LeftyBassist.com

Ok so,
Many statements and assumptions have been made about lefthandedness over the years, and there are some things that are fundamentally different about how a lefty proccesses the world. What, if any, impact do YOU feel being a southpaw has had on A) Your bass playing and B) your relationship with music?

When I first started playing it was on a right handed buddy's guitar. since there were no "playing a right handed guitar left handed for dummies" books around I always had to figure out my own way to do things. By the time I got a LH guitar (and soon after a LH bass) I had a real DIY attitude that never really left. Because of the initial righty-flip experience I still to this day do things that are "wrong"... for example I ue my thumb from time to time on the E-string and I tend to upstroke rather than downstroke when I play with a pick.

I don't think I picked up any unique playing habits from being left handed. One by-product of being a lefty is I can find my way around on a right handed bass playing it lefty with the strings upside down because I'm forced to demo righty basses so much more than lefty ones. I've surprised guys in stores a few times by playing a righty bass decently and then picking up a lefty bass and playing it more proficiently.

lol, I've done the same thing. The best is when I sit down at a righty drumset and blast out some beats and someone says "you're pretty good" and I get to respond with "thanks, it's really pretty uncomfortable playing backwards."

Also, since I have multiple lefty basses and guitars sitting around, when another guitar or bass player comes by they inevitably say "that looks really weird" and I get to respond with "imagine how I feel everywhere else."

I can honestly say there isn't anything I can do righty except switch hit in baseball/softball. Everything else I do is pure lefty. I can't even play a righty upside down when I go to music stores, so I don't bother demoing righties. It ends up being too frustrating.

A side note: I had a brief brush with fame years ago when I got to do a gig with Jaco Pastorius, as I was playing bass with one of his percussionists in a blues band. Jaco didn't bring his bass, so he expected to play mine. Little did he realize that it was left handed, LOL. What did he end up doing? He turned it upside down and proceeded to play it flawlessly.

Cool! Did you get a pic of Jaco playing your bass?

Um, not much really because I'm actually righthanded.

I have become aware of some of the difficulties of being a lefty, especially the prejudice of manufacturers and of that encountered (mostly)on internet forums, though I have never encountered a real-world problem in 30 years of playing.

I also found it quite beneficial to have my strongest and most dexterous hand on the fretboard. It's interesting to note the controversy that that statement usually ignites!

So, what's the story behind a righty playing LH bass?

Unfortunately not. The drummer/singer Manny Montiero may have some, but I've lost contact with him. I'd love to get in touch with him because he owns my very first bass! It was a righty Westbury Track II I flipped over, which I yanked the frets out of and painted to look like the Partridge Family bus (It was the 80's, and those abstract paint styles were in vogue thanks to Van Halen). I traded it to him for a lousy Dr. Rhythm drum machine.

The gig itself was very bittersweet for me, however. I idolized Jaco and he was very friendly and encouraging, at first. At the end of the 1st set, he handed the bass back to me and got behind the drums, and the two of us jammed for 10 minutes. He told me I played my a$$ off, and I believed him, LOL.

But as is the case with most Jaco encounters, things got ugly. The plan was to have come back up on stage for the 2nd set for a few songs, but he was drinking all night and by the time we got to the 2nd set of songs, he had morphed into a loud obnoxious drunk, shouting profanities at the guitarist from the crowd. He came back up on stage and only wanted to play guitar, and we made the mistake of letting him. He was turned up to 11 and playing "Third Stone from the Sun" by himself, so we had to stop playing and left him on stage alone. he cleared a room of 200+ people by the time he was done. Very very sad.

I do have some Jaco pix of gigs he did at the Blue Note and 7th Ave. South here in New York though. I'll try to dig them up. I suppose they'd be considered never-before published pix, so I might shoot them over to Jaco's family site first. In all honesty, he doesn't look healthy.

Baalroo,

I have a birth defect of my lefthand that makes it impossible to use it for fretting.

On an intersting sidenote, Greta Brinkman, the bassist for Moby, is also a righty playing lefty. In her case she just learned the bass that way.

Definitely interesting. I've had many right handed people pick up my lefty instruments and say that it seemed like it would make more sense for them to be right-handed instruments, and when I explain that the "proper" set up is to pick with your dominant hand they comment that it's "strange that it's backwards."

In what ways do you think having your dominant hand as your fretting hand effected your playing? Do you tend to play more melodic bass or groove bass?

Well, I've never been able to play righthanded so I'm afraid I have no basis for comparison really. Assuming that you have two normally formed hands you could pick up a righthanded instrument and decide for yourself if playing righthanded or lefthanded is more natural for you. I can't. I often forget that Lefty forums have many players that actually play righthanded instruments!

The (seemingly) main benefit I see is that one can pick up complex fingerings and chords pretty quickly. Now granted, once a person has trained their hands to the proper level of dexterity then "weak hand/ strong hand" becomes virtually inconsequential. I mean after all, most string instrument players fret with their non-dominant hand. So the "benefit" such it is, might not exist beyond a beginner's level. Most people I talk to say that it is more important to have the dominant hand as the picking/plucking hand and I can certainly see where they could have a valid point. For me it has never been an option.

As to melodic vs. groove playing I can do either just fine, after all I've been playing 30 years. I probably play more groove style than melodic simply because it is the more common in rock, blues, and R&B style music which has made the biggest bulk of my 'career'. But I have played many other styles of music requiring varying degrees of melodicism without undue difficulty. Like anyone else, more complex music simply requires more practice.

Cheers!

Well, I can ACT like I can play right handed, but when it comes down to it I have no more than anecdotal evidence as to whether or not using my left (dominant) hand for fretting would change how I played.

I've been playing for 12 years (less than half what you have) but I understand what you're getting at with doing "either just fine" in regards to groove vs. melodic. My question really was trying to get at what feels more "right" to you, everyone has natural tendencies and I was wondering if you felt that one or the other came more easily to you. Alas, I know that I do a good bit of both, but the two things that have always felt the most natural to me are either very straightforward punkish playing or the nearly polar opposite jaco-esque type playing with harmonics and chords etc etc. I've never really fell into that middle ground of groove-locking with a drummer that most other bass players find so integral. What is even odder about that is that I'm as much a drummer as I am a bass player.

Ah, I see what you mean. In that case, I too have a "Jekyll and Hyde" kind of comfort zone.

On one hand it's an old school funk & reggae (I don't slap) and the other is kind of prog rock "Squire-esque
' kind of playing.

No pun intended?

I'm in the same kind of boat as Basshapi. I have Cerebral Palsy in my left arm and leg so everything I do is right-handed. It's possible I think left-handed, but I've never really verified that.

A friend of mine was showing me some basses he wanted to acquire, and while they look pretty sweet, to me it was just art, because I didn't think it would be possible to play bass or guitar with "just one hand". Little did I know. My friend says to me, "But dude! You can. Here, I'll show ya....."

That was about two months ago. Needless to say, I am sooo noob.

I'm borrowing one of his old basses these days until my lefty comes in on order.

On a side note, someone mentioned on this thread the idea of fretting with the more dominant hand makes more sense. I tend to agree. It's curious that the handedness of the bass/guitar is named for the dominant, and yet we are expected (in some cases) to fret with the less dominant hand.

that's a kickass story, nothing's better than when someone goes from thinking "I can't" to "fuck that, I WILL"

music is one of the most amazing forms of expression and a fantastic release IMO and I feel sorry for anyone who's afraid to try. it's about the process as much as it is the result, y'know?

I so hear that. I wasn't always about that though..... i had a teacher in high school who tore a strip off me for "I can't" stuff. I've been willing to try anything ever since