Hi!

I'm curious to know how many other left-handed bassists there are here that are playing in a right-handed manner, and to hear your experiences on this.

I'm playing in this way as the first guitar I got was a right-handed. My parents said the cheapest left-handed was several times more expensive than the one I got, so I had to start with it. I don't wish I played with lefties and I could not imagine to switch, but I have had difficulties playing certain things that others don't have any real problems with. These have for me been:

- playing "tight". When I have to use the "worse hand" for striking the notes, I've had to practice this a lot to achieve a good timing on all notes. It's quite ok nowadays, however.

- speed. I've always been quite poor at playing fast, but for a Roxette project I played las year in I had to pratice speed a lot to be able to play "The look" - it requires both speed and endurance (16th:s, tempo about 96 bpm for 3-4 minutes... a few bpm more would have been mssion impossible to me.. However, I've seen a right-handed bass player playing that song easily with a smile on his face and no signs at all of getting tired...

- slapping. I cannot slap properly and I use it only occasionally as effects... I seem to loose the control too easily when I try to play something a bit more advanced. I cannot even play the "domm-ticki-domm-ticki" pattern slowly...:rolleyes:

Most of these problems I have been able to sort out by developing the right-hand technique, but I still feel more limited than other bassists, especially concerning the slapping that I've been trying to get to work for a long time but I never seem to get it... :hmm:

Of course there are advantages too with playing in this way, related mainly to the left hand movement. I can for instance stretch my left hand quite much, which can be very useful when playing e.g. funk licks.... :)

Again, what are you're experiences on this issue?

I write with my left hand so i guess that labels me as a left handed person :) i play right handed on bass as well as guitar and don't have any problems playing it that way but playing left handed basses gives a major headache for me :hmm: :bassist:

...but playing left handed basses gives a major headache for me :hmm: :bassist:

:D

True, that's why I never wanted to switch. There are also several advantages by playing on right-hand basses so I will stick to those. I'm a fairly good bassist nowadays (i'm 28), but I still feel I've had more difficulties with those three issues mentioned above than most right-handed, I think... especially concerning the slapping. Feels that will never work well for me, so I'm concentrating on developing a good fingerstyle instead... :-)

The two best gui*ar players that I know personally are leftys that play righty. Just keep at it.

I'm left handed, play right handed. Maybe it's just that the first guitar I picked up was right handed, but playing righty just feels normal.

However, the few times that I've tried my hand at drums, the right-handed set up seemed totaly backwards, and wrong.

I'm a lefty (writing) that plays righty- i just thought that it made more sense to me to use the hand that i use most to fret notes- its stronger to start with. My right hand just took some time to get the speed i need. often, my left hand frets notes much faster than my right can keep up, so you know, nothings perfect, but it works for me. Hope this makes sense.

Since there a so few 'true' leftys in the total sense of the word, I would guess there are more leftys playing righty (like me) than true left-handers playing left.

For me, it's write and throw left-handed, everything else is done from the right side of things. Bass, guitar, drums included and I guess the horns I played in high-school would be right-handed as well since they only go one-way.

dave

i play the "righty" and im a left. Speed is the only issue i have come across, but i believe practice on technique improves all.


As for horns, you forgot about the french horn, its a "lefty" standard.

I'm a lefty and play left-handed. I fret with my right hand. I also play a right handed bass. I just flip it over. I don't even restring it. The E string is on the bottom. I've played for 28 years that way and have had no problem at all. Correction, the only problem I had was turning the volume down because my arm would rub on the control knobs. I finally had the knobs removed and hardwired everything wide open. Works for me!

I have taught a lot of beginners. They all have more trouble getting plucking speed, as compared to fretting speed, regardless of handedness. :cool:

I'm a lefty that plays right-handed. I went back and forth in the beginning few months. The one thing that sealed the deal for me was when I realized how much harder it would be to buy or sell a decent left-handed instrument. I now find it ironic that my decision ever so slightly compounded that very same problem for other lefties.

I am left handed and have never had any trouble.

