Dick Dale......that surfer guitar bloke

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I knew that in the early days that he played a righty guitar left handed......but didn't  realise that he played it without re stringing it.
So he played it with the thick E string near the floor and the thin e string near his face. Question......how the hell did he play chords?
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Comments

  • bbill335bbill335 Frets: 1368
    Same way Doyle Bramhall II does, by learning the shapes!
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  • When that's how you learn from the start it's just as hard/easy as it is for anybody.     I usually have one or two left handed students each year and I tune their guitars for them.  I always like to play a six string chord to check the tuning so I've gotten quite used to playing open E and Open G on them.

    “Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay


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  • Yes I imagine Barre chords would prove a bit tricky
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  • I suspect that playing the guitar that way at least partly explains his rather unique approach.

    This video gives a great view of his fretting hand:



    Quite enlightening 
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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16253
    I haven't watched the video posted just above but I was watching a live track earlier and there were about four times he actually hit a chord ( plus times when he got a couple of open strings to ring out) so it's not much of a part of his style. 

    Having said that I remember an interview with him on Radio 4 a few years ago when he was demonstrating a few different things such as some flamenco approaches. As it was radio I don't know if he was still using the upside down method although I guess so. But Dick was saying I can do this other stuff but what pays the mortgage is eeeooowwww dung digga dung digga...
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • I haven't watched the video posted just above but I was watching a live track earlier and there were about four times he actually hit a chord ( plus times when he got a couple of open strings to ring out) so it's not much of a part of his style. 


    Yeah he doesn't seem to play a lot of chords, and when he does there aren't a lot of barre chords (if any). 
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  • clarkefanclarkefan Frets: 808
    It's sort of normal for a lot of lefties, you pick up the nearest guitar (always righty) and bang on it, in the way it feels natural to you, you flip it and stick it under your left arm and bash about.  

    Back in the day a lot of people fumbled around learning bits til it was too late and they were stuck with the strings upside down thing.

    Sometimes lefty people like me deliberately learn a couple of songs upside down, cos whenever you go to a party or whatever and someone shoves a guitar in your hand, it's always righty.


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  • LuttiSLuttiS Frets: 2243
    Upside-down lefty player.


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