List of musicians who play left-handed


This is a list of notable left-handed musicians who play their instruments naturally.

Guitarists and bassists

Left-handed people play guitar or electric bass in one of the following ways: play the instrument truly right-handed, play the instrument truly left-handed, altering a right-handed instrument to play left-handed, or turning a right-handed instrument upside down to pick with the left hand, but not altering the strings – leaving them reversed from the normal order. Any style of picking with the left hand is considered playing left-handed.

Guitarists

Left-handed with normal stringing

Guitarists in this category pick with their left hand and have the strings in the conventional order for a left-handed player. They either have true left-handed guitars or have right-handed guitars altered so the strings are correct for a left-handed player. Some guitarists in this category play both genuine left-handed instruments and right-handed instruments altered for left-handed playing.
Changing the strings on a right-handed guitar involves several things. The nut of the guitar has to be changed to accommodate the string widths. The bridge needs to be changed to make the lower strings longer than the top strings for correct intonation. On almost all acoustic guitars the bracing is non-symmetrical. On electric guitars altered this way, the controls will be backwards.
Notable players
These are left-handed players who play naturally, but with the strings organized to emulate an unaltered right-handed guitar, thus the strings are backwards for a left-handed player. The guitar is held left-handed with the high string on the top side of the neck. Some players in this category had left-handed guitars with the strings as on a right-handed guitar, since they had learned to play that way.
Notable players
A drum kit for a left-handed person is set up so that percussion instruments drummers would normally play with their right hand are played with the left hand. The bass drum and hi-hat configurations are also set up so that the drummer plays the bass drum with their left foot, and operate the hi-hat with their right foot. Some drummers however have been known to play right-handed kit, but play leading with their left hand. This list does not include drummers who are naturally left-handed but play drums purely right-handed such as Stewart Copeland, Dave Lombardo, Travis Barker and Chris Adler.
The violin can be learned in either hand, and most left-handed players hold the violin under their left chins, the same as right-handed players. This allows all violinists to sit together in an orchestra.
The French horn is a naturally left-handed instrument, with the right hand only used to shade the pitch sharp or flat. Right-handed horns exist but are comparatively rare.

Trombone