Bass Playing - not as easy as you think...

[TheGreek]

I've been working as a volunteer at my local Drug & Alcohol service delivering groups. I decided to run a group where the members would learn to play "The Chain" - easily recognisable, not too difficult to play. 

I took in two basses and an amp. A number of the group had a go - remember that recovery is about perseverance and obstacles as is learning to play bass. One of the group was left handed so I was given the challenge of playing left handed - you know what? - we take our normal dexterity and muscle memory for granted - I was making loads of mistakes...if I practised left handed I think I might get the hang of it but I got reminded how difficult it was when I started.

Playing bass is a lot harder than you think...

[fleabag]

Agreed.  Mind you you, i started as a drummer and that was pretty tricky. Using all four limbs in differing patterns instead of two was an achievement. But i stuck at it and ended up gigging in several bands. Wish i'd started on bass though

[thebigyin]

I am naturally left handed but play Bass and Guitar both right handed....left handed instruments were not common place years ago....I often wonder if I would be a better musician if I had learnt left handed and often wonder if playing right handed as ever hampered my natural ability....just a thought.

 

Edited July 17, 2018 by thebigyin

[Dood]

I use that as a demonstration when I am teaching to level the playing field when my students are struggling and they think that I don’t understand what it feels like to be a beginner. It always ends in lots of laughter and me looking like a right plum!

 

[chris_b]

In really dull meetings I used to relieve the boredom by trying to write my notes with my left hand.

I only got about 5% of the info down but the time went really quickly.

[T-Bay]

13 hours ago, thebigyin said:

I am naturally left handed but play Bass and Guitar both right handed....left handed instruments were not common place years ago....I often wonder if I would be a better musician if I had learnt left handed and often wonder if playing right handed as ever hampered my natural ability....just a thought.

 

Or perhaps it’s the better way and all us right handed players are at a disadvantage? After all, why does it have to be one way? And if you think about it, when playing normal right handed mode it’s the left hand that has a more complex job to do which is counter intuitive to me as a right hander. If you think of the precursors string instrument wise (assuming double bass played with bow) the right hand had a far finer set of movements to perfect. But short of buying one of each and exactly matching practice from the start to see which feels easier I am not sure how you would prove this one way or another.

[joeystrange]

12 minutes ago, T-Bay said:

And if you think about it, when playing normal right handed mode it’s the left hand that has a more complex job to do which is counter intuitive to me as a right hander.

I’ve often thought this. It makes sense for the more dexterous hand (right, for most people) to do the more complex job of fretting.

I know plenty of left-handed people who play guitar right-handed but none that do it the other way.

 

[scalpy]

On 18 July 2018 at 07:58, joeystrange said:

I’ve often thought this. It makes sense for the more dexterous hand (right, for most people) to do the more complex job of fretting.

I know plenty of left-handed people who play guitar right-handed but none that do it the other way.

 

Hendrix

[Groove Harder]

On 18/07/2018 at 07:58, joeystrange said:

I’ve often thought this. It makes sense for the more dexterous hand (right, for most people) to do the more complex job of fretting.

I know plenty of left-handed people who play guitar right-handed but none that do it the other way.

 

 

8 minutes ago, scalpy said:

Hendrix

Paul McCartney is right handed as well, isn't he?

[scalpy]

1 minute ago, Groove Harder said:

 

Paul McCartney is right handed as well, isn't he?

Not sure TBH, quite a few photos of Hendrix writing though, I had to go and check!

[Dad3353]

27 minutes ago, Groove Harder said:

Paul McCartney is right handed as well, isn't he?

Which one..? 

...

[scalpy]

Had it clarified by his engineer of ten years, Macca writes with his left.

This thread has also had me trying to play left handed, ironically the right hand job is pretty straightforward but I can't make my left do what I want! (I'm a southpaw that plays right)

[Roger2611]

I always find a piano / keyboard is odd to play as the left hand handles the simpler bass parts (simple in the early stages of learning anyway) whilst the right hand does the fiddly stuff, for me a guitar has always felt more natural than a piano, my mum, as a left hander and former concert pianist found playing a right handed guitar impossible but to be fair she hated the damn noisy thing anyway!

Why are there no other handed piano's?

[bassbiscuits]

It's weird isn't it? I used to do jiu jitsu up to a pretty high level, and when we got to blue and brown belt syllabuses they introduced left handed throws. 

It was as if our brains had never experienced jiu jitsu ever before, even tho we'd all been training four or five years at that point. We were dreadful. 