I actually want to pick up a left handed bass to retrain my brain/coordination a little.

Weeelll you see sonny wayyyyyyyyyyys back in my day there were no left hand guitars or basses that i knew of :smug: I'm 45... really my first cheap guitar was right handed and im a lefty. I doubt my parents even knew there was such a thing as a left handed guitar in those days...i didnt till years latter...they just were not around. I dont know any other way to play than right handed but wonder what kind of a player i would of been if i would of learned to play lefty. I agree with slap thing ...i never was to good at it myself....could be the lefty thing there for sure?

Oh...I forgot to add something that I have stated in another thread on this topic:

Go see a Symphony orchestra. The string players all play "right-handed." Oh yeah, there are a few reverse-built violins, violas, cellos, and double basses out there, with the bass bars and sound post reversed and all the other structural stuff carved the the other way. :ninja:

However, there are pretty close to zero of those players in orchestras. In fact, there are pretty close to zero "left-handed" classical string instrument players (there are a few, and I am sure they are fine musicians).

Why is this? Two simple reasons: 1) consistent traditional bow motion orientation within a section to avoid bumping into each other (which means habit and custom). 2) Builders skills and practicality (and habits and customs).

Guess what? For most musicians, it really doesn't matter much at all. :rollno: So What does? :eyebrow:

What matters is practicing five to seven hours a day for seven to ten years while under 20 years old. That is what some scientific studies have shown is THE thing that all successful music professionals have in common. Nothing else. :rollno:

Practice. A lot. Everyday. For years. Do it. :hiding:

What matters is practicing five to seven hours a day for seven to ten years while under 20 years old. That is what some scientific studies have shown is THE thing that all successful music professionals have in common. Nothing else. :rollno:

Practice. A lot. Everyday. For years. Do it. :hiding:

Good I'm not aiming on a professional career as a bassist.. Being 28 and having played bass only for 5-6 years, my chances to become one seem to be quite minimal... :rollno: To be a reasonably good amateur is enough for me, even though I of course try to get better all the time... And, yes, I'm practicing as much as I have time for...:bassist: :cool:

I'm a lefty (I write, eat, & shoot left handed) but play my bass right-handed. It never dawned on me that may be the reason for the difficulty in the slap technique. Good thread.

Handedness (is that a word?) doesn't matter. Guitar/bass/drums the few instruments they make lefty versions of. Don't see left handed pianos, violins, horns and so on. You learn to play what they give you. I was an art student for awhile and we did exercises to work on being ambidextrous it makes drawing/painting things easier being able to use either hand. So not having a left handed instrument is no excuse for anything you can't do. Some say its an advantage being a lefty playing right handed. You've developed a lot of control of the left hand for writing and that is your fingering hand that does more than the right hand. I have no problem slapping other than I don't do it a lot so not great at it. Now what is weird to me is lefties playing right handed bass and slapping like Jimmy Haslip.

Oh BTW I am a lefty who plays right handed. I was given a right handed guitar and when I took my lesson they said here's how you play and I just did it.

Don't have a lot of time but I see some improper arguments being applied here.


There are no left handed string players in orchestra ergo left-handed instruments aren't necessary.

This just could be a matter of social darwinism. True left dominants can't ever catch on well enough to perform at that level, perhaps.


We don't need left handed string instruments because there aren't left handed pianos, woodwinds, drums etc.

Those instruments happen to be symmetrical or relatively symmetrical instruments in comparison to a string instrument in which the techniques for each hand are highly asymmetrical.

If one looks up improper arguments in Google and is willing to take the time you could actually name these kind of specious argument techniques.

There are various degrees of handedness especially when it comes to lefties. We spend our entire young life accomodating to skills thrown at us. Some of us become quite adept at faking various thing right handed. Some of us become ambidextrous and some learn to peform with either hand depending on the skill.

Now for those "lefties" who claim that anyone can learn bass right handed try this out. Tomorrow you can only write with your right hand. Then in a couple of weeks,get back to us and let us know how things are working out. :D Gee, I thought anyone could do anything with either hand, what's the problem?

p.s. In regards to the ageism happening in this thread; there are imaging studies that show changes in the brains of even elderly people learning stringed instruments on the fretting hand side of the brain.

