Music Go Round.......

[SuperFineLin9]

Well I was on their website today, in their bass section they had a FAQ, I had to click it just to see what I would find
Does this send any SCREAMING bright red flags off or is it just me?

"Q: I am a beginner and I am left-handed. Should I play a left-handed guitar?
A: Not necessarily! There are two reasons we suggest that beginners start on a
right -handed guitar:
• When learning to play guitar, your “Fret” hand is typically the more
“challenged” hand as it requires the fingers to move independently of
each other. Playing a guitar Right-Handed, your fret hand is your
left…which will be advantageous to the Left Handed individual
• There is a very limited amount of Guitars made in Left-Handed
versions. They also cost up to 15% more than a right-handed model.
Your selection will be very limited and the guitar WILL cost more.
Of course, the final decision is always with the player, but our educators also
support our recommendations."

Now I have always been taught that your picking had should always be your main hand so that you dont have to focus on it as much, so you can focus on your off hand and the fretting. My instructor for years told me that he had a left handed student that played right and eventually he got to a point where he couldn't get any better, like a massive wall. My instructor suggested to get a left handed bass, in a few months of practice (kid had been playing for 2 years) he was better than he was playing backwards.
maybe its just me but I feel like sending an email....

[superbassman2000]

as a lefty who plays a right handed bass, I have to agree with MGR on this one

i guess my reasoning is that both hands require a certain amount of dexterity, so it is just a matter of just picking a bass and developing that way. Heck, I can give you names of famous right handed players, leftys playing right handed, leftys playing left handed, and leftys playing right handed upside down...i really think that the righty/lefty thing is more of a mental barrier than a physical one

[ThaLowEndTheory]

Originally Posted by superbassman2000

as a lefty who plays a right handed bass, I have to agree with MGR on this one

i guess my reasoning is that both hands require a certain amount of dexterity, so it is just a matter of just picking a bass and developing that way. Heck, I can give you names of famous right handed players, leftys playing right handed, leftys playing left handed, and leftys playing right handed upside down...i really think that the righty/lefty thing is more of a mental barrier than a physical one

Yea, I know plenty of lefties who play right. Some made the choice to learn right due to the lack of selection of instruments as mentioned. There's just not alot of love for lefties out there.

[IbanezATK]

Originally Posted by SuperFineLin9

Well I was on their website today, in their bass section they had a FAQ, I had to click it just to see what I would find
Does this send any SCREAMING bright red flags off or is it just me?

"Q: I am a beginner and I am left-handed. Should I play a left-handed guitar?
A: Not necessarily! There are two reasons we suggest that beginners start on a
right -handed guitar:
• When learning to play guitar, your “Fret” hand is typically the more
“challenged” hand as it requires the fingers to move independently of
each other. Playing a guitar Right-Handed, your fret hand is your
left…which will be advantageous to the Left Handed individual
• There is a very limited amount of Guitars made in Left-Handed
versions. They also cost up to 15% more than a right-handed model.
Your selection will be very limited and the guitar WILL cost more.
Of course, the final decision is always with the player, but our educators also
support our recommendations."

Now I have always been taught that your picking had should always be your main hand so that you dont have to focus on it as much, so you can focus on your off hand and the fretting. My instructor for years told me that he had a left handed student that played right and eventually he got to a point where he couldn't get any better, like a massive wall. My instructor suggested to get a left handed bass, in a few months of practice (kid had been playing for 2 years) he was better than he was playing backwards.
maybe its just me but I feel like sending an email....

I've always heard that it's an advantage to have your "strong" hand on the fretboard... that would mean a left handed person playing "right handed."

I'm right handed, but after years of playing guitar and bass my left hand is much stronger, more flexible, etc.

Who knows?

I've noticed that when kids grab an instrument they put their "strong" hand on the fretboard.

[IbanezATK]

I've never thought of my right hand technique on guitar or bass for what it's worth, I "discovered" economy and circle picking on my own playing guitar, and playing bass with fingers or a pick just comes naturally as well. I was shocked when I learned that my picking was an "advanced" technique on guitar lol.

[jordie65]

im a lefty who plays a left handed bass. i've thought about this alot over the years and i personally feel like for me most of the nuance and expression in my playing comes from minute changes in the plucking fingers of my left hand. i only play fretted bass so i cant comment on fretless playing but IMO my right hand sort of does the grunt work of pushing this string here sliding up this string there while my left hand is used to create "my sound"

[Slax]

Originally Posted by jordie65

im a lefty who plays a left handed bass. i've thought about this alot over the years and i personally feel like for me most of the nuance and expression in my playing comes from minute changes in the plucking fingers of my left hand. i only play fretted bass so i cant comment on fretless playing but IMO my right hand sort of does the grunt work of pushing this string here sliding up this string there while my left hand is used to create "my sound"

+1 I'm your opposite, a lefty playing righty. I'd say I had to work double on my right hand technique than my left hand technique and when that's you're rhythm and attack, it's hard to "fake" through. (Left hand, fretting hand, sort of came way more natural).

I started playing righty in the beginning because I didn't even know there was a such thing as a left handed bass. (I didn't know much about playing when I started at 14. )

These days I can look back and say I'm comfortable in playing righty as a lefty and have no plans of switching (I've been playing this way for 10 years now) but am still curious as to how it would have been if I played lefty. I'm sure my style and sound would have been very different.

</ramble>

[jordie65]

Originally Posted by Slax

+1 I'm your opposite, a lefty playing righty. I'd say I had to work double on my right hand technique than my left hand technique and when that's you're rhythm and attack, it's hard to "fake" through. (Left hand, fretting hand, sort of came way more natural).

