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Do we play bass guitars the wrong way round?


northstreet
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[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1475499301' post='3146381']
As I've mentioned in other related threads I do a lot of other two handed things right handed (played cricket and golf right handed) and I'm right footed but single handed things (raquet sports) always left handed. Thus I end up in an odd way with cutlery - knife and fork right handed but spoon leftie! However I usually use a mouse right handed as invariably I've taken over a desk from someone else and thats been how the PC was arranged so I just carried on that way. It's also handy in that I can browse the internet right handed with the mouse whilst taking down hand written notes with my left at the same time.
[/quote]

Exactly the same here. When playing tennis I can switch hands as I find it easier than doing a backswing! Also snooker/pool is left handed.

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[quote name='Spoombung' timestamp='1475507663' post='3146469']
It's actually remarkably easy to swap tasks with hands but you need a reason to do it. Try using a mouse for example. Doesn't take long to get used to it in the other hand.
[/quote]

Yes, when my right hand is busy I use my left hand on the mouse...

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[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1475445213' post='3146026']
Maybe it goes back to when you first start playing?

You concentrate on your dominant hand just hitting the strings and making a rhythm while the other one slowly and awkwardly frets the strings, probably not at the same time.

As you progress both hands become more and more dextrous in the roles you initially assigned to them?
[/quote]this, IMO anyway, I'm a lefty, if I was starting from scratch now I would learn the 'right' way , maybe the reason so many lefty's play right handed is because when they first started someone lent them an instrument which would have been right handed, probably, or maybe they had the foresight to know the agro they would get later trying to get left handed instruments, I didn't :(

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I think it's because the 'strong' hand has better timing/rhythm that we play the way we do. I know I can tap much better time with my right than my left and when I play percussion instruments, I always lead with my right. Just feels more natural.

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Ok, interesting... I'll declare up front I'm left-handed, but play right-handed, more on that in a moment. Picking up a few points, 'sinister' is Latin for 'left' and 'dextra' is the word for 'right' (hence dexterity, dextrous etc). I have a pair of left-handed kitchen scissors - they make life much less painful (if you're right handed, try using a decent sized pair of right-handed scissors with your left hand).

I'm one of those people who seems 'mixed up' when it comes to 'handedness' and I've recently twigged soemthign about it that's veyr interesting, but don't know its significance. I am right-handed at playing bass, cello, golf, cricket (bat), ten pin bowling, bowls (not done that for decades). I am left handed at any tennis/squash etc, bowling cricket balls, writing, use of mouse etc. I can use scissors in either hand, but easier with left. OK here's the interesting point: all my right-handed activities are below the waist and all my left-handed ones are waist height or above. For reference, I am right eye dominant.

Some people are very 'handed' and find it difficult to use the other hand. For example, violin family instruments (violin, viola, cello, DB) are not generally available in LH form as the instruments are not symmetrical - you can't just reverse the stringing. The belly is not uniformly shaped, the fingerboard is asymmetrical, the bass bar is on one side, the bridge is not symmetrical etc. This means that even if you are left-handed, you will be expected to play 'right-handed'. If you insisted on a LH instrument, they are not easy to find - certainly in the UK. You could have one made to order and that would present you with at bill around £10k. I have a friend who is very left-handed and they are trying to learn violin and they find it very unnatural. It doesn't give me a problem at all on cello or bass and as my fine motor control is in my left hand, it probably gives me an advantage.

Edited by zbd1960
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You need to choose the right hand to play the bass properly and if the right hand is left then the hand that is left is right...if however the right hand is right then the hand that is left is left and thus not right. If this is the case then left isn't right and right isn't wrong.

And that is all I have left to say about that, right?

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I can and do quite happily play right handed guitar although I am a leftie. I also play(ed) golf and cricket right handed. I can shoot a rifle of both shoulders (never tried at the same time) and catch a ball with either hand. For the life of me, however, I can only play double bass left handed and can only throw with my left arm.

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A guitarist I knew was a leftie who played (very well) right-handed. However, his handedness preyed on his mind, and he eventually bought a left-handed guitar and learnt to play left-handed too. Then, in a completely unrelated development, we played in a band together, and he threw himself into the canal on the day of our first gig. Well, I assume it was unrelated.

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Just remembered, I meant to mention Gary Moore, a leftie who played right-handed and thought it gave him an advantage because his better hand was his fretting hand.

This may be because when one looks back to classical guitar, the really complex bit is what the right hand does. The left hand is just being positioned in assorted patterns (simplifying vastly).

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I am generally quite ambidextrous, I do different things with different hands and can do them with both, with bass however I don't think I could naturally play left handed. Anyone can rewire themselves to do it though, just like how two-footed players like Cazorla, Best, Maldini and Pedersen (random bunch I know) practiced at a young age to have two equally good feet

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[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1475493988' post='3146303']What might make a significant difference is which half of your brain a run or tune comes from when you are composing on guitar, bass or otherwise. One half of the brain is said to be creative or "romantic" the other is said to be logical or "classical". If you consider that notes are formed largely with the fretting hand on a guitar more than with the plucking hand, it might have a subtle influence on how a tune goes. I suppose you could say similarly that the rhythmic part of a tune comes a bit more from the plucking hand. Because the opposite side of the brain is responsible for each side of the body it does my head in thinking about it so I try not to. It's probably a lot of rubbish anyway.
[/quote]

Indeed it is. The 'Left brain/right brain' myth of cognitive style took hold in the 70s and has proven very difficult to eradicate.

As a metaphor for different ways of thinking, it may be useful. It has been proven to be scientific bunkum, however.

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[quote name='cybertect' timestamp='1475631762' post='3147540']
Indeed it is. The 'Left brain/right brain' myth of cognitive style took hold in the 70s and has proven very difficult to eradicate.

As a metaphor for different ways of thinking, it may be useful. It has been proven to be scientific bunkum, however.
[/quote]

I'm glad you told me that. Will you now please tell Paul Simon?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR-WAfxOEKY

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