Do we play bass guitars the wrong way round?

[northstreet]

I'm right handed. I do all the complicated things with my right hand - writing, using tools, using a mouse, texting (and you've got a dirty mind!) etc etc. So why, when I play bass, do I do the complicated bit ie fretting with my left hand? Wouldn't it make more sense to play it 'left-handed'? (I've tried but I've been playing it 'right-handed' for 40 something years and my brain just melts). Any ideas out there?

[ped]

I think the right hand does the hardest job. A bit like the difference between your left and right feet when driving; the dominant appendage has more sensitivity to attack, various technique and creates a 'feel' whilst the left hand though more busy doesn't require the subtle neuences the right hand does.

Flip what I said if your a left hooker

[ambient]

I know a few left handed people who play right-handed.

[Cat Burrito]

It'd certainly cure GAS for a few people...

[Michael J]

The left hand has to do things in time (before time) while the right hand has to do things at the right time. Which is more critical?

[josie]

I've wondered about this. It may depend on your playing style. I know (acoustic 6) guitar players who have an amazing quick ripply finger-picked style with limited chord changes, so mostly right hand, and similar bass players. Otoh if you're playing a fairly sparse bassline but allover the fretboard, mostly left. (I'm in the second category due to RSI in right elbow, regrets but just decided that would be what I do.)

[FinnDave]

I'm right handed and play right handed basses. I've always thought that the right hand, being responsible for timing, is the most important. When I screwed up my right wrist in a bike accident ten months ago, this became even more apparent.

[KevB]

Has come up many times via polls etc here. Turns out from at least the BC sample of players here there are lots of left handed people who play right handed (including me) so yes if you think you need more dexterity in the fretting hand compared with the plucking hand then this way round works very well, works for me anyway. I have no problem keeping time with my 'wrong' hand. A right handed boogie woogie pianist is doing all the time keeping bass work with his left hand after all.

Edited October 2, 2016 by KevB

[seashell]

Thus is why I decided to play a right handed bass, even though I'm left handed.You have to do complex stuff with both hands, so I reckoned I might as well be rubbish with my picking hand rather than rubbish with my fretting hand.
Still can't use a pick though, and I reckon I never will. Just not dextrous enough with my right hand.

[MoonBassAlpha]

I don't know how you right handed folks play the bass like that( as lefty playing right handed)

[Cato]

Maybe it goes back to when you first start playing?

You concentrate on your dominant hand just hitting the strings and making a rhythm while the other one slowly and awkwardly frets the strings, probably not at the same time.

As you progress both hands become more and more dextrous in the roles you initially assigned to them?

Edited October 2, 2016 by Cato

[MoonBassAlpha]

Maybe starting off playing the violin set it in motion as they don't seem to do left-handed ones.

[TimR]

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1475447414' post='3146046']
Maybe starting off playing the violin set it in motion as they don't seem to do left-handed ones.
[/quote]

Left handed violin would be interesting in an orchestra. It's bad enough when people are bowing out of synch.

[chris_b]

Maybe it would have been just as easy or difficult to learn the guitar the other way around. I just picked up the instrument and played it as it was.

[ColinB]

On a similar theme.... I'm very right handed. I can hardly stir the soup with my left hand, yet I can do all the twiddly fretting stuff with my left hand.
How is this possible?

[baldwinbass]

I'm another left hander who plays right hand bass, but finds it hard to stir soup left handed

[Marc S]

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1475444729' post='3146018']
I'm right handed and play right handed basses. I've always thought that the right hand, being responsible for timing, is the most important. When I screwed up my right wrist in a bike accident ten months ago, this became even more apparent.
[/quote]

But both hands have to work "in time", and as Michael J points out in his post above - the left hand has to work in time with the right - but more fine and precise motor movement is required of the left hand, in anticipation of the music and what the right hand is doing....

I say this as a left hander, who has always played a right handed bass. There is another thread on here somewhere which talks about this very subject. I thought I was a bit unique in being a lefty who plays right handed - but in fact, it's more common than you'd think...
Left handers have to adapt more frequently; e.g. I have to use Right handed scissors, as I've never even seen a left handed pair

But Right handers do odd things too e.g. when eating, they feed themselves with their left hand when using a fork - but when using a spoon, they feed themselves with their right hand - what's that all about? lol

It's all a question of degrees though, isn't it? Most people use their left hands or their right hands for some things. As I've had to adapt to a right hand dominant world, I'm quite adept at some right handed tasks, as I'm sure other lefties are....

