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Swapping hands...


Captain Bassman
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OK, I've been toying with a strange idea for the last few months...

I'm a naturally right-handed player but of late have been getting really curious about how I would get on playing a left-handed bass. Not a LH bass strung upside-down and played right-handed but a "real" LH bass!

The reason for this curiosity is;

a) I seem to have the ability to do some things fairly well with both hands :) (alright you at the back, no more sniggering!!). I'm thinking raquet sports, darts, etc...not writing though. I'm not ambidextrous - I believe that means being able to do things equally well with both hands.

:rolleyes: when listening to my iPod I can "pluck" along to the bass parts quite well with my LH fingers. Slap technique with my LH thumb also seems OK and a lot tighter than my RH thumb.

Given that I'd have to concentrate more on technique, accuracy, articulation etc. I'm wondering if this might benefit my natural RH playing to any degree? Dunno how exactly but maybe it would "re-wire" my brain by removing any complacency it might have developed over the years of playing RH.

Hey, there's also the possibility that it might unleash some latent technical wizardry in being able to fret better and faster with my RH!!! :lol: :lol: Could open up a new career!!

I'm thinking it might be fun to buy a cheapo LH bass and have a go!

Anyone ever tried this?

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The only time i've ever picked up a LH bass it's made me realise how it felt to first pick up a RH one!

It will more than likely feel utterly weird, as most of bass playing technique is deeply routed in your [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory"]muscle memory[/url] so you would have to build that up from scratch.

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I can't see it being of much benefit for your playing as the hands do such different things. I recently taught myself to airdrum left-handed which is useful because it increases your limb independance and encourages you to play non-standard patterns when you go back to right, but bass is quite a different matter! (I imagine learning left-handed piano could be quite useful for the same reason, if you could find a left-handed piano!)

Alex

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When I used to play the violin the cello teacher who coached my string quartet did exactly this. He strung a cello backwards and started to learn left handed to give himself a better idea of what it felt like to be a beginner with an alien-feeling instrument. He did it better to understand his pupils' needs.
Now that's dedication.

Good luck if you do try it,
M

[quote name='RichB' post='600478' date='Sep 16 2009, 05:08 PM']Blimey, I have enough problems playing with my natural hand let alone swapping over.[/quote]

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Sometimes I'll play my friends left handed guitar, but in a right handed fashion. It's good as it gives me a different perspective on riffs and tunes, because you're doing things you wouldn't normally do, so the strumming sounds different and I end up playing things I may never have played in my standard fashion. However, as people have said, trying to play it left handed, it does feel as though I've just started playing from scratch. Either way, go for it and give it a try, can't hurt :)

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