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Lefties why didn't you start playing a righty?

#261
as a lefty who plays bass right handed...
there is no set predisposition, but its just what feels comfortable. if i were to take a left handed bass in hand, i would feel completly distraught. its just a feeling thing. and besides, doesnt it make more sence for a lefty to play a bass "right handed"? because then the dominate hand is doing the fretting... and vice versa!?
 
#263
I apologise to anyone here whom I may have offended. My medication may have been getting to me that day or something? My point was only in reference to the dominant hand of a person. Thats why I used the football catching and throwing for an example. My apologies to the TB'ers and to the staff.

Sincerly, SGT. Pepper. :)
 
#264
john turner said:
as far as circular reasoning about the design of the instrument, i take issue with that comment. sure, the instrument -evolved- and wasn't invented out of thin air, but it evolved along specific lines built in part around the limitations and abilities of the individuals playing it. the instrument (be it lute, guitar or whatever) wasn't created in a vacuum. there's a reason why there are very few -left hand plucked- classical guitars, namely because there were very few left handed players.
Click to expand...

There were few or no left handed players because it was considered wrong, unnatural or even 'evil' (sinister) to be left hand dominant, dating back in the west to at least the classical era. So extremely widespread and accepted were these prejudices that writing left handed in schools in N. America and Europe was discouraged until only
40 years ago and less.

Many artifacts of these beliefs survive to this day in language, symbolism, and metaphors that are still used daily.
 
#265
Naturally lefty instruments wouldn't exist without a sufficient marketplace.
As usual, playing preference comes down to the individual.
I'm a lefty who plays right handed. I started pretty young (guitar first 6 months). I just assumed they all got played the same way.
For me it seems better(especially on upright). It seems more dexterity is required from the neck hand.
And don't discount
"PINKY STRENGTH".​

Quick question: How many lefties out ther are using their mouse with their left hand? (kind of a similar issue).
 
#267
bird_man022 said:
as a lefty who plays bass right handed...
there is no set predisposition, but its just what feels comfortable. if i were to take a left handed bass in hand, i would feel completly distraught. its just a feeling thing. and besides, doesnt it make more sence for a lefty to play a bass "right handed"? because then the dominate hand is doing the fretting... and vice versa!?
Click to expand...

I started out playing bass thinking the same way, that it was advantageous for me that my 'dominant' hand was my fretting hand...

...until I got into Rocco Prestia and T.O.P. It really depends on what you're playing. I still think it's not much of an advantage/disadvantage either way, in the end at least.
 
#268
Todd Stanley said:
Sorry but that's not cost of material and tools, that's someone writing a program for it, which isn't all that hard. Especially if there's a right handed version and they just have to mirror it. A days worth of work perhaps, and once it's a proven program it's there to use whenever you want, especially if all the tools are in the machine for the original job you wouldn't even have to do a setup. $2100 US is some company making a lot of money off a program haha.
Click to expand...

Bzzzzzt. Not quite. This is the cost to cut a few mock up bodies by hand, decide which one is right, then route some CNC plates. This isn't a CAD experiment. Since this is a chambered bass, he must also make adjustments to the hollow chambers, then design a bridge, and a neck. I'd hate to hear how much it would cost if I needed specifically machined metal parts.

Obviously, this is doable, but cost prohibitive for me.
 
#269
TylerlovesAva said:
...until I got into Rocco Prestia and T.O.P. It really depends on what you're playing. I still think it's not much of an advantage/disadvantage either way, in the end at least.
Click to expand...

Very wise. I'm a righty and there would be TONS I couldn't play without a right handed bass, even if all my experience had been on a lefty bass. Personally, and this is very subjective but true for me at this point in my playing, right hand technique is more important because that hand has much more control on the tone coming out than the fretting hand.
 
#270
Me, I'm right handed and use a track ball mouse with my left, due to being married to a lefty who insisted on keeping the mouse on the left. Now, 9 years later, it's totally natural to use either hand...but a using track ball mouse is not exactly a demanding task.

A better example, where fine motor control is involved, is calligraphy. This style of lettering is based on using an implement (quill or pen) with a wide, thin tip, which is held at an angle so that lines made with an upstroke are thin, and those made with a downstroke are thick.

If you look at older fonts ( like this one) you'll see that they consistently follow the pattern I described. Of course, there are exceptions, as always, but look at a medieval manuscript and you will see that the scribe was lettering with the quill in his right hand.

This became so standard that the opposite (thick upstrokes and thin downstrokes) looks definitely alien.