EDIT: Sorry to hear you damaged your wrist btw

Edited October 3, 2016 by Marc S

[Silvia Bluejay]

Previously on this topic:

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/267735-completely-leftie/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/267735-completely-leftie/[/url]

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/243174-how-left-handed-are-you/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/243174-how-left-handed-are-you/[/url]

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/234679-the-bs-of-guitar-companies/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/234679-the-bs-of-guitar-companies/[/url]

[JTUK]

You play right handed if definitely Right handed. A good player will not have a poor plucking hand, for want of a better word. This is the hand that initiates the strike of the string.

[SpondonBassed]

I think more people are ambidextrous than give themselves credit. If you need to you can train either hand to do what is required.

What might make a significant difference is which half of your brain a run or tune comes from when you are composing on guitar, bass or otherwise. One half of the brain is said to be creative or "romantic" the other is said to be logical or "classical". If you consider that notes are formed largely with the fretting hand on a guitar more than with the plucking hand, it might have a subtle influence on how a tune goes. I suppose you could say similarly that the rhythmic part of a tune comes a bit more from the plucking hand. Because the opposite side of the brain is responsible for each side of the body it does my head in thinking about it so I try not to. It's probably a lot of rubbish anyway.

[LewisK1975]

Never thought about it from a strength / dexterity point of view - I've only ever thought about it in regard to learning how to play.

I've always thought it was weird that they made left handed guitars, because if you've never picked up a guitar before then you're learning something completely from scratch regardless of what hand is your dominant / writing hand. YMMV!

[FinnDave]

[quote name='Marc S' timestamp='1475487898' post='3146218']
But both hands have to work "in time", and as Michael J points out in his post above - the left hand has to work in time with the right - but more fine and precise motor movement is required of the left hand, in anticipation of the music and what the right hand is doing....

I say this as a left hander, who has always played a right handed bass. There is another thread on here somewhere which talks about this very subject. I thought I was a bit unique in being a lefty who plays right handed - but in fact, it's more common than you'd think...
Left handers have to adapt more frequently; e.g. I have to use Right handed scissors, as I've never even seen a left handed pair

But Right handers do odd things too e.g. when eating, they feed themselves with their left hand when using a fork - but when using a spoon, they feed themselves with their right hand - what's that all about? lol

It's all a question of degrees though, isn't it? Most people use their left hands or their right hands for some things. As I've had to adapt to a right hand dominant world, I'm quite adept at some right handed tasks, as I'm sure other lefties are....

EDIT: Sorry to hear you damaged your wrist btw
[/quote]

Thanks. One positive outcome of my accident was that I had to learn to use my left hand for all sorts of things (no! Not that!) such as eating & drinking, using tools as much as I could with one hand, and even though my right hand is around 50% recovered now, I still find myself almost ambidextrous and pick things up with either hand, depending mostly on which is closer.

[KevB]

As I've mentioned in other related threads I do a lot of other two handed things right handed (played cricket and golf right handed) and I'm right footed but single handed things (raquet sports) always left handed. Thus I end up in an odd way with cutlery - knife and fork right handed but spoon leftie! However I usually use a mouse right handed as invariably I've taken over a desk from someone else and thats been how the PC was arranged so I just carried on that way. It's also handy in that I can browse the internet right handed with the mouse whilst taking down hand written notes with my left at the same time.

Edited October 3, 2016 by KevB

[randythoades]

Interesting.
I may even have a go myself as a right handed player who has a left shoulder issue, I have thought that it would be handy to play the other way round and support the strap on the right shoulder instead. It would look cool too if you could teach yourself to play both ways, then if you needed to play fast 16th note fills you could use the stronger hand for picking and if you needed to be more precise on the fret hand then pick up the other bass and use the other hand. I am sure it would be an awful lot harder than I think.

[KevB]

There are also those interesting [url="http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/inside-intriguing-world-mirror-twins-6066199"]'mirror' twins[/url] (embryo splits a little later in developement than usual) where one ends up RH and the other LH.