LeftyBassist.com

Hey Y'All,

I just had to write a "bio" for myself for one of my bands websites. Check it here: http://clockwisecanada.com/fr_jason.cfm

It definitely delves into my lefty-ness. It made me realize that everyone here probably has a similar story. It would be interesting to hear some of them. You know, how long did it take your parents/teachers to stop trying to make you play upside down. (Well, upside down for YOU.)

I thought this might be an interesting topic for discussion. As you'll see in my bio, if I wasn't a lefty, I probably wouldn't be a bass player. I'd just be another mediocre guitar player.

Look forward to hearing your stories!

JE

It was never really a problem for me; when I was given my first guitar by a girl who lived down the street from me, my mother took it to the shop and had a new nut put on. Other than the first few cheapo instruments I learned on, I've always pushed to get a left-handed guitar or bass.

The one time it was a serious detriment was when I was in Junior college, and played upright bass in the school orchestra. I had to take the bass home and switch the strings myself (doing two at a time to keep the sound post from falling out). At some point I was told that if I was serious about pursuing a career in it, I would never be accepted into an orchestra because playing left-handed would "ruin the symmetry" of the section. So no matter how well I might have played, I had no hope.

But since I was rubbish at playing an upright, I bid adios to the symphonic world. I always dreamt however, of putting together a completely left-handed orchestra, just to stick it to these people who were supposed to value musical ability over such a petty thing as "symmetry".

On a related topic, I'd be interested in hearing stories about how we've probably all had to amaze righty players by playing on their instruments much better than they can play ours. Almost every left-hander has had more chances to play 'backwards' than right-handers. Consequentially, we're usually (slightly) better at it than they are. I remember playing someone's RH Precision once at a jam, and the look on his face when he walked back into the room and realized I was playing HIS bass upside-down. And somewhat competently.

Other than pulling down my zipper and turning door knobs my right hand is pretty useless. I found a hollow body guitar in the woods when I was a kid in like 6th grade 12 years old or so it was a no name turd but had a few strings on it. I did smash it to bits (there was a cartoon on TV at the time El Kabong) I don’t remember much about the cartoon except some stereo type Mexican dude would smash his acoustic over people’s heads. I did then graduate to the movie Animal House with John Belushi smashing an acoustic in the frat house. But before demolishing the guitar I did just naturally grab it “lefty” and strummed it that way right on. There was no way on God’s green earth I could play it right handed. Not a chance man to this day I can’t even fret a note right handed.

I found a crap lefty Hondo P bass for I think $120 when I was in 7th grade and the rest is history…

Other than the fact that my Father was proud to have his son be a lefty (he wanted me to be a major league baseball pitcher) and I was so proud of my first baseball mitt ( left hand of course!), the first real indication of being a true lefty was the first day of beginning band in 5th grade. I had shown promise on the Tonette in 4th grade, and for 5th grade, I was going to a middle-grades school where there was a beginning and advanced band program. I was excited about going into the beginning band program, but didn't have a clue as to what instrument to take up. At the time, my family lived on a two-house lot, with the landlady living in one of the houses. Her son played Trombone in the local Air Force band, and after telling my Mother he would be glad to help me learn the Trombone, my Mother found a music store renting Trombones for $5.00 a month. And that's how I became a Trombone player!

On the first day of beginning band, I pulled my Trombone from its case, and attached the slide section to the bell, and rotated the slide to the left side, so I could pull and push the slide with my left hand. The band director was walking through the new students, advising them on how to properly hold their instruments. When he came to me, he saw the slide was on the "wrong" side of the bell, and told me the slide belonged on the right side. I replied by saying "but I'm left handed"! His response was to say, all Trombonists play with the slide on the right side... so with a bit of a sigh, I moved it to the right side, and learned to play it right handed.

I played Trombone up and in to College, playing in all types of bands... Symphonic, Jazz, Marching, Pep Bands, Brass Quartets, State Honor Bands etc. I also learned how to play with my slide on the left hand side of the bell, and to confuse people, especially when I would qualify for and play in Honor Bands, I would start out with the slide on the left side, and throw the "symmetry" of the Trombone section out of whack! They were even more amazed when I could play all of the music pieces with my left hand; something they would never think of doing!

But to re-cap, being told in 5th-grade beginning band class to move my slide to the right side was when I really knew I was left handed. Fortunately at that time I lived in Northern California, which had a progressive approach to learning, and I was never told, nor forced to become a right hander. I think if I would have gone home and told my Father the teacher was trying to make me right handed, he would have stormed down there ( he had a fiery Greek temper!) and told them to leave his son alone!