I'm left handed and I've always played right handed instruments. I started on a right handed bass, but I tried a couple left handed basses at the time as well and they just never felt quite as good.

It's never given me any problems, and I'd say I'm a pretty good player :)


I don't really want to get into the discussion much, but as another point of interest; there is a left handed pianist who actually plays a custom built left handed piano. Check out his thoughts on the subject:

http://www.lefthandedpiano.co.uk/

Deacon_Blues, you pretty much nailed all my experiences as a player, right down to playing 5-6 years and being 28! I think the only different between you and me is that you seemed to have practiced a lot more. For me, working plus not being in any bands most of my time playing has caused me to get pretty lazy with practice in the past.

I've been playing for a little over a year, and went through this when I first started. I eat, write, fish & cast, shoot, throw, do most things left handed but a lefty bass felt unnatural and weird the first time I tried it even before I learned anything at all. A righty bass and guitar felt sort of natural. I played violin as a kid, maybe that had something to do with it. Now if I pick up a lefty bass it feels just as foreign and weird as it did last year. Not happening.

I have the same problems as everyone in the thread with speed, slap, all the right hand deficiencies. I have always blamed my left handedness on these faults, but I recently found out that one of my favorite guitarists of all time (Jorma Kaukonen) is a lefty who plays righty. He's so amazing, I guess I can't whine about this anymore and just have to take the blame myself for undeveloped technique (how's that for whitewashing it?)

The last band I was in was a trio, we all were lefties who played righty. We called ourselves Lefty of course. I didn't really think about it when I started playing. Plucking with my right and fretting with my left just seemed normal. A few years later I was showing a song to a friend and he said "how do you change chords so fast?" I said, "I'm left handed, how do you pick so fast?" My right hand technique has always lagged behind. I have trouble slapping and tapping, keeping up fast aggressive rhythms etc but I think I picked up fretless faster than some people do. My grandmother was slapped with a ruler when she tried to write with her left hand but she didn't turn out illiterate. I think it's possible to learn either way and either way you'll have strengths and weaknesses.

Every time I see one of these lefty/righty threads I notice they are started by some dude who is a lefty but has been playing righty from since the beginning because well ya know there weren't any lefty basses around or whatever and then five other dudes chime in saying they too are lefties but play righty and that's because one of them said he'd never heard of a lefty instrument just thought they were all righty then the second one says it's because the coolest bass in the world that he saw in that store was righty and he didn't care if it didn't feel right cuz that bass was just too cool not to be his bass and then the third dude says he's so damn old and he started playing bass before they were electric and that's his excuse then the fourth dude says well he's really a lefty because he eats, throws, bats, golfs, walks, talks lefty but when it comes to the bass something just feels soooo righty and then the fifth dude says he's really truly a lefty and actually has a lefty bass but goes ahead and plays it righty as though he was righty :eyebrow: :confused: :o .

Then I show up to play the role of the a-hole and am forced to wonder aloud, what the **** is wrong with you people?

Be what you are. If you're lefty play lefty as a favor to yourself. Stop fighting it. Get over the guilt or whatever. If you've ruined yourself by playing righty just quit for six months, take up cowbell or the triangle then come back and start over.

OK?

Hey, King

Did you have too much coffee today? Lighten up, and don't read the threads if they get you this agitated. And switch to decaf.

I was the singer in my high school band and we lost our bass player. At our next practice the band came up to me and the guitar player said, "We all talked it over and since you're not doing anything except singing you might as well play bass while you're doing it and make yourself useful. You can borrow my old bass until you can afford to buy your own."

I said, "I can't learn to play that. I'm left handed."

To which he replied, "F*** you and your left handedness! Just take this thing and learn to play this list of Black Sabbath songs by next month or you're out of the band!"

