Fretting Over Frets

One thing I always wondered about when it came to musical instruments was the handedness of an instrument. Most instruments are designed for right handers. In the case of the piano, the structure makes intuitive sense. The right hand plays the more dexterity heavy melody, with the left hand playing the supportive chords. It's in the string instruments, such as guitars, that things get weird. I would have thought that the left hand would do the picking whereas the right hand would have the more difficult task of choosing the notes. However, this is obviously not the case. Now, I'm not a player of any musical instrument, so for all I know, this arrangement is actually better for right handers. But it doesn't look like it.

One argument in favour of having the instrument played the other way is the prevalence of great left handed guitarists who play/played the traditional'right handed' guitars. A cursory look reveals the following:

David Bowie
Paul Simon
Steve Morse (current Deep Purple)
Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins)
Michael Stipe (R.E.M.)
Duff McKagan (Guns 'n' Roses)
Michael Anthony (Van Halen)
Noel Gallagher (Oasis)
Chris Martin (Coldplay)
Adam Jones (Tool)
Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith)
James Root (Slipknot)
Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin)
Bob Dylan

By contrast, comparatively few left handed guitarists actually play/played 'left handed' guitars:

Kurt Cobain
Paul McCartney
Iggy Pop


(Jimi Hendrix played a Strat turned upside down and restringed for left hand.)

(source: http://www.frihost.com/forums/vt-46800.html)

Of course, they are really talented musicians who would probably have been great at music regardless of their handedness. And lack of ready availability of left handed guitars would be a reason these guys took up right handed guitars. Nevertheless, the fact that they were forced to play to their strengths may actually have helped them.