One Handed

On Life with One Hand by Keiron McCammon

  • Work
  • Triathlon
  • Media
  • About
You are here: Home / Life / Play It Again Sam

Play It Again Sam

October 14, 2006 by keiron 6 Comments

Playing Guitar Left Handed
Playing Guitar Left Handed

My guitar attachment from TRS arrived this week, so on Thursday I went and bought a left-handed guitar. Now I can start to learn to play all over again. It took me six years to get to the point where I could play a tune last time, hopefully it won’t take quite so long this time around.

Definitely feels strange to be making chords with my right hand, I have to imagine a mirror image of how I would normally make the chords with my other hand…which really threw me at first. When I was trying out the guitar in the shop I couldn’t understand why it sounded so bad, must be the guitar I thought. Then the guy in the shop asked what cord I was trying to make and pointed out my fingers were doing a back-to-front ‘C’!

TRS Guitar Attachment
TRS Guitar Attachment

Strumming is going to take some practice too, it’s a whole arm motion from the elbow now, rather than a wrist action. It’s tricky getting a smooth strum across all the strings, both down and up. I’m sure with practice I’ll finesse it, but, for the moment it doesn’t sound to good to say the least. Poor Kerry’s going to have to live through me murdering the guitar yet again.

TRS Guitar Attachment
TRS Guitar Attachment

The attachment from TRS is pretty cool, the pick is held in place with a couple of screws and the head of the attachment swivels as does the arm holding the pick, so I can position it however I want.

I restart my lessons again next week with Troy, whose been my guitar teacher for the last 4+ years. I’m looking forward to playing again, it’ll probably take a couple of years to get back to anything like I was, an opportunity to focus more on the theory this time around.

Filed Under: Life

Comments

  1. Wolf says

    May 31, 2008 at 1:40 am

    you may want to go electric soon… you could get a lot more out of it.
    i am not even there yet with getting my prosthesis and so here is a pure-ty left hand 2-track sample (ok, i do a bit of muffling with the stump):
    http://home.datacomm.ch/swisswuff/lefthanded1.mp3

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says

    June 3, 2008 at 4:54 pm

    Wolf, I'm impressed if you can play that one handed, I can't yet play that well with my prosthetic. My guitar teacher said I should get an electric, but I've always loved acoustic!

    Reply
  3. Michael the says

    June 5, 2008 at 9:59 am

    Hi I’m a 1st. timer hear. ingenious gadget, pick holder. I too have had to re-learn, but upside down and backwards though. Lost my right hand and wrist 30yrs. ago. It’s the lack of wrist action with the hook itself that crimps my style. I can strum down but not up. Does this have the ability to implement wrist action? Have you ever thought about playing slide with your left hook as you’d played before. I do, with the help of a string riser on the upper part by the tuning pegs so I’m not always fretting out on my dobro, holding a slide with my left hook turned up. I also use the arm itself that holds the hook for laptop style slide dobro like a pedal steel if you will. I’m a self taught multi-award winning piano player check out my documentary on my website, you’ll dig it!
    http://www.michaelthehookdeutsch.com
    thanks for your helpful info. I never thought about left handed guitar or dobro, the latter is what I prefer. That would be another challenge in itself. check http://www.johndennerrocks.com
    another one handed guitar player. This cat will blow you away. I bid you peace!

    Reply
  4. Wolf says

    June 16, 2008 at 12:14 am

    I loved my flamenco and acoustic guitars too. It took me a long time to figure out the best electric setup for me just because there are so many options. Only since I set myself up with a really good amplifier (not too small) and a very versatile effect device (Boss GT 8) I started to love the e-guitar better. Distortion is not equal to distortion, and And the Aria Les Paul Copy feels very solid and substantial. At the end of the day you will practice most with the instrument you love most and so that’s the one to look for, go for or hang on to. Happy playing ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
  5. Wolf says

    June 20, 2008 at 1:58 am

    One day I will convince you to go electric ๐Ÿ˜‰ All it takes is a couple more groovy demos.
    http://www.swisswuff.ch/sounds/lefthanded2.mp3
    Turn it up loud :-)))

    Reply
  6. Keiron McCammon says

    July 10, 2008 at 9:08 pm

    Michael, the device doesn’t give me a wrist action unfortunately, strumming is a little awkward but I can strum both down and up, although still hard to get it smooth.
    Thanks for the link to John Denner, that is pretty amazing…maybe I should try electric. Wolf has certainly made a good case for me too ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Wolf Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Keiron McCammon

Get Updates

Archives

  • February 2024
  • January 2023
  • October 2022
  • June 2021
  • October 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • July 2016
  • January 2016
  • October 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • August 2014
  • May 2014
  • February 2014
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • May 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • November 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • March 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006

Copyright © 2006–2025 ยท Keiron McCammon