20 years later, I can fret faster, smoother and more accurately with my left hand than most other bass players I know, and since I knew from the begining that right hand technique would be more difficult for me to learn, I worked more diligently on that. I also decided to make the most of my natural left hand speed by concentrating on learning techniques that require fast, articulate fretting like hammer ons, pull offs, thumbed bass lines with simultaneous upper fret notes and chords and so on.

In spite of the fact that this story has surely irritated Mr. "KingOfAmps" by now (who apparently thinks it's some kind of sacrilege to arbitrarily switch hands on Mother Nature) I will reiterate what has been said here before: it's all about the hours you put in practicing. If you put in solid hours several days per week, every week, and have the passion to keep it up year after year then it doesn't matter much which hand you start out with.

20 years later, I can fret faster, smoother and more accurately with my left hand than most other bass players I know...20 years? Are you saying that going against the grain for 20 years to become faster and smoother is good or bad news? If you had played lefty would the time have been increased or decreased? I'm not saying that's important to everybody but now I'm curious since you mentioned 20 years.and since I knew from the begining that right hand technique would be more difficult for me to learn, I worked more diligently on that. I also decided to make the most of my natural left hand speed by concentrating on learning techniques that require fast, articulate fretting like hammer ons, pull offs, thumbed bass lines with simultaneous upper fret notes and chords and so on.this "perspective" I omitted from my original post. And it's one of the best! Whenever I read this one I can't help but wonder why more true righties don't play lefty in order to reap the exact same benefits.

:help:

Who should play a lefty bass?

Well then, this should really bake your noodle.

I'm righthanded, I play lefthanded.
I played DB in high school and they strung one of thoose up lefty for me too.

I'm not the only one. Greta Brinkman is righthanded too! http://www.bassgoddessgreta.com/

I could never understand why some people are so insensed that some of us have to or choose to play lefty. It's in no way a threat to your right handedness.

Play whatever way is most comfortable/natural to you and don't let how others hold the instrument bother you.


Cheers!

Are you saying that going against the grain for 20 years to become faster and smoother is good or bad news? If you had played lefty would the time have been increased or decreased? ... I can't help but wonder why more true righties don't play lefty in order to reap the exact same benefits.

:help:


I think you've asked EXACTLY the right questions. Unfortunately, there's no way to know for sure what the right answer is because you can't learn the bass left handed and then forget what you know and then learn the bass right handed to compare how your playing would be different. :D

My gut feeling tells me that I'm better off as a naturally left handed bass player playing a right handed bass simply because the bass as a modern electric rock band instrument is more fretting intensive than plucking intensive. I'm certain that if I lost my right hand I could still play the bass by fitting a pick to a prosthesis and continuing to play with only a few alterations in technique. On the other hand (pun intended :D ) if I lost my left hand, I'd have no choice but to switch to a lefty instrument and put in a whole lot of time to get back up to speed, or just give it up for a Taurus bass pedal. In my opinion, this is support for the idea that fretting is more fundamental to modern bass playing and it seems to me that one might get better results using the naturally superior hand on the fretboard (ie. left hand on frets if a lefty and right hand on frets if a righty).

Of course this is all speculation (and as long as I'm speculating I might as well toss out one more non-falsifiable idea), but I'm guessing that early guitars and other similar stringed instuments were played with the left hand doing the easy work of forming and holding simple chords while the dominant right hand was free to use all five digits to do the 'legitimate' guitar work of strumming, plucking, arpeggiating and otherwise weaving melodies. Modern guitar players simply follow this out of tradition even though modern guitar playing techniques are far more fret hand intensive than in the past, and modern bass players in turn follow guitar tradition by default.

Well then, this should really bake your noodle.

I'm righthanded, I play lefthanded.I've have to let this sink in for a while...

I'm right handed and play left handed. Lefty bass strung righty. Been doin it for over 20 years with no problem.Thats just the way I started.Long story short, I'm happy with it and its been a bu$$$y 20 years. :bassist:

I'm right handed and play left handed. Lefty bass strung righty.So the E is on the treble side? Your "1st" string?

That's fascinating.

