Right or Left?

[LeftyP]

1 minute ago, leftybassman392 said:

Ahem...

 

Nice one!  I wonder how many piano shops sell them.  I also wonder whether there would be a market for electronic keyboards that could be switched to play left handed.  You would think in this day and age a simple button on the keyboard would enable the instrument to become left handed.

[leftybassman392]

26 minutes ago, LeftyP said:

Nice one!  I wonder how many piano shops sell them.  I also wonder whether there would be a market for electronic keyboards that could be switched to play left handed.  You would think in this day and age a simple button on the keyboard would enable the instrument to become left handed.

It’s an interesting idea, and you’d think somebody would have thought of it by now but a quick firkle around t’interweb didn’t bring up much apart from lefty computer keyboards. I do have a nagging suspicion that it may not be quite as simple as that though. Hopefully a keyboarder will turn up soon to explain it all...

On a side note (sorry about that ), it can make a difference which way round instruments are designed. This article walks you through some of the potential issues. That said, to quote @BassTractor, it’s complicated. Trying very hard not to appear patronising, I rather suspect it’s one of those issues you have to be at least partially left handed to understand, and even then it isn’t a given. Some will just get on with it the way we lefties often have to (), some will make the extra effort because they want to, but occasionally you’ll find somebody who just can’t adjust and can’t afford to have one specially made like our pianist friend.

No reason anybody needs to lose sleep over any of this of course, but just so the information is out there.

Edited February 23, 2019 by leftybassman392

[BassTractor]

1 hour ago, leftybassman392 said:

It’s an interesting idea, and you’d think somebody would have thought of it by now but a quick firkle around t’interweb didn’t bring up much apart from lefty computer keyboards. I do have a nagging suspicion that it may not be quite as simple as that though. Hopefully a keyboarder will turn up soon to explain it all...

A keyboarder like me, perhaps? Well, sadly I can't explain it.
I did once own some sort of keyboard instrument that could play left-handed, but have forgotten the specifics. Something tells me it may have been a DX7 or a TX802 or both. Absolutely not sure though.
I do remember connecting certain analogue monophonic synths to other brands, Korg and Kawai in one case, and getting reverse working out of that.
Joe Zawinul had something that reversed his ARP 2600, but I've forgotten whether this was a one-of thing or similar to what I did: combining different brands with different specifications. Probably the 2600 keyboard with reversed PCB or resistor row.

From Medieval pipe organs to and including electro-mechanical organs like the Hammonds, reversible keyboards would be near impossible or probably demand too much, but i see no technical problem for many electronic organs and all synthesizers - no matter whether the keyboard was scanned or had a row of resistors.

These days, in a synth, the reverse thing could also be stored the very same place as the alternative tunings - - depending on specifications. At any rate: not a technical problem at all.

🎹

Edited February 23, 2019 by BassTractor

[BassTractor]

OH!
I found one of those reverse keyboard thingies:
The Korg Poly-800.
Yup!

 

 

Sorry.
Couldn't resist.
😊

[scalpy]

13 hours ago, Heathy said:

I'm a lefty who plays right-handed. That always felt the natural way, however in recent years I have realised that my right hand is a real weak link in my playing. 

Ditto, but GAS is ever so slightly cheaper when it comes to basses.

[Silvia Bluejay]

6 hours ago, leftybassman392 said:

Might also be worth mentioning the social conditioning element in handedness (sounds like brainwashing but it's pretty benign). Although nobody bothers about it these days, Lefties of a certain age will no doubt be able to tell stories of attempts to force them to do things (handwriting being a good example, and so is learning to play guitar or bass) right handed - I know I can.

I won't bore people with any whinging about how hard we have things (in truth it's not that bad and I'm really not complaining), but subtle pressures to conform are still around.

One word: Catholicism. Left = the Devil = evil. I still have at least one friend who averts her eyes when she sees me doing something with the 'wrong' hand, and who is happy that her left-handed older brother was forced by family and school to learn to write right-handed. Even if she's never been able to read his handwriting as a result. Thank God for computers, huh?

