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Are you left-handed?

Are you left-handed?


  • Total voters
    556
Lefty playing Righty.

Made a conscious decision before I learned to play. Decided to play righty due to availability of right handed instruments (everywhere), plus left handed guitars and basses look... like a thalidomide baby.

can write, play sports, draw, play music, eat, drink, ambi.
 
I'm right-handed, also play righty. But, I do a lot of things "wrong". I have the wrong leg in front while snowboarding, jump with the wrong leg etc. Without playing instruments, writing and sports including a ball I'm doing almost everything like a lefty would do. Pretty weird really. Took a test last year or something, and I do 8 or 9 out of 10 things like a lefte would do.
 
Hi, I'm new, I hope I can last a day without getting in trouble:rollno:

T-minus 5-4-3-2-1...

I've had a theory/question for about a year now and I've hesitated voicing it because I get the feeling it won't go over well.

Here goes:

Why are righties/lefties called as such? Isn't the fretting hand clearly doing the more difficult task? Shouldn't that be the domain of the dominant hand?

If that is the case then are most stringed instrument players not actually playing left handed?

:hiding:

I have my own story of righty and leftiness, but I'll come back to it after.
 
XC077 said:
Hi, I'm new, I hope I can last a day without getting in trouble:rollno:

T-minus 5-4-3-2-1...

I've had a theory/question for about a year now and I've hesitated voicing it because I get the feeling it won't go over well.

Here goes:

Why are righties/lefties called as such? Isn't the fretting hand clearly doing the more difficult task? Shouldn't that be the domain of the dominant hand?

If that is the case then are most stringed instrument players not actually playing left handed?

:hiding:

I have my own story of righty and leftiness, but I'll come back to it after.

Before the electric age, most guitar was played flamenco, and not with a pick, and the strumming hand was doing a lot of complicated things. I'm left handed, but play right. Its just because I started playing my older brothers guitar when I was a kid, which was right handed.

Handedness is pretty dumb anyway. Even though I'm left dominant, I couldn't catch a baseball with my left hand, simply because I've caught thousands of baseballs with the glove on my right. If you were right handed but played left (like Robbie from Godsmack), but it just takes time and muscle memory.
 
Before the electric age, most guitar was played flamenco...

Actually as far as I know all the stringed instruments are played "left handed". So it can't be just because of flamenco. People tell me that the double bass is quite hard to finger and it was even worse hundreds of years ago when string technology was much more primitive. If you are right handed why would you not finger it with your stronger right hand?

Ken
 
Before the electric age, most guitar was played flamenco, and not with a pick, and the strumming hand was doing a lot of complicated things. I'm left handed, but play right. Its just because I started playing my older brothers guitar when I was a kid, which was right handed.

Handedness is pretty dumb anyway. Even though I'm left dominant, I couldn't catch a baseball with my left hand, simply because I've caught thousands of baseballs with the glove on my right. If you were right handed but played left (like Robbie from Godsmack), but it just takes time and muscle memory.

I respect the skill involved with finger picking, but if you had to make the call, which hand would you say is doing the more difficult role?

I'm also left dominant, but I was never assumed to be left handed. I learned how to write and draw with my right hand*. I was given a right hander's glove. That was probably before anyone saw me bat left handed(and kicked lefty and later bowled left). I think I caught and threw that way until years later when someone pointed out that I had switched. I hadn't realized it on my own.

*Writing is not like all of these other acts, where they are essentially mirror images. Left and right hand writing are two completely different acts.

I played Bass right handed because that was available to me. After 2 years I switched because I realized that I could make my own instruments. That was over 20yrs ago.

It was a real chore to re learn. I think some things are just hard no matter what. You could probably play any way you want if you were just willing and motivated. Didn't everyone have to struggle up the learning curve anyway?
 
I'm ambidextrious in a weird way. I write and throw right-handed, bat right-handed, placekick right-footed, punt left-footed, shoot basketball left-handed, open jars and bottles left-handed, when I used to skateboard I skated goofy-footed (pushing with the left foot), I can raise my left eyebrow by itself but not my right, when playing woodwind instruments my left-hand has better control, and I play stringed insruments right-handed, but I definitely believe my fretting left hand to be the stronger and have more dexterity than my right.
 
I'm left-handed, but started out playing a right-handed guitar upside down, borowing instruments from friends. Very frustrating way to play guitar IMO and switched to bass where this was easier...probably would have been a guitarist had I done things right from the start.

Early on I tried out a fellow lefty's bass, but was already too far along in my upside-down technique but not far along in overall dexterity to consider switching. That came 8-9 years later when I realized my fingers were in the wrong (upside down) position for popping/slapping--took a leap of faith, bought a left-handed bass, and made the switch with a lot less fuss than I had anticipated.
 
There's something I ought to tell you. I'm not left handed either.

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(Actually, I am though. I just play righty.)