Always a lefty, a progressive school didn't try and change me. Played all sports as a lefty throw and kick balls faced as a batsman in cricket and softball as lefty. Musically with the swinging sixties at full steam. My mates decided to form a band. I join up as the bass player, went to a local music store and ordered a australian made bass lefty of course. Fun happen when I showed up to my first music lesson, the teacher first comment when I pulled out my bass, I would have made you play as a righty if you hadnt brought that bass. So in say that I didn't stay with him for many lessons. As most lefties I can also play a right hand bass upsided down with reasonable easy.

My only recollection of my left-handedness ever even coming up was when I played sports.

When I first started baseball, the coach wanted me to pitch but I did not! So I was put at First Base. I continued at First throughout Little League, Pony League, Scout League, Church League, etc. I loved it, and also liked having a "mitt" instead of a "glove".

When I played football in junior high and high school, I was kicker and punter, and kicked with my left foot. For place-kicks my holder had to get used to holding with his right hand instead of his left.

As for bass, I'm self-taught so it was never an issue.

oh wow so long ago......

it was probably my mother who saw me scribbling with crayons using my left hand and told me about it later in life.
then the teachers trying their best to break me of the habit....
NEVER DID

seemed normal when I was a pre-teen riding dirtbikes, left hand clutch, left foot gears dominant (stronger) hand/foot.
then having a manual shift car since I was 16 transferred the dirtbike to a car
Bass, ya like Austin self taught INVERTED strings so it was always normal. It was only later in bassplaying life that I started playing E on top.
many years later people do not remember my name, but they do remember "the lefty who played like hendrix" and I still play inverted strings 25 years later.

Definitely when I was growing up. The Catholic nuns at the school I went to did everything they could to dissuade me from using my left hand. I even had my left hand tied to my desk at one point. It got talked about some once I started playing football as the lefty quarterback/defensive lineman. It came up quite a bit again when I took up learning the bass almost two years ago. My church bought a righty bass and asked me to learn how to play on it. Didn't work out.

Anyhow, I recently was talking to my pastor about frustration with other people making a big deal of my being left handed and playing a left handed instrument, and he shared with me this interesting verse from the Bible that I think people on this board might like.

Judges 3:15--"Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, ahd he gave them a deliverer, Ehud, a left handed man..."

The fact that a mention was made of a lefty in that book put a big smile on my face.

I'm not religious by any means, velalv, but I like that quote! Bring in the Lefty to save the day! Like when the Dodgers brought in Sandy Koufax in the seventh game of the world series with only two days rest... he pitched a complete game, and the Dodgers won the World Series!

I also went to a Catholic school and had some... challenges with the teachers about which hand I should use to write, eat with, etc. They won on the writing thing - I write with my right hand - but I didn't put up much of a fight.

I'm REALLY lucky in that I don't seem to have a really dominant hand. I can still write with my left hand if I relax and don't think about it too much. (Not that I ever need to.) I throw with my right hand - but I injured my left shoulder in a bicycle accident when I was quite young so who knows. I can switch hit and don't really have a stronger side. Same with billiards. I started archery as a lefty in high school - but they forced me to righty - then I switched back the following year. It really hit home when I was a house painter as a teenager. I had to move my ladder half as many times as most guys because I could cut in around the edges equally well with both hands. I became the "trim" guy because of it.

The only thing I absolutely, positively can't do right handed is play guitar/bass. I don't know why this is so different but it is. Unfortunately, I was urged initially to play right handed. That lasted about a year. I kept restringing the old acoustic I had. (Then the music teacher would tell my parents on me and it would go back again.) I went through this cycle about 8 times in that year before my parents gave in. It was a matter of economics for them. Some music shop employee told them how lefty guitars were more expensive and harder to get and yadda yadda... Thankfully they came around.

I do still love how much it bothers my wife's ultra British upper middle class parents when I use a knife with my left hand at the dinner table. I like to tease them by switching back and forth a few times during the meal. Small pleasures.

I must say, I'm amazed at how many of you didn't have any problems at all with it. It's good to hear.

I think there's certainly a greater variety of left-handed 'ness' among the population generally. Right-handers seem to be more or less 'totally' righty. Whereas many of us, possibly as a result of differences in social pressures, or the amount of brain tissue given over to it (brain 'damage', according to some theories), do a variety of things with either hand.

I myself tend to do things that require finesse (drawing, playing guitar, etc.) with the left hand, but brute physical force (throwing) with the right. I know studies have shown that the dominant cerebral hemisphere in charge of dexterity is not as firmly entrenched in LH people as with rightys. With them it's almost always the left hemisphere, but with us, it can be either. Supposedly, if you crook your writing hand, it's the hemisphere on that side. If you write with the hand trailing behind (a more 'normal' look), then it's the opposite hemisphere.