We went to high school together; similar backgrounds, main difference between us being, she and her family are religious, I and mine are not. We're all well over 50. I do hope things have changed now.

[leftybassman392]

Indeed Sylvia. The language around this notion is a fascinating subject in its own right, and goes back well beyond the birth of the Catholic Church: very much one of the subtle pressures I mentioned earlier.

Once again not wishing to bore anyone unduly, here are a few prime examples:

1. From Latin, sinister=left and dexter=right. ‘Ambidextrous’ translates as ‘on the right both sides’. Even today, ‘right’ has numerous positive connotations while ‘left’ has numerous negative ones.

2. From Old English, ‘cackhanded’ means quite literally ‘using the hand that cleans the cack’. 

3. From French, ‘adroit’ translates as ‘on the right’, and ‘gauche’ translates as ‘left’.

There are others, but the point is made I think.

There’s an excellent Wikipedia article on this and other relevant  subjects here.

Edited February 24, 2019 by leftybassman392

[LeftyP]

We are an oppressed minority - but come the revolution..........!

Being left handed, I rule a line from right to left and always flick through a magazine from back to front.  When dining out I swap wine glasses and side plates about and turn my dessert spoon round so the handle is on the left; it causes no end of confusion to the other diners on my table!

It's nice to be different!

 

[SpondonBassed]

As mentioned by LBM392 above the Romans marched to the call of "sinister dexter sinister dexter" instead of "left right left right" when marching.  Dexter grew up to be quite an emotionally scarred young man because he believed what the soldiers kept saying about him as they marched past.

[ubit]

Mrs Ubits brother is left handed but plays guitar right handed. Not only plays, but plays incredibly well! 

[FinnDave]

The best guitarists I know are all left handed. I can't help but feel this is more than just coincidence.

[paul_c2]

I am left-handed but play right-handed. I remember when I first took up the guitar, I tried both ways round and it felt more comfortable playing right-handed (probably because the guitar was right-handed....) so I stuck with it. Of course, nowadays it would be even more difficult to judge because I'm now used to playing the one way. 

But its an interesting thought that potentially some music - for example that which needed more dexterity/skill from the plucking hand - might be easier the other way round, of course you'd need to invest time in overcoming the way you've already learned. I think a handful of people have done this - similar to how Ronnie O'Sullivan plays snooker.

[Delberthot]

I do addition calculations from left to right instead of starting with the numbers on the right hand side like normal people do eg

13465

+

12354

I would start by adding the 1s on the left hand followed by 3+2 side rather than adding the 5 + 4 then working along to 6 + 5

 

[paul_c2]

What about the 6+5=11?

[Muppet]

On 23/02/2019 at 08:46, SH73 said:

The same with hockey stick. I'm right handed but used ice hockey stick on my left.

Different to field hockey, everyone has to use a right handed stick.

[SH73]

22 minutes ago, Muppet said:

Different to field hockey, everyone has to use a right handed stick.

silly rules

[leftybassman392]

Different sport but similar dynamics; there are many international cricketers who bat one way and bowl the other (the majority of England’s current front line bowling attack being a good case in point). Always have been.

The normal pressures to be right handed don’t seem to apply in sport to anywhere near the same extent as they do in most other walks of life. In fact it’s commonly viewed as advantageous in the sense of presenting an unusual challenge to one’s opponent(s) (although the sheer preponderance of lefties in sports such as cricket and tennis kind of undermines that advantage I think).

In that regard, hockey seems to be a bit of an exception to the rule.

Edited February 25, 2019 by leftybassman392

[police squad]

2 hours ago, leftybassman392 said:

Different sport but similar dynamics; there are many international cricketers who bat one way and bowl the other (the majority of England’s current front line bowling attack being a good case in point). Always have been.

The normal pressures to be right handed don’t seem to apply in sport to anywhere near the same extent as they do in most other walks of life. In fact it’s commonly viewed as advantageous in the sense of presenting an unusual challenge to one’s opponent(s) (although the sheer preponderance of lefties in sports such as cricket and tennis kind of undermines that advantage I think).

In that regard, hockey seems to be a bit of an exception to the rule.

