Lefties why didn't you start playing a righty?

[Kelly Lee]

...we can all be easily taught to play either way L or R; there is no predisposition.

Really?

 

[Poop-Loops]

I appreciate the side track history lesson however my point is that starting with a clean slate, we can all be easily taught to play either way L or R; there is no predisposition.

By the way, both my mother and sister are Leftys. Matter of fact mom plays piano with the low notes on the left, imagine that

Thanks,

KT

Wrong. There is predisposition to be either right or left handed. It's hard wired into most of our brains (I'm fairly ambidextrious. ). Most people have a dominant side of their body.

 

[KenToby]

When approached by an experienced "left instrument" student I would NEVER suggest that they turn 180 and adapt to a "right instrument". This recommendation is reserved for ZERO experience students based on instrument choice only. It's a fact that left players are forced to compromise A LOT more when it comes to instrument choice.

Please identify just ONE world class symphonic "left instrument" violinist... just one.

Like the great Phil Collins, you'll find "Left instrument" players in popular music 24/7 no problem. I bet Phil could have learned to play right handed if he had no choice - and we as listeners probably would me none the wiser today.

I'm going to sleep now. Thanks for the entertainment!





QUOTE=west*coast*bass;4259875]And I will still respectfully disagree with you.

Just because you have no idea what a headstock is prior to picking up an instrument it does not mean that a persons brain is not predisposed to sense that something will be wrong with the "standard" design.

Any person can walk up to an upright bass, stand on the left side and still play the bass...the bass can be strung either way. This goes for any classical stringed instrument. We may not know that there are left handed players out there but there could be...and no, I have not seen any but that does not mean that there aren't any.

What about the drummer who sets up his kit to be left hand dominant? I believe Phil Collins plays this way.

In your OP you wrote this... "I personally recommend all my novice students choose a "Right" handed instrument". Now, you stated above that you think there should absolutely be left handed instruments though you discourage your new students from playing them...why is this?[/QUOTE]

 

[lefty_400]

If someone said: 'You have 1 year to learn to play your righty for a million dollars' you could probably fake your way into the money. Hell I know I could, but then again maybe that is from all those years of avoiding all those budget leftys in the stores and playing upside down in order to play high end basses!

I suppose with double effort at righty I could achieve near results of lefty, but why would I want to work twice as hard for the same result?

People that lose a hand have been known to learn to write with the remaining less dominate hand. Anything is possible, its all about determining the path of least resistance.

 

[meanjohn]

I would think the question is why are there any right handed basses? When we start playing we don't really have a preference yet anyway !

 

[T-Bird]

Hi, all

I've accused people several time of sleeping through the sience/physics classes, but this tops it all by a mile.

This isn't the late 30's in Germany, or commie-paranoid USA (pick your favourite time-period ) because leftie=commie, now is it? We live in an era where the educational system should tell us, among other things, why someone is left-handed, right-handed, or something in between.

The answer lies in the way our brain processes the data and our motoric skills. People of all ages have been, and still are, forced to fight against those impulses by forcing them to be right-handed by the pressure from the all knowing society. That, according to numerous studies, creates all kinds of problems.

Why on earth should a left-handed person struggle or feel unconfortable with a right-handed instrument, if that doesn't feel natural?

Are we righties just a little bit jealous about the general assumption that lefties tend to be a bit more artistic?

Just my 0.02€
Sam

 

[OldG]

Great post,T-Bird,

I come from a generation where I had to fight hard as a youngster to stop the 'Wallesque' type teachers from forcing me to use my right hand, and make me conform just to make life easier for them.... I wanted to do my shizz in a natural, comfortable way - so Lefty it was.... and still is.

My rhythm comes naturally outta my left hand and thats just the way it is, Any teachers reading this please, please, let your students choose without prejudice... you could be messin' with their future!

 

[PilbaraBass]

Uhhhh, because they're left-handed?

ummmm...welll....I'm left handed....

I throw left, bat left (or right)...play golf right...shoot right...play drums right...play bass and guitar right...use scissors right...eat left...use a hammer left...use a bow right...

I'M SO CONFUSED....lol

 

[synaesthesia]

There are no left handed keyboards or violins os horns, etc.
,

All the above exist. There are probably more left handed violins, for the same reason why there are left handed string instruments with different hand functions. But very very few keys or horns. I have even seen software that will reverse the keys on the MIDI keyboard in mirror image. Also, see: http://www.lefthandedpiano.co.uk/

For keys you could argue that it is dual handed instrument, whilst you could also argue that the bass (left hand) may be less demanding in dexterous terms for simple pop music, this isn't true in classical music. Both hands have similar fingering motions.

A horn is not a particularly handed instrument, both hands perform similar fingering motions.

There are lefty drummers, and though there is similarlity of hand motion, there is a lead hand in sticking. If you don't believe me, try this triplet paradiddle version in different handings RR LL R L RR LL R L etc.. then try LL RR LR LL RR LR etc

With string instruments, violins included, the handedess is different, i.e. the hands do different things. And you end up with a master hand.

