Subject: hello

Great web site. I have been a guitarist for 30 years and have just run into your site doing some research for my 8 year old daughter. She is interested in taking violin lessons in public school. We are both left handed. She is definitely more comfortable this way as I have started to teach her guitar that way and she plays "air violin" naturally this way. The school is reluctant to teach her this way but I want to force their hand. I know if I had been forced to play righty I would have quit guitar. Before she can begin to play at school I want to get her a left handed violin and try to teach her to begin to play. Please recommend a list of quality beginner instruments in price decending order that you can switch to left handedness. I am not very knowledable about violins but I want to get a good instrument that will last a few years. I guess she would need a 3/4 model. Thank you. Rich LaPierre

Greetings Rich,

I'm glad to assist:

First and foremost, you might consider reading through our FAQ database on left-handed violin: learning, buying, converting and restringing are some of the subjects covered...

I happen to be a left-hander who learned to play right-handed...there are a couple of good reasons to learn right-handed...only, I personally am not convinced that it's worth the extra frustration at the beginning (a right-hander really doesn't know what we go through to learn to play backwards...oops, I mean right-handed). The main one I hear over and over is that within an orchestra setting, the other violinists would be dodging a left-hander's bow. Additionally, the stage silhouette would be off...well, I still believe there should be an alternative for us left-handers...on the upside, I did learn to play violin right-handed...and feel that it's only facilitated my playing to have dexterity in my left-hand where it counts...for the right-hand only requires proper balancing of the bow. This is one good advantage for us left-handers to learn to play right-handed. Now, if the inclination is to play left-handed, and it seems to inspire the process of learning to play, while offering less frustration during the beginning stages, then by all means, encourage your daughter to play left-handed...hope this helps, Mickey