Lefty Turned Righty?

[volt9stormrider]

Are any of you a natural lefty but play bass righty? Or a natural righty but play bass lefty? Explain how and why if you are. I'm interested to hear. I'll post my story later. happy posting peace.

[MikeyFingers]

I'm not, but I know 2 people who are. 2 friends of mine are both lefties, they write lefty, shoot pool lefty, throw a ball lefty. One plays bass righty, the other plays guitar righty. I don't get it.

[labgnat]

i'm natural righty play righty, i think the reason people play right when left handed is more choices of basses to buy

[sjleland]

I have a friend who is a lefty but plays righty, he does it for purposes of learning songs/techniques easier from others and in terms of equipment.

[Chase_The_Bass]

I think that u are better if u are lefty and play righty. On a righty bass the hand that really does the complex motions is ur left hand, so if u play righty and are lefty u are that much better. One alternative is if u are lefty u cant take a righty bass and string lefty and play that way (Jimi Hendrix style)

[Jim Carr]

I am very left-handed. I play right-handed. No problem. 1000's and
1000's of classical violininsts, violists, cellists and bass players all play
right-handed. It is OK.

There are those who started electric bass left-handed and love it. They
are convinced it is better for them. They may be right, but I think your
ears and musicianship are more important than these issues.

I also believe the amount you practice matters much much more than which way you hold it..

[spudmaster34]

Originally Posted by Jim Carr

1000's and
1000's of classical violininsts, violists, cellists and bass players all play
right-handed.

yeah and 1000's of others would be missing eyes if they didnt

Originally Posted by Jim Carr

I also believe the amount you practice matters much much more than which way you hold it..

+1

[JJBACOOMBA]

I am right handed and the only thing I do left handed is play the bass. I have been playing like that for about 20 years. Oh, lefty bass , strung righty!! When we were kids we played like we were the beatles and I ended up being Paul and had to use my broom or stick, whatever , left handed. When I first picked up a guitar it was natural for me to pick it up and strum left handed. Then I eventually started playing bass and no one ever mentioned that the strings were supposed to be strung the other way. So I just stayed that way and have enjoyed it all this time.

[Sneckumhaw]

Interestingly Greg Lake played his bass righty as did Fripp with his guitar (both southpaws). They had the same teacher.

[EADG mx]

Originally Posted by Chase_The_Bass

I think that u are better if u are lefty and play righty. On a righty bass the hand that really does the complex motions is ur left hand, so if u play righty and are lefty u are that much better. One alternative is if u are lefty u cant take a righty bass and string lefty and play that way (Jimi Hendrix style)

I've heard this way too many times.

I think if playing with your writing hand on the fretboard improved your skill, all right-handed guitarists would start playing what is now known as left-handed. The market would gradually change to having predominantly left-handed instruments, which would from then on be renamed to right-handed.

Right handed people have been fretting with their left hand on all sorts of stringed instruments for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. I think they have been for a reason.


Speaking a lefty, in my experience I don't think I would have anywhere close to the amount of skill I have now if I had started playing righty. I tried it out a few times, it just feels unnatural to me. And don't say you feel more comfortable with what you learn on, because I tried righty and lefty basses before I learned how to play anything at all. Just holding the lefty bass felt more natural to me.

I have a friend who's left-handed and plays guitar righty. For the amount of time he's been playing I think he is progressing slowly compared to most other guitarists I know. Something to think about.

[Stanley Design]

Well I'm a lefty who plays righty. I don't do anything else righty, but it wasn't even a question when I first started, I knew I was going to play right handed of course because YES with bass your left hand does the majority of the work. Most definately.

Even if you feel the right hand does a lot of work, it's all only finger work, and with 2-3 fingers, which stay in the same place. Your left hand is the one that has to span frets, have the speed and accuracy. Has to move up and down the neck, across the neck etc.

Same with guitar, you're chording with your left hand or doing leads, and all your right hand does is strum up and down in time or pick the right string. It's all left hand oriented!

The only time I find that right hands do a lot of work in bass is fast slap/etc. But grooving is for the lefties. I love how basses are made to fit my liking.

[Owen's hound]

I'm a lefty who plays right handed. I started playing guitar righty due to cost, in the mid 1980's, it was cheaper to get a righty guitar and since my parents were footing the bill, they got me a righty guitar.
It took me a long time to pick and finger pick but I found chording much easier.
Now that I play bass, it took a bit to get my fingers and floating thumb going but once I did, I haven't noticed any issue.


Jason

[Scourge441]

I have a lefty friend who chose to play lefty because playing righty didn't feel comfortable to him.

A person's opposite hand does all of the complicated fretting when playing normally. Does anyone know why it was set up this way originally?

[iplaybassguitar]

im not...but i know people who swing golf clubs and baseball bats opposite...and i used to skateboard goofy and snowboard regular...kind of the same thing

[Jim Carr]

Originally Posted by EADG mx

I've heard this way too many times.

I think if playing with your writing hand on the fretboard improved your skill, all right-handed guitarists would start playing what is now known as left-handed. The market would gradually change to having predominantly left-handed instruments, which would from then on be renamed to right-handed.

Right handed people have been fretting with their left hand on all sorts of stringed instruments for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. I think they have been for a reason.

