Fatalist or determinist? (Handedness discussion.)

[cassius987]

For discussion: When a new player first begins bass guitar (or guitar for that matter), one choice they must make is whether to play right- or left-handed. Most choose the former; but some the latter, and to their detriment in a large number of cases when the time comes to go shopping for new gear. Are new players who make this choice following an inborn decision that is hard-wired or could a new player make either choice with equal success, only later losing the ability to play the instrument the alternative way by learning the first one?

Background: I am left-handed in most things, but the only stringed instruments I had to learn on a decade ago were right-handed. Hence, I am a right-handed player. I know many like myself. I wonder if we wouldn't all be better off if young players were at least gently encouraged to learn guitar right-handed so that later in life they don't have to struggle to find rarer instruments if they want them? It is my belief that this would benefit many. On the other hand some people seem to think there is simply no middle ground and that they had to be a left-handed player because it "made sense" to them. This almost sets up two schools of thought, one where the player conforms to the instrument and the other where the instrument must conform to the player.

Interesting point: the piano, as far as I know, only has a single orientation. No one complains about that.

[thesilence]

My mom is an educational therapist which means she works with students with learning disabilities and helps to "retrain their brain" (using different exercises to help with reading, writing, memory recall, etc. for kids with dyslexia, adhd, etc. its really interesting and it does work as she's helped me overcome dyslexia through this process) but anyways back to the topic people are born with a predisposition to using a certain hand and/or foot (i say and/or because my brother is right handed and left footed) and (this is where the story at the beginning comes in) research has shown and from my moms personal experience the majority of kids who are born "left-handed" and then are taught/trained/forced to be right handed often experience learning difficulties. I don't mean just playing a right-handed guitar but forced to favor their right hand in all their activities (writing, shooting a gun, sports, etc.)

[puddin tame]

I don't see what makes a bass right or left handed besides people calling it right or left handed. If whoever made the first guitar decided to build it the other way around then left handers would be learning on current right handers. something like writing is with one hand, but playing an instrument requires dexterity in both hands anyway - what does right/left handedness have to do with pushing frets vs plucking strings?

it's all in how you learn it, people just think "oh im left handed so i need a backwards bass"

[Mayers]

I'm a lefty but like most lefty I do many thing right-handed since we live in a right-handed world.

But I play bass lefty. I learn to play upright bass righty and a pianist it doesn't matter they use both hand ...

So since a pianist can be right or left-handed they all play with both hand ...

[Ian the bassist]

Well I couldn't learn right handed. I did try but it just felt alien to me. I was born to play left handed. I have a left handed friend who said learned right handed no problem though. It depends on the person I think. Sure you even get right handed people who play left handed.

[Fergie Fulton]

We all have the ability to choose which hand we want as dominant. The question we ask is why change to the more difficult one? Left handed people have had to live in a right handed world so they can cope better than most right handed people in ambidextrous tasks.
We know that any person who loses the use of the dominant hand will learn to use the other with little or no real problems.
We know that the brain has two distinct hemispheres and that the left side controls the bodies right side and visa versa via the nervous system.
But the reality is the brain is actually better seen as three part, Forebrain, Midbrain, Hindbrain. So the idea of it being a particular side becomes more unclear when debating handedness.

Dominant hand use may be a genetic imprint to protect the species. If something was to happen that affected one side of the brain (a diseases, virus, dysfunction, or trauma) then the nervous system will transfer dominant use to the other. The other side by the fact of not being dominant in use should be healthier as its use and therefore exposure to injury and such will have been limited.

The one thing we understand at this time is not to fight handedness but embrace it. As was mentioned there can be educational problems later in life for those that have been made to go against their handedness.

In playing a bass the two hands have very different tasks, one to fret, one to pluck. In playing piano the task is the same both hands play in the sense that they both can generate the sound without the aid of the other. In bass we need both hands in sync to play.
That is why the plucking hand is normally the dominant because that is the hand that has to relay the volume, attack, rhythm, tempo, etc while on the move. The fretting hand just has to fret on the move. Actually the fretting hand can just hold one note for bar after bar, but the plucking hand still would have to consider volume, attack, rhythm, tempo etc.

These days with more and more better instruments being made commercially available on the market, the choice and prices are better than they used to be. I would always let the dominant hand have the plucking duty as it is the most important....even ambidextrous people have a dominant hand if they examine their hand use closely.

[R. Laevinus]

I think that, regardless of which hand is naturally dominant, that we can all learn how we wish to play.

