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Lefties playing Right?

#21
I'm right-handed-- somewhere along the line, 1976 or 77 if I recall, I came into a left-handed P Bass with a sexy transparent-red finish-- so I stuck a string button on the offhand bout and played it right-handed, but strung backwards from a right-hand perspective-- it was different, but worked okay and started me thinking "outside my usual box." . Then one night we were about to play a Beatles tune, pretty basic stuff and there was no one in the room anyway, so I flipped it around and tried playing it left-handed. It went okay, if haltingly, but didn't seem to present any problems that couldn't be overcome with practice, so I worked on it and was getting passable after about two years, and then some lowlife bastard stole the bass. I've looked ever since for another left-handed Precision to play with, but have never found the right deal/bass. Too old and set in my ways now, but you should have seen the looks on my bandmates' faces-- "I didn't know you could do that--" "Neither did I--" And dammit, someday I will build a Precision out of mahogany and put a cherry SG finish on it, just to scratch the itch--
 
#22
Very interesting.. I can't imagine my self doing that. I have guitar player friend who's lefty but he plays right handed guitars lefty. in other words the strings are backwards.. he's pretty good too.
 
#23
I'm a 20/80 left handed person...I write with my left and eat/cut food lefty, but everything else, like sports etc I am a righty...my Gr 8 ukulele treacher knew I was a left handed writer, but said I should play right, because as a lefty your finger dexterity would be better for chording....

and it always seems weird to me that my kids and friends who are right handed play hockey left handed (often/mostly?) but golf or play baseball right handed
 
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#24
Count another lefty-who-plays righty into this club. I learned to play in college by picking up other people's instruments -- but although it does provide an advantage at first (when fretting is the biggest challenge) I think it has held me back overall.

Although I've been working hard of late to improve my plucking-hand technique, I frequently feel that playing backwards makes driving the rhythm more difficult.

Do you tap your left or right foot when you practice? Do you feel that your left hand drives the rhythm more than your plucking hand? How have you developed your ability to keep time?
 
#25
Playing with strings "upside down" may well be a way of coming up with some original ideas you'd not otherwise have thought of.
I seem to recall many years ago a bass player in a well known ish band that played with the strings the "wrong way" round. And before you ask, no, he wasn't Irish.!
 
#29
I think sinister folk (what they used to call left handed people, of which I am one) look at every day objects in life differently. Door knobs turn the opposite way of what is ergonomic, hoses coil backwards, valves twist "the wrong way" etc... After trying to adapt (turning everything around in their head before acting) and finding that it puts undue stress on hands/feet/brain lefty's start using their right hands for everyday tasks. This makes it easier to adapt to right handed musical instruments but not necessarily have to adapt to right handed ways of thinking when approaching the instrument. I play "orthodox" on stringed instruments ( except piano ; which of course we all have special "left handed ones" custom built for us :smug::smug::smug: )
 
#30
I'm lefty but play righty. I started playing bass after fooling around on my dad's (right-handed) acoustic guitar, so when I started playing bass it was just easier to play right handed. I tried a left handed guitar a little while ago, and it's the most uncomfortable thing I've ever played, lol. If it means anything, I still air guitar left handed though. :P
 
#31
Capt O Flaherty said:
Playing with strings "upside down" may well be a way of coming up with some original ideas you'd not otherwise have thought of.
I seem to recall many years ago a bass player in a well known ish band that played with the strings the "wrong way" round. And before you ask, no, he wasn't Irish.!
Click to expand...
I saw a bass player on Monday night who is a righty playing lefty upside down.
 
#32
Yeah, lefty playing the right (wrong) way here as well. It all started when I was a kid and went to violin practice. There was no way in hell the teacher was going to let me play lefty. "How do you think that would look in an orchestra?!".

Anyway, it can be an advantage to approach the instrument differently to most people, but I can't help but think that guitars, violins, etc. are made the way they are, with the right hand doing one thing and the left another, for a reason. Thus, I often wonder if I would be better playing the true left handed way. For instance, I can't play with a pick to save my life. I'm trying to learn arco style bass, but playing fast passages with the bow eludes me, as of now at least. Maybe it is just an excuse, though...
 
#33
My son is left-handed, but plays bass and guitar right-handed. That might have something to do with the fact that all the stuff around here was always right-handed, but he never had a dexterity issue fingering a trumpet with his right hand when he started in the 6th grade.
 
#34
Eddie Mooney , the Fortunes !
2870650_orig.jpg
 
#35
mcarp555 said:
Don't fall into the incorrect assumption that all instruments are "naturally"configured right-handed. Many don't require the same level of dexterity that a guitar or bass does. When this discussion comes up, a common statement is "you don't see left-handed pianos, do you?". No. Nor do I see "right-handed" ones.
Click to expand...

B-Mac said:
Also, have you ever seen a left handed piano?
Click to expand...

:rollno:
 
#36
I wanted to play bass as I was watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan
Well my mom being a single parent of 4 there was not a lot of extra money and left hand basses were scarce and pricy.
As it was my best friends brother-in-law sold me a Sears silvertone bass and amp for $75.00 which was a entire weeks pay for my mom
On the plus side I now can pick up any bass anywhere and play it
Cons
Only one
I am not good with a pick but don’t care
Duke
 
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#37
mcarp555 said:
:rollno:
Click to expand...
Actually, for all intents and purposes a piano is a right handed instrument such that the high notes are on the right (treble clef) and the low notes are on the left (bass clef). This is because treble clef is always the lead or melody which almost always requires more dexterity than the low notes or rhythm....of course this varies with the piece of music though, but....

If the piano were invented by a left hander I surmise that it would have been made exactly opposite like this:
Invalid Link Removed
I have now seen a left handed piano (and so have you if you clicked on the link). It is made so that a left hander who has better dexterity with his left hand can actually use it to his or her advantage for the treble clef rather than bass clef.

Wonders will never cease!
 
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