I started playing righty in the beginning because I didn't even know there was a such thing as a left handed bass. (I didn't know much about playing when I started at 14. )

These days I can look back and say I'm comfortable in playing righty as a lefty and have no plans of switching (I've been playing this way for 10 years now) but am still curious as to how it would have been if I played lefty. I'm sure my style and sound would have been very different.

</ramble>

i can understand what you are saying there about having to work harder on your right hand technique. when i first went to music stores to look at basses (my previous musical experience was with piano and trumpet) i had right handed basses pushed on me by salesmen insisting i didnt want to learn as a lefty. i found, even with no experience playing a stringed instrument that when i played lefty i was able to get notes out much more convincingly and i didnt sounds so..awkward..even just playing scales up one string, which was the extent of what i could do on bass at the time.

[bassbenj]

Originally Posted by Slax

I started playing righty in the beginning because I didn't even know there was a such thing as a left handed bass. (I didn't know much about playing when I started at 14. )

These days I can look back and say I'm comfortable in playing righty as a lefty and have no plans of switching (I've been playing this way for 10 years now) but am still curious as to how it would have been if I played lefty. I'm sure my style and sound would have been very different.
</ramble>

I'm a righty playing righty. So why do I even care? Well when learning bass it seemed to me that I'd have had an easier time if my left hand were the plucking hand and I wondered who was the guy that decided that your left hand was the fretting hand.

But then I sort of forgot about the issue until I got my first computer with a mouse. The arrangement of things was such that there was only room for a mouse on the left side. I figured, hey, I don't know how to run a mouse yet so why not just learn with it over there. And I did. Being my weak hand it was a bit of a struggle but you just practice and pretty soon it's no problem. A friend of mine who is lefty actually did the same thing for the same reason only reversed. He was the winner, though, as all left handed mice seem to have disappeared! He gets to use an nice right handed mouse and I have to use something built for the right hand with the buttons reversed. Feh. [and yes, I'm actually sitting here running my mouse with my left hand...do games that way too.]

But here's the interesting thing I found. Developing my weak hand somehow develops your weak side in the brain! I found that I was able to do MANY things much more ambidextrously. This was particularly of interest in my drumbing. You may not know this but many drummers only do their licks starting with a given hand. The idea of course is to be able to be able to reverse them at will starting with either hand. So given the mouse thing and noticing how much easier starting left was, I began practicing doing all fills starting left and starting right. And then THAT carried over into bass playing where I found that the balance between fretting and plucking hands was very much improved by all this.

So where I'm going here is to develop my theory that a lefty playing righty is actually a good thing as far as your playing is concerned. Of course for me to take advantage of this theory then I'd have to get lefty basses. Well, the total lack of such basses makes that a bad idea for me, but the fact that the majority of basses sold are righty seems to indicate that for a lefty there are several advantages to playing a righty bass.

At least that's my story.

[steelhead2]

yalp eht rehto yaw ll'i eb elba ot ylautca yalp eseht sgniht!


,,man! how'd i do that?,must be the Iron Maiden`as high as she'll go'(headphones),the translation is sdrawckab,,double backwards really,yeah make it another double,i'm up WAYYYYY! to late=goodnight

[BassicJohn]

I used to think that the so called right hand bass was really a left hand bass. But, you need both hands fairly equally to play well. So I don't really think there is such a thing as a right or left handed bass. There are just two different directions that the headstock can point. You need to use both hands well with either. So I agree with MGR's advice.

[Engine207]

My first bass teacher, Guy Tardo, told my dad that as a lefty and new student, I'd be better off playing righty. I'm even old enough that my elementary school teachers re-trained me to write righty.

At first I objected to playing lefty, because being lefty is part of my identity, and I didn't want to. Over the years, though, I've found that listening to Guy has been a good thing. After getting used to holding the bass the opposite of what felt natural, I was completely comfortable in no time. Plus, finding the bass you want in a lefty is no easy feat...

[your idol]

steve millers bassist played right handed basses STRUNG FOR RIGHTYS left handed upside down...thats right D G A E to him. it shows ya its all how ya learn

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Originally Posted by SuperFineLin9

My instructor for years told me that he had a left handed student that played right and eventually he got to a point where he couldn't get any better, like a massive wall.

That's complete BS right there- if the student hit a wall, it had NOTHING to do with his playing right-handed. There are musicians who are forced to play with the wrong-handed instrument, with only one hand after an accident, etc. Any lack of improvement was due to the student's willingness to improve, and the fact that the instructor backed this theory up goes to show that he was also a hindrance on that player's improvement.

Off to Technique.

[pbd]

I'm one of those lefties that play right, it what was in the house when I wanted to learn the play. I'm pretty good with my right hand though, can do just about anything both ways

Todd

[Danny Fox]

Originally Posted by Bryan R. Tyler

That's complete BS right there- if the student hit a wall, it had NOTHING to do with his playing right-handed. There are musicians who are forced to play with the wrong-handed instrument, with only one hand after an accident, etc. Any lack of improvement was due to the student's willingness to improve, and the fact that the instructor backed this theory up goes to show that he was also a hindrance on that player's improvement.

Off to Technique.

Bryan is totally spot on there, couldn't agree more!

[Kenner]

http://musicscene.org/forums/p/58358/282863.aspx#282863

read this............

[EagleMoon]

I wouldn't think it would make any difference. It's all in how you learn.

[Headless Llama]

Although I'm right handed, and play right handed instruments. I have really never understood why you would want your dominant hand picking. It would make sense to me that you would want your dominant hand in the fretting position.

I should get a left handed bass so I can try this out.

[INTP]

I have two "left handed" people in my family, and they're both much more ambidextrous than I am. They do lots of things right handed, in fact. I say "not necessarily" is not so controversial.