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Why do we play right (or left handed) ?


lojo
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I'm a righty but i sometimes debate on whether to get a lefty bass and learn to play that too. Partly because it'd be a challenge and partly because i could really f*ck with peoples minds on stage. I think it would be an intereresting spin (quite literally) on my bass playing and a bit of fun to try.

Liam

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[quote name='bertbass' timestamp='1364337429' post='2025223']
It's because of the hand that you lead with when doing a roll round the drums. Leading with the left hand on a right handed kit means that you can't follow onto the next drum. I know that 'cause my drummer told me, about the only intelligent thing he's ever said though.
[/quote]
I once had a go at playing drums, having gone through the trouble of getting left handed guitars and basses, I thought I learn the drums right handed, using the logic that from scratch it wouldn't make any difference, wrong, couldn't do the bass drum with my right foot with any sort of power of accuracy, I did learn to play the drums, sort of, but got bored and sold the kit.
To the people who say anybody lefty can learn right handed from scratch because they know someone who has, I say to them how do we know if they would have been better players if they'd learnt there natural way? I doubt if Hendrix would have been as good if he'd learnt right handed, or Macca for that matter or how many cack handers have given up beacause they couldn't play the wrong way round

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I'm extremely left-eyed, which makes me left-handed for a lot of things. I can remember the first time I picked up a guitar it was the left handed way around. However it was obvious that I was holding it wrong from the design of the guitar. When I actually started learning I learnt right-handed, it never occurred to me to try the other way. For the whole of the first year I was completely crap, I could barely change from one chord to another and my strumming was completely uncoordinated. The suddenly it all clicked and I could play. Literally in the space of a week I went from 12 months of total inability to being to play everything that I'd been trying to learn up to that point. Within another month I'd worked my way through The Beatles Complete and Simon & Garfunkle's Greatest Hits song books and then started writing my own songs.

I don't know whether it was anything to do with left-handedness that held me back for so long on the guitar, but I'm really glad I stuck with it, because the choice available for those who don't play right handed is completely piss-poor.

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From a guitarists perspective, as mentioned above, it makes sense to have your less dextrous hand on the fretboard because that's doing the simpler task - it's on / off basically. The note is either fretted or not. The more dextrous hand then has the challenge of creating the "feel" of the piece. Without that you might as well get a robot to play it.
Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhvWAQp1yME

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[quote name='blinddrew' timestamp='1364427787' post='2026525']
From a guitarists perspective, as mentioned above, it makes sense to have your less dextrous hand on the fretboard because that's doing the simpler task - it's on / off basically. The note is either fretted or not. The more dextrous hand then has the challenge of creating the "feel" of the piece...[/quote]

I'm not sure (in fact I'm certain..!) that I'd agree with this statement. Whilst not suggesting that the picking hand is doing little, fingering chords or single note melody lines takes, imho, a great deal of dexterity; more especially so if 'feeling' is to be heard. I'd be hard pressed to say that one hand does less than the other. Just my opinion, though.

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[quote name='borisbrain' timestamp='1364418216' post='2026325']
I'm dominantly right-handed, but play bass lefty. This makes sense to me, since my most dexterous hand - the right - is doing all the hard work on the fretboard. I guess the same applies to some natural lefties who play guitar as right-handers.

BB
[/quote]

Same here. I really did try learning the guitar right handed when I was a teenager and just could not do it.

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[quote name='LiamPodmore' timestamp='1364381532' post='2025585']
I'm a righty but i sometimes debate on whether to get a lefty bass and learn to play that too. Partly because it'd be a challenge and partly because i could really f*ck with peoples minds on stage. I think it would be an intereresting spin (quite literally) on my bass playing and a bit of fun to try.
[/quote]

Why not do both?

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gACsPcbU1tg"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gACsPcbU1tg[/url]

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[quote name='blinddrew' timestamp='1364427787' post='2026525']
From a guitarists perspective, as mentioned above, it makes sense to have your less dextrous hand on the fretboard because that's doing the simpler task - it's on / off basically. The note is either fretted or not. The more dextrous hand then has the challenge of creating the "feel" of the piece. Without that you might as well get a robot to play it.
Like this: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhvWAQp1yME[/media]
[/quote]

or engineers
Try playing in a blues band with engineers , they know where the notes are , they know what order to play them in , but somehow , something is missing , maybe the soul/feel/life of the piece is in there somewhere but it hasn't been specified correctly

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[quote name='lurksalot' timestamp='1364603287' post='2028869']
or engineers
Try playing in a blues band with engineers , they know where the notes are , they know what order to play them in , but somehow , something is missing , maybe the soul/feel/life of the piece is in there somewhere but it hasn't been specified correctly
[/quote]

Careful, some of us Engineers make WMDs. :P

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