How's your handwriting? How does it compare to your bass playing?

[31HZ]

I was wondering about this correlation, for the first time ever, this very morning.

Sheesh.

 

[jmlee]

As I've grown older my handwriting has become a duplicate of my father's handwriting. He couldn't play bass.

 

[kmon]

Writing and playing both suck. It's about consistency.

 

[Killing Floor]

Picture a freshly boiled pot of spaghetti still in the colander.
Now use your imagination. Consider the pasta pile is actually words, spelled out with decent grammar. And that only you can read it.
That’s my handwriting.

Not a helpful description? Let me say it this way, I earned a BS in mechanical engineering, AoC stress analysis. The most difficult class (including minors in both math and English) was hand drafting. I did just fine in linear algebra and differential equations. Did fine with matrix algebra. Just fine with technical writing and ethics. But drawing shapes with a pencil was holy terror.

 

[red_rhino]

My mom (@89) has flawless writing. Took a letter to the PO over the Holidays...the worker there could not read it. So, now we're illiterate? Nice, good job.

I only write in cursive when I want to "encrypt" something so my under 30 y/o co-workers can't read it.

My mom used to write things down in shorthand when she didn't want any of us to read it. That worked great, until my sister took a shorthand class in Jr. High. She also got pretty good at forging my mom's signature on paperwork sent home from school, doctor's notes, field trips, etc. When my mom caught her at it, she gave her helpful critique, saying "If you're going to forge my signature, don't embarrass me with bad penmanship."

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

My handwriting is often fine and very legible, if a little casual. Occasionally it's way out there with random lines being way too long, circles unclosed, everything at the wrong angle. Usually it's somewhere in between. Basically, I can be good, but when I set pen to paper I never actually know what's going to come out, or how my hands will play along this time.

My bass playing is the same. Often fine, occasionally lousy, usually decent with some "what was that?" mistake moments where my hands just do something wacky. Still working on motor skills and such, I dunno.

Started wondering whether you folks have similar patterns? Like flawless elegance in your handwriting and your playing, or aggressively sloppy playing and writing, or whatever?

Same. Handwriting is terrible, but anyone can read it. Bass playing is terrible, but anyone can hear it.

 

[Thumpin6string]

My hand writing is exactly like my bass playing. It sucks.

 

[MichelD]

Sloppy writing.

Simple but more precise playing than my writing will ever be.

 

[Todd Hamby]

My penmanship is far superior than my bass playing

 

[teh-slb]

otoh, my printed/block script handwriting -- which frankly is pretty much the only handwriting I've done since that disastrous experience in elementary school -- has a unique quality that several people over the course of my adult life have commented on: It is neither textbook "correct" nor even typical...but it is extremely legible.

Your username totally fits the content of the post, especially the last bit Bad jokes aside, my father is an engineer from the times when they hand-drew their drafts and plans. His block writing almost has an artificial quality to it from years of drawing letters and numbers rather than writing them.

I consider my handwriting poor; penmanship was out of the school curriculum by the time I went to school. My playing is average at best. I do sometimes get compliments on both, though.

 

[BishopHastur]

My handwriting is barely legible, and my playing is barely tolerable.

 

[Mili]

I don't have a handwriting because I don't write, I paint the letters! so every word comes unique!

 

[707GK]

Both my handwriting and bass playing are neat and tidy, very legible, not flashy. I tend to write in all caps sans-serif for legibility. I tend to play in the pocket with a nice warm compressed tone.

 

[Hummergeist]

Another lefty-forced-righty here. My handwriting has always been terrible so I learned to type as soon as I could, and I’ve never looked back. I play bass righty, and only in the last year (after decades of struggling) does it feel like I understand the fingerboard.

 

[swink]

My natural handwriting looks like a barbed wire fence. I get compliments on it regularly.
But for the majority it remains illegible.
To make it legible, I have to force myself and the result is an inconsistent writing that points in all directions.

For my bass playing, it's pretty much the same thing. If I can do my own thing everything goes smoothly. If I'm forced into playing something a certain way.... then it doesn't.

 

[equill]

My handwriting is a source of pride, though it was an embarrassment for a few years until I decided to fix it.
I was taught Spencerian cursive in school and, as others have found, it's great for obfuscating my notes so that under-30s can't read it. They consistently agree that it's very pretty, but completely illegible to them. Now that I know why it was developed, it makes sense that it's no longer taught in school.
My "printed" handwriting (I don't even know what the kids call non-cursive writing) is clearly understandable, neat, angular, and a little stylised. I use italic/chancery cursive for contrast, and it's similar in spirit. To cross the streams with another thread, it's converging on my idea of elegance.

My bass playing is... less of a source of pride, though I aim for similar characteristics to my printed script. I just have no ambition to develop a 4-stringed equivalent to Spencerian, which pretty much rules out anything resembling modern jazz
All I need to do is invest as much time and effort into my playing as I have in my writing, and in about 40 years I should be unstoppable.

 

[Sgtpepper89]

My handwriting is so bad that im almost weekly called out/mocked for it at work and sometimes I cant even read it myself if I dont put some effort in it lol. I think its mainly a problem due to my brain working faster with what I want to write than my hands can handle so I do some stressed up writing to get everything down.

When I was a child I was very good at writing in (I think its called) cursive/script/connected oldschool style but sadly its not the standard.

I think my bass playing is much more polished aslong I contain myself from noodling.

I guess I should just stop drinking coffe to solve my issues.. =)

 

[dangevans]

My bass playing is much better than my handwriting, no lie.

 

[bobba66]

I had a mild stroke years ago and it really screwed up my handwriting. I wasn't playing much bass at the time, don't remember if that was affected or not.

 

[lomo]

My handwriting is neat but I had to roughen it up a bit and make it harder to read, otherwise they might have failed me out of med school.......perhaps I can use that as an excuse for my mediocre (on a good day) bass skills?