How did that come about? I'm curious what led you to think to try that? It's so unconventional that I'm truly mystified.

The reason, I have a birth defect of my left hand. So you could say I'm lefty by necessity. I play lefty strung lefty but I know quite a few players that play lefty strung righty.

In fact it would be an interesting study to determine which of the setups is most common to lefty players. Hmmmmmm. :-)

I have found that most lefty strung righty players do so because thay had to learn on someone else's (right handed) instrument.

I'm ambidextrous, but I do the most defining skill -writing- left handed. I'm a little stronger with my right hand and I have a lot of dexterity with my left, so I picked up a right-handed bass just fine. I honestly think I had a little bit of a leg up when learning the instrument compared to others.

I am also lefty that plays right handed, because I can.

Looking through this thread there was also a little post that disturbed me....(look down)

Every time I see one of these lefty/righty threads I notice they are started by some dude who is a lefty but has been playing righty from since the beginning because well ya know there weren't any lefty basses around or whatever and then five other dudes chime in saying they too are lefties but play righty and that's because one of them said he'd never heard of a lefty instrument just thought they were all righty then the second one says it's because the coolest bass in the world that he saw in that store was righty and he didn't care if it didn't feel right cuz that bass was just too cool not to be his bass and then the third dude says he's so damn old and he started playing bass before they were electric and that's his excuse then the fourth dude says well he's really a lefty because he eats, throws, bats, golfs, walks, talks lefty but when it comes to the bass something just feels soooo righty and then the fifth dude says he's really truly a lefty and actually has a lefty bass but goes ahead and plays it righty as though he was righty :eyebrow: :confused: :o .

Then I show up to play the role of the a-hole and am forced to wonder aloud, what the **** is wrong with you people?

Be what you are. If you're lefty play lefty as a favor to yourself. Stop fighting it. Get over the guilt or whatever. If you've ruined yourself by playing righty just quit for six months, take up cowbell or the triangle then come back and start over.

OK?

Wow, didn't know that the way other people played affected you that much. Go take a deep breath, count to 10, and stop caring and go practice how you want to play instead of worrying and complaining about other players.

Then I show up to play the role of the a-hole and am forced to wonder aloud, what the **** is wrong with you people?

Be what you are. If you're lefty play lefty as a favor to yourself. Stop fighting it. Get over the guilt or whatever. If you've ruined yourself by playing righty just quit for six months, take up cowbell or the triangle then come back and start over.

OK?

Why do you care that is the question. People should do what they want or feels right to them. Yes, I'm a lefty who plays right I guess I was lucky growing up I was never encouraged to do things one way or the other. I do somethings lefty and some right. No guilt, no hangups just doing thing the way they feel natural and hope others do the same.

Now you want strange I've worked a drummer who were left handed and right footed.

So the E is on the treble side? Your "1st" string?

That's fascinating.

How did that come about? I'm curious what led you to think to try that? It's so unconventional that I'm truly mystified.

I play a 5 string, so my B string is on the bottom. When we were kids we used to play like we were the Beatles. I got stuck being Paul, and had to play my broom( LOL) left handed like Paul. Well, when I first picked up a real guitar I picked it up left handed and just played it that way. Stopped playing for years, eventually took up bass and again held it left handed.Never restrung it, and really didnt know that the strings were upside down until someone told me.LOL!! Unconventional? Somewhat these days. Jimmy Haslip of the Yellow Jackets,Wayman Tysdale, Keith Horne and our fellow TBer Jeff Schmidt all play the samw way. I think the bass player from Devo played the same way too.There are others I'm sure.It does have its limitations but I have always been a busy bass player for just over 20 years.Its funny to see the reaction of other musicians when they see my strings upside down.Or if I sit in with a band and I turn over the guys bass. LOL!!

It kind of makes sense, though. I mean, for a regular guitar, you want the treble strings where they are so you can solo easier. But for bass you don't do it as often, so you don't have to twist your hand to reach the E string. If you want to go higher up, you likely won't stay there long anyway, so it's not that bad. Kudos for making it work for you.