Disabled guitarist finds new way to play

Guitarist Billy McLaughlin was diagnosed with a debilitating neuromuscular condition called focal dystonia that prevented him from using his left hand. So, he spent six years training his right hand to do what came naturally to his left. Jeff Glor reports on his inspiring journey.

[@mantovannni]

when he said im a left handed guitarist it made me think of people at AA meetings. great stuff though good on him for keeping at it and getting around his disability. the music sounds good and its quite unique for a guitarist to play using only hammer ons and pull offs

[@KountryKousins]

His passion is still there .. Amazing

[@Progressivemusician]

SIMPLY AMAZING and A GIFT FROM GOD! If you ever considered learning an instrument, I simply ask what is your excuse?

[@quentinbohannon4089]

He explains it on this video did you watch it he keep going no matter what he work on some techniques that was his problem just practcie.

[@minstrelofMir]

lucky guy he had them for years first.. my hands only ever half openned twisted to the side and the main joints not moving,,,to this day my right hand main joints do not move and i have joints over 2x the normal size and my hands are twisted as my tendons are so short

[@NuggetlivesEXE]

I can also only turn both my hand half way do u have any tips

[@minstrelofMir]

@@NuggetlivesEXE learn the piano the guitar opened my left hand,,but piano would of stretched them both,,i play it abit but it was when i was age11-16 that i could make big differences,,but its always about dexterity,,as unused joints like i have now become 2-3x bigger

[@YJMusic72]

Class act! Goosebumps!

[@tejaskondgekar5509]

Inspirational ❤❤❤❤

[@MartinSack365]

Mine started in 1973. Unknown as I went to Doctors. I had seven operations. Anyway I taught myself to play backwards. I used one finger in my left and two on my right. I achieved virtuoso states. All documented on reverbnation.com/musicwarrior. I am 75 now and cannot play left handed as my fingers tips are too painful. So I am trying to play right handed using Dystonia as my technique. I also tune guitar down to B. Less tension.

[@jaybarber68]

Hey Martin! I guess I found your post because of this; I was finally able to purchase a Martin guitar this year. But after 3 days of playing, my finger joints started to hurt pretty bad. I was in to much pain to play my new guitar! So I started playing an inexpensive classical guitar with nylon strings. I enjoyed playing for two days and the pain returned, so today I quit playing, in hopes that my finger joints would heal. But I’m probably developing arthritis, and that doesn’t heal. So I started out thinking of ways to just use 1 finger to play melodies. That worked for about an hour, then the pain was all on that finger! So I laid the little guitar across my knees, and lightly tapping a finger straight down, to play notes. No pain yet. I’m disabled anyway from MS. But I came to watch people with various different disabilities who could play better than me! I feel hopeful again 😀 Thanks for your story, we just never give up, do we?

[@sweettina2]

Awesome!

[@SwordOfTheRaven]

I have the same problem 😢

[@lunarlight3131]

sorry to hear that man

[@SwordOfTheRaven]

@@lunarlight3131 it's ok I can play several instruments I'm just glad I was able to play guitar, and wrote a good amount of songs so mission accomplished lol 😆

[@NuggetlivesEXE]

I can’t turn my hand

[@NuggetlivesEXE]

Hands