One Handed Guitar Player

[Z0MGMaTT]

Way to shred :D

[semilover23]

oh my gosh this is amazing! I'm 15 and I was born with a stroke so I'm only able to use my left hand for most things. I've always wanted to play the guitar but I never thought I could, but after seeing this it gave me hope and inspirtation to learn :)

[LauryWard]

@semilover23 It makes me happy to hear things like this! I believe that you have the power! We all have the power to overcome. It's in all of us. Make sure you let me know when your first video of you playing guitar is on the net!

[ADAP7IVE]

@LauryWard I'm playing one-handed too due to a stroke...I find it difficult to maintain clear notes and consistent volume across the strings; do you have any tips?

[LauryWard]

@ADAP7IVE It's all about feel. You have to concentrate on touch, from the hardest hit to the lightest touch, with your fingers. Having your guitar set up with your strings as low to the frets as possible helps too. I use .009 gauge strings too. I hope this is helpful.

[ADAP7IVE]

@LauryWard Very helpful, thank you. Do you use any other special equipment, like active pickups or a compressor?

[LauryWard]

@ADAP7IVE nothing special, use anything that sounds good to you.

[ADAP7IVE]

@semilover23 I'm in the same situation. I've been playing for about a year, and I know it's possible after seeing videos like this. The most consistent problem I face is creating clear notes and consistent volume.

[EvaNTayloR595]

wicked!

[LauryWard]

Thank you. No I started out a righty.

[ChuckNorris134]

That was amazing! Are you naturally a lefty?

[raresore]

AMAZING!

[LauryWard]

@raresore Thank you sir!

[hangharry]

great : )

[LauryWard]

@hangharry Hey thanks man.

[LauryWard]

Hey I know what you mean. I have other vids too BTW. I'm glad I inspired you to continue, that's awesome! \m/

[zackaryzack]

thank you for making this video. i had a stroke and i cant use my left hand/arm. i was going insane without my guitar

[Cornerstang]

Hmm... I might try playing like that. I have two normal hands, but I've been trying to play drums at the same time while playing guitar. It's well... it's difficult but I'm sure that I can do it. Thanks for showing me the possibilities of one-handed playing.

[LauryWard]

@Cornerstang lol that's pretty ambitious! maybe you could play the bass too with one foot and your nose as well. \m/

[poromise]

Oh damn, awesome. It's so cool to see people do what would seem impossible because of a disability. You play so much better with one hand than I play with two :D

[meistercrowley]

Yes we're in the same boat!

[meistercrowley]

Hi I have just seen what i thought i never would. I cannot use my left hand at all. Do you literally just use a normal guitar?

[LauryWard]

@meistercrowley Yes, It's a left handed guitar of course, but no modifications what so ever. What do you mean you can't use your left hand? You mean your hand is lame , or just you can't do much complicated things with it?

[meistercrowley]

@meistercrowley

Hi Laury yes my left hand is unuseable.

[LauryWard]

@meistercrowley So basically we're in the same boat.

[shaungeeeee]

dude, ur amazing!!! ur realli an inspiration..loving the chin mute technique..keep rocking! =)

[LauryWard]

thanks man. haven't been playing much lately, but I've been getting an itch to do so recently! Have a good one! : )

[LauryWard]

Thank you everybody for watching this vid! We're almost at 10,000 views!!! : D

[LauryWard]

Well now I guess 100, 000 is the next plateau. : )

[KNIGHTCleric]

cool....yea

i kinda pity you have only 1hand

[LauryWard]

yeah really. imagine what I could do with 2

[Mungo10]

Cool version of Apostrophe there.

[VanRosaGuitars]

this is excellent and inspiring, it encourages me personally to get out of my comfort zone as a musician, keep up the good work.

[speaker3600]

and guitar is a skill you can keep and carry on for the rest of your life. but guitar hero? after a year of playing it all the time you can become pretty good

and who will still be playing guitar hero 30 years from now?

[speaker3600]

I played guitar hero for a while then figured, why play guitar hero when you can play real guitar?

Then I quit playing guitar hero and started learning real guitar.

[iamthemonsterman8908]

do you have to mute the strings somewhere so that they don't buzz when you let go of them??

[LauryWard]

my jaw mutes stuff I don't want ringing out.

[iamthemonsterman8908]

creative! you sure have an awesome talent goin for ya there bro! keep up the good work :D

[LauryWard]

It kind of happens naturally. Us humans are built to adapt to whatever.

