Machines Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 If you really want to feel like a beginner again flip your bass round and play left handed. I can't even play 8ths in time consistently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoombung Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 [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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 [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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulWarning Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 [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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scalpy Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 Another lefty who plays righty here. It's much cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 There was a radio programme on today on radio 4 that sounded interesting regarding this, apparently sinister is latin for left handed! They said no one is truly ambidextrous, people call themselves that if they do some things one way and other tasks the other rather than all tasks with either equally well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spike Vincent Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 Yes, you're all playing the wrong way round.I'm right handed and play L/H bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 I'm right handed but I've found out I can scratch my right elbow much more effectively with my left hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnDave Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 [quote name='Dan Dare' timestamp='1475518231' post='3146577'] I know I can tap much better time with my right than my left. Just feels more natural. [/quote] Is the the cold tap or the hot tap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zbd1960 Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 (edited) 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 October 3, 2016 by zbd1960 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonesTheCat Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 Yet another right-playing (wrong-playing?) leftie. From the very first time picking up a guitar it just felt weird the other way. Makes it cheaper and easier too. I did try playing a left handed bass the other week and it was just all wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Cloud Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 [quote name='zbd1960' timestamp='1475523549' post='3146669'] OK here's the interesting point: all my right-handed activities are below the waist... [/quote] TMI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobthedog Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 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). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 I've just tried mine the other way around, it's really hard because my jumper keeps muting all the strings! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-Ox Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybertect Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 [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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigman Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 [quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1475497343' post='3146352'] (no! Not that!) [/quote] I am very right handed yet that(!) has always been the job of the left hand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landwomble Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 Yay! I'm not alone! I'm a lefty ego plays right handed. It was easier to learn but I guess I've always had a "what if" thought at the back of my mind. I get on alright though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulWarning Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 the guy who plays Macca in the Bootleg Beatles taught himself to play lefthanded after years of playing right handed, that's dedication, respect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 [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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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