Relearning all those techniques left handed was so weird - knowing it was one thing but getting your body and muscle memory to do it was like starting from square one all over again. 

[TrevorR]

3 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

Which one..? 

...

The dead one of course. The other one has just been copying him and faking it all these years.

Edited July 19, 2018 by TrevorR

[LeftyP]

As I've mentioned in other threads, I'm left handed but play the bass as a right hander.  If you have never played a guitar before (as in my case) then playing right handed is not that big a deal.  I use my knife and fork the conventional way as I was shown how to use them as a child, but if I'm buttering bread then the knife goes in the left hand!  Out of curiosity I tried to play the bass left handed a short time ago and couldn't even hold it properly! I do play the harmonica upside down (the instrument - not me) with the low notes on the right and the high notes on the left.  It is how I learned it as a child and could not change now.

[mikel]

I dont think it matters. If you begin to learn something from a base of zero the hand that has to become dominant, in the end, will be dominant. New muscle memory. I came to bass from drumming and as mentioned above, using all 4 limbs in a differing patterns would be mind bending if thought about too much.

[Combed20]

On 18/07/2018 at 07:36, T-Bay said:

Or perhaps it’s the better way and all us right handed players are at a disadvantage? After all, why does it have to be one way? And if you think about it, when playing normal right handed mode it’s the left hand that has a more complex job to do which is counter intuitive to me as a right hander. If you think of the precursors string instrument wise (assuming double bass played with bow) the right hand had a far finer set of movements to perfect. But short of buying one of each and exactly matching practice from the start to see which feels easier I am not sure how you would prove this one way or another.

Couldn't agree more, that's why I play right handed even though I'm a lefty.

 

 

[bazzbass]

I too am amused that us right handers use our left hand for the trickiest part of playing bass

[Dad3353]

6 hours ago, bazzbass said:

I too am amused that us right handers use our left hand for the trickiest part of playing bass

... which only goes to prove that it's not a completely useless appendage. That one might be a bit more called upon for usual tasks is fine, but both hands are fit for doing many things, whether lefty or righty. Amputees adapt rather well, for the most part, by necessity, and more folks than is often assumed are rather more ambidextrous, with only a slight leaning to either right or left hand use. When driving, both hands are used. In a British RHD car the radio is on the left. In Europe (and elsewhere...) it's on the right. One doesn't cross hands to operate these things; either hand will do, for most folks.

[Marc S]

On 17/07/2018 at 17:44, thebigyin said:

I am naturally left handed but play Bass and Guitar both right handed....left handed instruments were not common place years ago....I often wonder if I would be a better musician if I had learnt left handed and often wonder if playing right handed as ever hampered my natural ability....just a thought.

 

Me too, and I wondered the same thing. There was a thread about this very topic somewhere on here
I know several musicians who are left handed, yet play right handed instruments (incl a guitarist I've known for years, but didn't see him hold a pen until years after
A couple of them have said they think the tricky shapes, movements etc are probably better suited to your more dominant hand. I'm not 100% convinced on this,
but when I began, I felt a right handed bass to be more comfortable (or was it that there was only one Left handed bass in the shops - and it was expensive?)

These days, I know four violin players. Three of them are brilliant (one especially, and she helped teach the other two good ones) the fourth player is.... OK
Oddly enough, the 3 good players are all left handed. Each of them has said they've never even seen a left handed violin, and they all know left handed violin players, who play right handed violins

Edited July 23, 2018 by Marc S

[cheddatom]

2 minutes ago, Marc S said:

Me too, and I wondered the same thing. There was a thread about this very topic somewhere on here
I know several musicians who are left handed, yet play right handed instruments (incl a guitarist I've known for years, but didn't see him hold a pen until years after
A couple of them have said they think the tricky shapes, movements etc are probably better suited to your more dominant hand. I'm not 100% convinced on this,
but when I began, I felt a right handed bass to be more comfortable (or was it that there was only one Left handed bass in the shops - and it was expensive?)

These days, I know four violin players. Three of them are brilliant (one especially, and she helped teach the other two good ones) the fourth player is.... OK
Oddly enough, the 3 good players are all left handed. Each of them has said they've never even seen a left handed violin, and they all know left handed violin players, who play right handed violins

I doubt they'd be allowed left handed violins in orchestras, you'd be poking eyes out left and right!

[T-Bay]

One left hand one right would make life much easier on stage!