As it happens, I have taught calligraphy to both right and left hand dominant persons. In my experience, the lefties were able to emulate the appearance of right hand calligraphy by turning the paper 90 degrees clockwise, and lettering with the pen in the left hand, proceeding vertically down the paper toward their body.

I'm with Mr Turner on this issue.
 
#271
DemoEtc said:
RE: this thread

absurd, aimless, fruitless, futile, going nowhere*, impotent, inane, inconsequential, ineffective, ineffectual, insignificant, irrelevant, meaningless, nongermane, nonsensical, not pertinent, on treadmill*, powerless, purportless, remote, senseless, silly, stupid, trivial, unavailing, uninteresting, unnecessary, unproductive, unprofitable, useless, vague, vain, worthless
Click to expand...

Agree.... and got lost half way through it. Why not make everyone play left handed? It's only a few muscles. blah blah blah
 
#273
KenToby said:
I'll try to be a bit more clear. In America as beginners we all learn to drive on the left side of the car; with a manual transmission we all shift with the right hand.
Click to expand...

Ah but that's to do with the space within the car, you can't manage to fit in a gearstick between the seat and the door for duality choice. In America you change gear with your right hand, yet in Britiain it's the left hand that is used for the gear stick. It is to do with simply whatever side is picked to drive on.

And to be honest the british system seems to make more sense to me, although I'm a leftie ( and for the record I play my bass right handed but do all my sports and write etc as a leftie) I can accept that many things should be designed for aright handed person since they are the majority... for now :P. When you use your left hand to change gear that means that generaly the stronger hand is always on the steering wheel in theory. Wheras in America and other countries the stronger hand is taken off the wheel to change gear.

Just a point I thought I'd share with you folk
 
#274
Being left-handed in most things, with the exception of guitar. I feel very lucky as I can shop the used market & not be confined to the minority of instruments.

On the other hand -- here are few things that I've noticed over the years.

Pencils -- lefties drag thru that pencil dust & turn in a gray paper, and have a gray hand. In the beginning my teachers wanted to take off points due to a 'sloppy' paper. Then I became a pen-snob, always buying a super-fine/FAST drying ink pen.

Desks -- especially in college, they are all those tiny half desks made for right-handed people. Having sat in very few of the tiny desks made for lefties --- I GUARANTEE that those were not made by a lefty.

Restaruants -- I always go for the outside corner, where my left hand is in the isle. A left arm trying to eat beside a right arm... well, that can be tricky & messy.

I think the whole reason to have 'handed' guitars is due to comfort. Otherwise we'd all be playing a standard NON-cutaway version of the very first acoustic guitars. Basses would just be bigger -- much like a double-bass. Here come thinner bodies, pickups, cutaways, etc.... why limit that comfort to only the righties??

You never know what it's like, until you've been in that person's shoes before.
 
#279
KenToby said:
Many beginners often ask weather a particular bass is available in a left handed model. My responce has always been, what difference does it make since you have never plaued before and therefore have not developed a preference for either a left or right instrument.

My question is why do they offer a "Left handed" bass??
There are no left handed keyboards or violins os horns, etc.

I don't understand why anyone with no bass playing experience would go into bass playing looking for a left handed instrument.

Any Ideas??

Thanks,
Click to expand...

as said, many lefty persons naturally turn the bass upside down, because it feels right. i am a left handed, but i play basses made for right handed people. it is smart to try playing the right way, because when you are going to look on basses, it can be found hard to find "your bass" in left-handed version!

it is a good reason, and why is it wrong to start playing what feels right?

I have seen left handed violins! I have seen horns for left handed people! ...How would a left-handed keyboard look like?....ummm..... you cant make a keyboard left handy! you could turn the scale around, but wouldn't make any sense. :smug:
 
#280
RLK said:
Naturally lefty instruments wouldn't exist without a sufficient marketplace.
As usual, playing preference comes down to the individual.
I'm a lefty who plays right handed. I started pretty young (guitar first 6 months). I just assumed they all got played the same way.
For me it seems better(especially on upright). It seems more dexterity is required from the neck hand.
And don't discount
"PINKY STRENGTH".​

Quick question: How many lefties out ther are using their mouse with their left hand? (kind of a similar issue).
Click to expand...

i am left handed. When i was younger i used my computer mouse in my left hand, but when i got older and realized that the mouses was made for use by your right hand, I switched over to that. and it is now the most granted thing!
and the same would be for left handed guitar players. But i wouldn't say that the left handed instruments offers should be stopped.

really, does it matter that it is both right handed basses and left handed basses on the instrument market at the same time?
it looks like someone on this thread are thinking so! :hmm:
 

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