Don't believe that for many people a master hand exist? Pick up a hammer and nail, naturally. Swap hands for hammer and nail. Now raise that hammer a good 3' away from the nail and bang that nail down in one swift clean motion. {disclaimer: I, herewith, bear no responsibility for any injury, bleeding, or damage to corporeal parts as a consequence of any naive disbelief in handedness in trying out this test}

Then of course there are ambidextrous people, with differing degrees of ambidexterity, myself included. This does not in anyway discredit left or right handedness..

 

[tony c]

I started out my musical career NOT playing bass, but accordion. When you play accordion, you play right-handed (ever see a left-handed accordion???). Your right hand does all the work on the keyboard, while your left hand pulls the belllows and plays the bass notes.

A couple of years into playing accordion (I was probasbly about 5), I was at my uncle's house, and saw that he had another musical instrument. It was a guitar. He didn't play it, he just owned one he never learned how to play. I picked it up with my right hand, and probably figured that since I did all the work with my right hand on the accordion, I should probably do all the work with my right hand on the guitar.

Years later, when I finally learned how to play guitar, I bought a Mel Bay book with dots illustrating finger positions, as opposed to tellng you what fingers to put in what positions on the fret board. As a result, I play lefty basses and guitars strung up right handed.

Comfort is the only real reason I play that way. I even bought a lefty bass and kept is strung left-handed. I could play it, but I actually had to THINK about what I was doing, rather than naturally just playing the instrument. I brought it back to the shop and had them cut a new nut and re-string and re-intone it to be "upside-down and backwards".

It's not logical, but it's what was comfortable for me.

It would be interesting to know what Wayman Tisdale and Jimmy Haslipp (The Yellojackets) stories are ... they both play upside down and backwards.

 

[Pennydreadful]

Most of TB's very own Iamthebassman's basses are strung upside down, I believe.

 

[morf]

Uhhhh, because they're left-handed?

+1, duh?

 

[Essential]

I appreciate the side track history lesson however my point is that starting with a clean slate, we can all be easily taught to play either way L or R; there is no predisposition.

There exactly is a predisposition though. That's what you don't seem to understand.

My late father was left handed at everything he did - he was an extremely skilled metal worker but could rarely buy left handed tools so he would make his own.

But as a schoolboy he was forced to write with his right hand because at that time in UK schools left-handedness was not accepted. He never ever did become proficient at writing.

Anyone could attempt to learn bass (or writing or whatever) left- or right-handed but they will always make more and quicker progress if they can do it with their preferred dexterity.

On this matter there is no clean slate and to think there is a piece of totalitarian thinking.

 

[leftyforlife]

i am a lefty and i think that lefty guitarist and bassist are somewhat hard wired because if you ask a group of younger kids to play air guitar, and there happens to be a few lefties in the group the majority of those lefties will play it left handed.

my two cents

 

[Nino Valenti]

Wow, so a person shouldn't be allowed to buy a lefty? What is this? Communism?

Less choices, harder to find, usually cost more.

You do most of the playing on a bass with your left hand on a "right handed bass".

I need a lefty piano for my daughter, anyone know where to find one?

 

[Nino Valenti]

I do everything right handed, When I started playing hockey when I was young, I bought , with our knowing any better, a Lefty stick.

Put a righty stick in my hand, I'm all spastic.

I agree with Ken.

 

[KingOfAmps]

I play lefty just to piss off people.

 

[Basshappi]

*Pulls up a chair, sits down with a cup of coffee in hand*

I think I'll just watch this one for awhile.

 

[Bassin']

I'm another person who's a bit "off" with the lefty/righty thing. I write, kick a ball, hold a utensil, throw a ball and hold a pool cue left handed while I hold a baseball bat, throw a frisbee, and play bass/guitar right handed. I do believe, however, that I developed each of these traits because it was the most convenient way to get there.

When I first started playing guitar I played right handed because that was the guitar that was given to me. I realized, after seeing Paul McCartney, that there was a "left handed" option so, seeing as I considered myself left handed, I flipped the strings. I had been playing guitar only a couple days and wasn't even close to the point that I could finger chords so I don't think I had developed any predisposition to playing right hand but after flipping the strings I just couldn't wrap my brain around the instrument anymore.

I have a firm belief that if someone had come up to me the with a left handed and a right handed guitar, before I had ever touched the instrument, I would have chosen the right handed guitar after trying to make the left handed guitar work. It was that much more comfortable.

 

[spade2you]

I'm a lefty. When I started out, I only had the luxury of trying out right-handed instruments. I flipped it over a few times and the damn thing felt awkward lefty or righty. The clerk assured me it would be less hassle down the road if I tried righty and it worked. He was right.

I'd bet ya money that if a guitarist or bassist were forced to learn on either a lefty or a righty, most would be able to do it.

I'll agree that having your dominant hand on the fingerboard offers a few nice advantages.