New perspective from playing upside down

[SlinkyMonkey]

A few weeks back I was hanging out at the guitar player's place and we were playing some of the cover songs in our setlist for fun. I didn't bring my bass so I used theirs. Problem is that guitar player is left-handed and I had to play the bass upside down (E at the bottom and G at the top). Fortunately it's a semi-hollow and the body shape is pretty symmetric, so it didn't felt weird playing that way.

For the majority of the songs I was able to quickly mirror the notes to the leftie fretboard and play them alright - the basslines are not that difficult after all. But some fills I was struggling because I realized I had been playing them through muscle memory, while having no clear idea what the notes are and where they are on the fretboard. During practice I must have just built the muscle memory and have been on autopilot since.

This provided a whole new perspective in my playing, because the difference between mindful and mindless playing became very clear to me. I think in the future when I'm learning new songs I'll definitely keep that in mind, and probably need to re-learn some of the songs that I already know.

 

[JRA]

cool "musician" experience! and you're right, of course, about mindfulness and mindlessness when playing.

i don't have a lefty around here....or i'd spend more time thinking about it! you're relating the "upside-down" experience (i've done it a few times: same as your experience, more or less), and we've all probably had the experience of playing our own axes "backward" (plucking/"fretting" in reverse).

FWIW: i once messed around with a synth (piano keyboard) that was programmed to be backward/reversed (high notes 'down low' for the left hand, low notes 'up high' for the right hand) --- that was a trip!

anyway, glad you had a 'mindful' moment with your music! good luck with it!

 

[Lobster11]

Sounds like you're ready for a mandolin!

 

[Jogobass]

Some of what we play is supposed to be mindless. Like not even thinking about what to do when you need to play an interval, like a fifth or a third or an octave. That gives you freedom to play what you think without thinking too much about how to do that. Thinking about Jimmy Haslip here who still plays upside down lefty even though we have normal lefty basses now. He didn't switch, for a reason. And Jeff Schmidt of course.

 

[rufus.K]

As a lefty, welcome to a glimpse of our world.

 

[SlinkyMonkey]

As a lefty, welcome to a glimpse of our world.

I imagine it's not entirely uncommon that left-handed players have to borrow a bass from others and play upside down. Does it inevitably happen at some point?

 

[rtav]

Dummy me.

From the “upside down” part of your title I thought maybe you were playing bass in Australia.

(Jimmy Haslip rules, btw)

 

[rufus.K]

I imagine it's not entirely uncommon that left-handed players have to borrow a bass from others and play upside down. Does it inevitably happen at some point?

Always