My brother was right handed, but he bowled left arm. Never made sense to me.

Some right handed batsman bat left handed, some learned to do this because their hero was a lefty (can't remember who it is). If you're right handed and bat right handed, your dominant hand can make the bat 'scoop' the ball in the air but if you bat the other way (oo er) your dominant hand keeps the bat 'down' and so the chance of skying the ball is much reduced

[leftybassman392]

12 minutes ago, police squad said:

My brother was right handed, but he bowled left arm. Never made sense to me.

Some right handed batsman bat left handed, some learned to do this because their hero was a lefty (can't remember who it is). If you're right handed and bat right handed, your dominant hand can make the bat 'scoop' the ball in the air but if you bat the other way (oo er) your dominant hand keeps the bat 'down' and so the chance of skying the ball is much reduced

I played myself with some success at club level for many years. IME bowling left arm and batting right handed (the way I did it as well) is unusual - most players who bowl left arm also bat left handed (Gary Sobers, Mitch Johnson, Brad Hogg, Sam Curran...). Much more common is to bowl right arm and bat left handed.

In batting, the bottom hand is indeed the one that generates the power, but it's also the one that controls the flow of the bat. Hooks, pulls, sweeps and cuts are more bottom hand strokes in which the blade follows right through the arc, whereas the classic drive is a much more controlled shot in which the blade doesn't follow through nearly as much (unless of course the intention is to deliberately loft the ball over the infield).

I'm still not so sure about people who bat lefty and bowl righty. In some cases it's done simply to present the bowler with a different challenge - and because they can of course. I remember hearing Mark Butcher talking about it in an interview.

 

[PaulWarning]

I bowl left handed but bat (and play golf) right handed, in every other respect I'm a lefty, except knife and fork, which I got fed with with changing round at a young age and learnt to do it right handed, which makes me think I probably could have learnt guitar right handed if I'd started out like that, but it was just natural to hold it left handed, never gave it a thought until I realised I was holding it the same way as Macca (started out like that when miming to records with a tennis racket in my bedroom)

Edited February 25, 2019 by PaulWarning

[Daz39]

Def a sliding scale, with strange bits in between. I am right-handed, but drink and brush my teeth left-handed.

Paul Raymond (UFO) is a leftie and just turns a right-handed guitar upside down. (I think that's the way he does it.)

[Krysbass]

When I first picked up a bass, my natural preference was to try to play it left handed.

But that was in 1981, when left handed basses were both rare and expensive, so for purely economic reasons (because I didn't know if my foray into bass playing would work out), I bought a cheap secondhand right-handed bass and taught myself to play right-handed.

But good quality, reasonably priced lefty basses are far more plentiful nowadays, so if I started over, I'd go the left-handed route.

Building enough speed in my right hand has always been a struggle - especially as I only play fingerstyle. I hit a wall with pick playing and kept dropping the things.

[Stub Mandrel]

One of my brothers is a southpaw and has leftie guitars and basses (and ukeleles!) Annoyingly he can cerainly play a RH bass competently just by flipping it, I can't do that with his lefties.

We've exchanged a couple of bases and they bear the scars 🙂

[Monkey Steve]

One of my mates, who happens to be one of the best musicians I know, is another leftie who plays right handed guitars.  He went to boarding school, and his only choice when learning was to use the right handed ones that the school had, so he consoled himself with the knowledge that Gary Moore was also left handed.

they also made him write right handed, which led to him being regarded as "ambidextrous" within his family because when he wasn't at school he would write left handed

Mind you, the guitarist in one of my first bands was also a leftie playing right handed and he was terrible.  When asked why he didn't try playing left handed instead he conceded that he probably wouldn't be any better the other way round so what was the point in trying...

[tauzero]

One guitarist I knew was a leftie who played right-handed. Played well, too. However, this preyed on his mind for some reason [1], and eventually he bought a left-handed guitar and learnt to play that.

[1] He was a bit odd. The one and only gig that a band we were in was supposed to play, he didn't make it, as he'd thrown himself into the canal that afternoon and was in hospital, so we had to borrow another guitarist. Probably not due to being a leftie though.