is economic - producing
a left-handed guitar usually means making new instrument templates or
altering the production system, both options being less
cost-effective than producing a constant stream of right-handed
guitars.
Jimi mainly used restrung right-handed guitars, but he did own a
black, maple neck 1968 left-handed Stratocaster. This instrument was
sold at Sotheby's in 1988. Jimi also owned a left-handed, black
Gibson Flying V and can be seen playing this guitar in the Jimi
Hendrix At The Isle of Wight' video for the songs "Freedom", "Dolly
Dagger" and "Red House". Jimi can also be seen playing this guitar
for the second of two versions of "Hey Baby (The Land Of The New
Rising Sun)" in the video "Rainbow Bridge".
Besides the practical considerations of Jimi's left-handedness,
there's also the cosmetic aspect which set Jimi apart from other
guitarists and became part of the Hendrix legend. It is strangely
appropriate that this innovator who sang "I'm gonna wave my freak
flag high" should have been left-handed. "Weak?" "Broken?" Certainly
not - but definitely different!
QUOTATIONS
[1] "Left Hander", Stanley Coren, John Murray 1992, page ix.
[2] and [9] Leon Hendrix interview by Caesar Glebbeek, January 1989,
Seattle.
[3] Q , June 1992, page 76.
[4] and [5] Beat Instrumental, March 1967, page 38.
[6] The Ultimate Guitar Book , page 72.
[7] The Guitar Magazine , vol 2 no 11, page 22.
[8] Guitar Player , Aug 1982, page 60.
[10] Rock Guitarists Vol II , Guitar Player Books, 1977,
page 107.
[11] Robert Wyatt interview by Caesar Glebbeek, March 1989,
Louth.
[12] Guitar Player , July 1991, page 44.
NB With thanks to Robert Dick, Michael Fairchild and Patrick
O'Donovan.
This article was originally published in 'UniVibes' issue 17,
February 1995.
Copyright UniVibes 1995 - reprinted by permission of UniVibes,
International Jimi Hendrix Magazine, Coppeen, Enniskeane, County
Cork, Republic Of Ireland
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