For me, my Mom (We all love our Mom's) was a lefty (back in the days when Nuns would beat her hands with a ruler) so I was a natural lefty and I was encouraged by my Mom to stay true to myself. I did not know I was a lefty until I did sports and started writing (back then was around 1st grade). Now a Parent I did the same for my daughter, she is a good piano player and has perfect pitch, she wanted to learn bass (she plays some Violin) so I am teaching her on a lefty bass. The best part is when she is ready she will have a nice heard of basses to pick from when she starts to gig.

I got one more examples of lefties saving the day for you, just came across it today in my morning reading. Here it is (this was in the context of mobilizing an army):

"At once the Benjamites mobilized 26,000 swordsman from their towns, in addition to 700 able young men from those living in Gibeath. Among all these soldiers were seven hundred select troops who were left handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss." Judges 19

The side the lefties were on won the battle.

I have to admit, the geek in me started thinking about how they would have translated this into Latin. Took 4 yrs in high school As some of you guys know, the Latin word "sinistra" is also the derivative for our English word sinister. In Latin "sinistra" means twisted. I imagine that a translator who was working on this way back in the 3rd century was probably having a fit because there are good references. Makes me think culturally how lefty got to mean bad, instead of just different. I'll end my geek out now.

Interesting thread.

As a kid growing up, it was determined that I was left-handed because I wrote left-handed. Yet, I've always done different things with different hands. So yes, I wrote left. Beyond that, I ate with utensils right, ate with chopsticks left, threw right, batted left, played handball with both, kicked right, volleyball right, tennis left, basketball right, photography both, toothbrush left, PC mouse right, hammer left, screwdriver both, drink both (!), and use a phone left.

As for music, there were just too many guitarists around and besides, I was always enamored with the bass. So my first couple lessons were with the teacher's right-handed bass attempting to play right-handed only because I didn't own a bass. It was awful -- completely disjointed and unnatural. When I'd go into music stores to check out basses, I immediately turned righties upside down and despite the ergonomic issues (and the fact that I had just started to learn), I knew I had to be a left-handed bassist. When I got my '77 left-handed P-bass for my birthday, I had found the promised land. Not so much for one of my bass teachers -- he struggled with it and somehow felt the need to set up a full-length mirror in order to attempt to teach me.

this poor guy next to me is in the same boat...

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wow I was the last poster on this thread a year ago...how about a bump from myself and my guitar partner in a totally different band now, but still playing together? And like my caption on the older picture, The guitarplayer next to me is STILL in the same boat.
BUT, in this new band there are 3...yep 3 leftys ( if a drummer counts? )
from last nights outdoor gig:

from our video shoot a couple weeks ago:

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That's a lotta lefty in one band.

perfect band for this board!!

I had two different lefty bassists in my band. me being (at the time) a lefty guitar player that made for a pretty weird stage presence.

I remember when I was a pre-schooler I'd go to this lady's house until my parents would come home. kinda like a baby sitter for a couple of hours. and one day the subject came up and I didn't know whether I was lefty or righty so she handed me a marker and told me to "pretend" I'm writing my name. this didn't came a surprise to no one since my mom is also left handed.
my sister used to say I was just imitating her, and that handedness was just a "choice".

I suck at almost any sport, I have a stronger right leg but it's kinda retarded so I learn stuff with my left leg and later execute them with right. which made playing soccer a weird a-tick-and-a-tock kinda process.
the only sport where I wasn't horrible was mui-thai, and I have to admit the being a lefty there was an enormous advantage. not only as a lefty I have a significantly stronger weak hand than most righties, (which means I can fight in both stances) righties usually have a hard time getting used to fighting a south paw while I'm pretty used to fighting them.

in music, I tried learning guitar righty but I sucked big time. I could barely finger an E minor.
so I moved on to a lefty. later I had my teacher (who also sold guitars) restring one of his cheaper models upside down. it was still there lefty strung (over a decade now) when I last visited him.
and we have allot of true lefty kids in the area now, ( a hell of allot more than when I was a kid) I'm pretty sure it has something to do with that green cheapo no brand strat. and my pseudo-local-legend hard core band I played with at the time. seeing someone do it makes it a more comfortable choice.

"Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, ahd he gave them a deliverer, Ehud, a left handed man..."
public schools in Israel teach the old testimony, and this is pretty much the coolest tale we were taught. aside from the whole double edged sword and what the hebrew word "parshedona" means. the story tells that Eglons guards only checked for weapons on the left leg, so ehuds sword which was carried lefty on his right leg went unnoticed.

Fifteen years ago my five piece blues band had four lefties only the drummer was a righty. Guitarist played righty and the sax player also, the harp player and I played our instruments lefty.