If you look at the iconography/organology (history of western instruments),
I suspect you will find a lot of variation in how instruments have been
configured. It will suprise you, perhaps. Also, there is the simple fact
that left-handedness was/is at times an advantage in fighting right-handed
opponents who had (naturally) more experience fighting right-handed
opponents, more of whom were right-handed.

The left-handed warrior was considered sneaky and evil. Did I mention
left-handedness has run in my family (for real).

As you no doubt know, this prejudice prevailed into the 20th c., where
children, as recently as the 1960's were forced in some US public
schools to write with their right hands, no matter which was dominant.
To be fair, part of this was because of the now nearly defunct fountaine pen.

My point is that instrument construction has varied a lot more than
most of us realize, and may also have been influenced by left-hand
prejudice. It seems to cross a lot of cultural boundaries. Also,
pedagogy, performance seating, and instrument construction are all
made easier if there is a quasi-"standard." I am not arguing in favor of
this, I am just speculating about why things are the way they are.

I agree with your first point. There is no inherent advantage to
switching. In another thread a few months back, I cited a friend who is
a busy and successful piano teacher. She says the dominant hand is
ALWAYS harder to train because it has so many habits.

But if what we are talking about is brain hemisphere dominance, then I
think most of this argument needs to be tabled until someone can cite
some real brain science. There is a lot of research out there, but ah...
life is so short.

Bottom line: seems to be to me that if you practice a lot (4 hours a
day) for a long time (say seven or more years), you will be a great
bass player, no matter which hand you use to pluck, fret, pick, slap or
sign contracts.

All IMHO.

[Ian Hall]

I am a lefty playing right handed. In my opinion, this gives me both advantages and disadvantages.

From the beginning I have gotten complements regarding the speed and precision of my fretwork from respected teachers and peers, and I feel this is solely due to the use of my dominant hand on the fretboard.

On the other hand, I find that my timing and control on my rythm hand is lacking, I often am frustrated by clumsy feeling fingers. When I flip my bass over and play rythm with my left hand, I see exactly what right handed players are working with; the contrast between the two for me is vivid.

Nearly every person that has heard me play says I have a "different" style, which I believe is due to the way I learned to play. I am able to do some things much better than other players, while lacking severely in other areas where they excel easily.

These differences can be worked out by practice IMO. I unfortunately have hit a wall with my playing due to a non-operable injury in my left shoulder. The injury also prevents me from thinking about playing lefty... I would not be able to hold my arm in the proper position for more than a few minutes without pain.

[EADG mx]

Originally Posted by Jim Carr

I agree with your first point. There is no inherent advantage to
switching. In another thread a few months back, I cited a friend who is
a busy and successful piano teacher. She says the dominant hand is
ALWAYS harder to train because it has so many habits.


Bottom line: seems to be to me that if you practice a lot (4 hours a
day) for a long time (say seven or more years), you will be a great
bass player, no matter which hand you use to pluck, fret, pick, slap or
sign contracts.

All IMHO.

I am still not convinced that my dominant (left) hand would do better on the fretboard. Although I write with it, I have grown up in a predominantly right-handed world and have done so many things with my right hand (door handles, eating utensils, using the computer mouse).

I think that it's not what hand you write with, but how comfortable you feel holding the instrument. Before I even started, I knew I felt at least 10x more comfortable holding it the left handed way.

Sure, I agree that I could become a great bassist playing right handed if I played 4 hours a day. But I don't play 4 hours a day. I don't even play every day, and if I do usually only for under an hour. I think that starting right handed would have greatly impeding my learning.

[caswin]

I am l left-hand bassist.I tried to play right-handed in the beginning but it did not work.Maybe, my wrist was broken in the 1970.I felt awful to pluck the strings with my right-hand.Played for years right-hand bass upside down,until i bought my first left-hand bass.That was a real revelation for me ,i became faster when doing my scales.There was more power in my left-hand.Only moving computer mouse with my right hand.Hope manufacturers can make more lefthand basses for leftys.....(5,6 STRING AND FRETLESS).
Currently own a Warwick Rockbass( 4 String left-handed) and it gives much pleasure to play it.....LEFTHANDED.......FROM CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA......LEFTYS ROCK!!!!!!!

[lowenduser]

Originally Posted by Jim Carr

The left-handed warrior was considered sneaky and evil.

Hense the history of the word "sinister" - meaning "left handed"...

Anyway, I guess it's whatever is most comfortable for a musician. I've picked up lefty guitars and basses and could never get my head nor hands round them.

Isn't Mark Knoppler a lefty guitarist who plays right handed?

[volt9stormrider]

thanks for the responses... BTW, I'm a lefty that plays righty and the only reason I am a righty is because i started on upright bass where i was forced to play righty.

Now, right-handed playing seems natural for me but I always think about if i would've been better playing naturally with my left hand or not.

Sometimes, especially when I play guitar it seems that my right hand is clumsy and I cant pick/finger fast because of the lack of I think it's dexterity in my right hand. When I play bass I can never finger fast enough and can only use 2 fingers. As I already wrote, I am very clumsy with a pick and can barely pick single strings when doing anything that isn't a chord.

Sometimes i regret playing right-handed and I feel as if I would have so much more talent playing with my left hand. All in all, I'll never really know and I will always think of "what if?" and what would be different.