Recently, I have been involved in a discussion of note regarding a specific image in a design mockup and concern that one of the people in the mockup was “playing the guitar backwards” and that the image should be changed lest the design face dread scorn and ridicule.

Please note: playing a guitar backwards is a relative thing. I feel I must rally against this claim in that it is discriminatory against those of us who are left-handed.

To wit:

hendrix

I doubt this backwards guitar-playing was suspect. (Though he did just take a righty Strat and modify it.)

beatles

I’m going to assume that there were no nasty letters or phone calls received from worried people that the guy on the left was holding his guitar in the opposite direction from his bandmates. (And bass wasn’t even his preference.)

And for the slightly younger set:

cobain

…which might say something about the emotional stability of left-handed people, but whatever.