Think back to when you first picked up a bass or guitar - remember how weird it felt? How your wrists would get sore? How you couldn't get the darn thing to sit properly on your knee?

With a very few exceptions by forward-thinking builders, no musical instrument is ergonomic. No instrument is designed to fit the player. All instruments are pretty much unnatural, and we must train our bodies to accomodate the instruments.

I can understand things like writing, or mouse-orientation, being 'handed', because these actions - drawing pictures (which evolves into writing) and pointing, are natural and instinctual. But I don't honestly believe that anybody is born with a natural and instinctual inclination for bass playing.

You need to learn to do it. What does it matter which hand you do it with?

I'd also like to point out all the opportunities for playing that are missed by left-handed players - sitting in a park or on a beach when somebody busts out an acoustic... hanging out in the bar and some guy announces that it's jam night now... chilling at a friend's place, and there's an axe on the wall... it's not just a limited selection of guitars to buy.

Finally, I'd like to mention a few instruments that make no distinction for handedness: Piano, drums, woodwinds (clarinet, flute, sax, bassoon, oboe), brass (trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, baritone, tuba, french horn, sousaphone), orchestral strings (violin, viola, cello, upright bass)... what am I missing? I think you get it.

[Fergie Fulton]

Originally Posted by R. Laevinus

I think that, regardless of which hand is naturally dominant, that we can all learn how we wish to play.

Think back to when you first picked up a bass or guitar - remember how weird it felt? How your wrists would get sore? How you couldn't get the darn thing to sit properly on your knee?

With a very few exceptions by forward-thinking builders, no musical instrument is ergonomic. No instrument is designed to fit the player. All instruments are pretty much unnatural, and we must train our bodies to accomodate the instruments.

I can understand things like writing, or mouse-orientation, being 'handed', because these actions - drawing pictures (which evolves into writing) and pointing, are natural and instinctual. But I don't honestly believe that anybody is born with a natural and instinctual inclination for bass playing.

You need to learn to do it. What does it matter which hand you do it with?

I'd also like to point out all the opportunities for playing that are missed by left-handed players - sitting in a park or on a beach when somebody busts out an acoustic... hanging out in the bar and some guy announces that it's jam night now... chilling at a friend's place, and there's an axe on the wall... it's not just a limited selection of guitars to buy.

Finally, I'd like to mention a few instruments that make no distinction for handedness: Piano, drums, woodwinds (clarinet, flute, sax, bassoon, oboe), brass (trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, baritone, tuba, french horn, sousaphone), orchestral strings (violin, viola, cello, upright bass)... what am I missing? I think you get it.

Most of the instruments you list are available left handed so there is a definite distinction, try a search on "Slide" Hampton to see the other side of the coin.
Problem with any learning instrument learning is we have a visual reference to it before we learn it. Most players take up an instrument because they have seen another play it, so any ergonomics can be missed. With no personal interaction or experience a player may just decide it is supposed to be this hard.
I have worked with guitar players that just play with the guitar upside down without even changing the stringing with no problems, LOL

Even this man makes it look so easy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe25tIMy-A8

[PopaWoody]

Jimmi Hendrix strung his righty upside down and played it upside down...that's pretty damn impressive. I myself think it does not matter as both hands can learn to do the job at hand.

I am right handed, but can proudly say that I am ambidextrous.... in my feet. Years of playing soccer taught me to be able to kick a ball with precision control (spin, height, distance) using either foot.

[skwee]

I do just about everything as a righty, except for swinging a bat or golf club, which I do left handed. Trying to bat right handed is about the most awkward thing for me to do. Don't know why.

[gleneg61]

Hi,
Here's my take on it. I play standard lefty but I'm 85% righty. When I picked up a guitar as kid, it felt natural to me to have my most dexterous hand where it needed to be quicker, more agile, which, with a pick in my other hand, was my right hand obviously. I'm a very proud lefty player & can play a righty upside down but totally refuse to play a convert, a la Jimi. Call me a snob! However, if you think about it & use piano as the yardstick, the left hand picks out the rhythm & harmony & the right hand the melody & faster runs: the same as a LEFTY bassist or guitarist! I think right handed playing should be for actual lefties & vice-versa. I wish I was a true lefty but ce'st la vie, apart from the hassle of limited axes, we look & are way cooler! Perhaps Sir Paul had a subliminal affect on my choice but I'm happy to play the way I do.
Glen