[iamthemonsterman8908]

perhaps, but still I gotta commend you on your perseverance, I would've gotten discouraged and never tried to play again

[pramodh37]

i dont mean to be an ignorant prick but did u loose it in an accident

[LauryWard]

lol, Actually it was a result of a car crash caused by a stupid idiot, that was my passenger, that fucked with my driving. We'll call it, "Near-death by misadventure by a fuck - tard!

[speaker3600]

Wow, that really sucks. I feel really sorry for you but it's good that you keep playing your good.

[LauryWard]

Thanks, that's life though, things could be worse or better. You have to keep going unless you're a quitter and I'm not one! : )

[speaker3600]

that's the spirit!

Hey at least your still alive. You never know, you become the world's greatest one handed guitar player in the world and play gigs and become famous allover the world.

There is still hope

[snarfweasle]

This is seriously amazing.

[clashboy1977]

Man you are a true inspiration! You play better with one hand than i can with two.

Truely inspiring!

[notoriousstewie0]

riffguy and laury ward are talking...sweeeet

[cnyeas]

jesus tits, that is the sex.

[riffguy]

Nice work, love the chin mute technique!

[LauryWard]

Thanks riffguy, the chin mute technique is pretty necessary to my playing style, or else things could get rather noisy in a bad way! Also, do you have any CDs out or anything? I'd like to check that out for sure.

[riffguy]

I've got a lot of stuff in the works, but I never seem to find the time to finish it. If you check my myspace page, there is a couple of tunes that I don't have videos for. There's a link on my channel.

[deathcabforpaddy]

This is great, I'm amazed that you invented a technique to tap the rhythm section (the chords).

[LauryWard]

Yeah I pretty well figure out some kind of technique for whatever because I really love to play. What else can I do? It sometimes seems to be somewhat of a curse sometimes! Thanks for the compliment. Now I'm off to see you play.

[drwr2008]

earth's missing top rocker

nice job man

[LauryWard]

Thanks man. Sorry for late reply

[ML2PeaceWarrior]

Rock n Roll Bud,, Awesome !!

[LauryWard]

You know it dude

[Darkstarguy1]

very awsome . i have a 1 arm myself and think i will start playing a guitar

[Surfister]

very good

[badhorsie07]

this is very very good.keep up the awsome job at playing guitar..can't wait till other vids to come out=)

[metalhead769]

Love the style of your playing, and its funny because I wasn't actually watching the video for the first minute, just listening, and I didn't even realize you had one arm

all the power to ya man, keep rockin!

[trainedintheartofhat]

thats awesome your better than most people who play guitar with two hands my friend also has one hand and plays guitar

[LauryWard]

thanks alot. that's a very nice compliment, I've put a lot of hard work into it and I still do. All the power to your friend as well.

[strangewink]

play live?

[LauryWard]

Yes.

[feeblemunchies]

that was nice

hey, do you use an open tuning of any sort or do you just go standard?

just curious XD

[slowhandchad]

Did you play before you lost your arm and how did you lose it?, just curios

[secretsacred]

hey yourwelcome

you can use that and an eq too

I have 2boss eq used together

would use three too.you have a better sound too

just stright into the amp

alot of pedals can make the sound not as pure I guess bye!you can play fine without that thing

but maybe I thaught it would be something else you could have fun with ..

[secretsacred]

cool guitar playing have you seen that

ebow guitar sustaining device thing?

you should get that and put it on your guitar

you'll be able to use it and have fun I think

again cool playing

[LEAM1983]

Hehe. Well, great video, all in all. If you do post another one, upping the contrast or choosing a brighter spot to play in would be great, though. Of course, I'm pretty sure the video compression YouTube uses amounts for at least half of the problem.

[LauryWard]

Cool. Thanks.

[LEAM1983]

Oops, my mistake! Your left is my right, at least onscreen.

[LauryWard]

Don't feel too bad, sometimes I forget myself!

[LEAM1983]

It does *look* cool, but the video doesn't have enough contrast to really see what's going on... I can barely see that he's missing his right arm.

[LauryWard]

I'm missing my left arm.

[iruamjs]

this dude plays better than me, with just one hand... thats sort of inspiring...

[fuckcuntbitchwhore]

sick!!!

[bdude72]

you play nice, i wish i could play that good.

[sorthon]

thast pretty cool