LeftyBassist.com

I feel like playing left-handed is something all of us have had to come to terms with. I remember when I first started doodling around on my (right-handed) friend's guitar, I naturally flipped it over and began playing it lefty (even though I had no idea what I was doing). When he convinced me to buy a bass, I inherently and without any real deliberation chose to buy a left-handed bass. I made no effort to think about the long-term effects this would have, and had no real idea that by playing left-handed I was closing myself of to a whole world of instruments and opportunities. I was just happy to have my very own instrument to play.

All of us at one time or another wonder what kind of musician we would be had we forced ourselves to play right-handed. I can tell you with real conviction that I believe I would not be half the musician I am today if I had decided to play right-handed. Playing lefty just came naturally to me, and my talent improved exponentially in those first years. Despite this conviction, I often regret not at least thinking about it when I first started playing. For my most active years, I literally carried my bass around with me everywhere, so that if some impromptu session came up I would be prepared. I hated going to guitar stores with my friends, and I occasionally got revenge on them by dragging them to southpaw with me. I often brought my own bass to guitar stores just so I would have something to play while they had fun. I used to comfort myself by always saying "at least I don't have to put up with jackasses asking to play my bass."

The biggest benefit to playing left-handed is that you instantly stand out. You are unique. People will pay attention to you. You may have a stronger bond with your instrument since you had to go through a lot of trouble to get it. And as this board evidences, it inducts you to a small, proud, and close-knit group of people who share very similar experiences, frustrations, and knowledge.

Ultimately, I do not regret playing left-handed. I never take what I do for granted. I will never be complacent. I am constantly reminded by the many frustrations that I love making music, and will do pretty much anything to continue doing it. I wear it like a badge of honor. Right-handed players have so many advantages, get everything so easily, that there is no way they appreciate an instrument the way we do. I'm proud to play left-handed. What do you guys think? What are some of your experiences playing left-handed? How do you cope with the many restrictions we face?

As a bonus, here is a photo of me playing a right-handed bass at a punk show my band crashed. I was in a band called Canta Slaus that would crash shows by going onstage during another band's show (most of the time with the band's permission) and playing a terrifyingly heavy and raucus version of "Awesome Sound" by Ween. I always ended up having to play whatever was there and at this particular show someone in the audience threw a shoe onstage, which I picked up and played (if you can call it that). I ended up breaking a few knobs off the bass in the process (I paid for the repairs).

We also had a habit of crashing talent shows (without permission). We were bad people.

For shame!!!

For several years I played in a band called Rich Clifford. I used to get disappointed that nobody got the joke.

There's been one or two debates about this on this and other forums - check out this link:

http://www.leftybassist.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=997

I read that debate and YIKES. I couldn't even get through it. I see that you guys touched on many of the things that I mentioned, but I still think a thread devoted solely to this subject is warranted.

Very interesting discussion on the earlier thread - thanks for showing that Andy K. I really respect what you said in there about teachers not forcing students to play righty - if music is supposed to be about creativity and self expression, why would you force someone to be untrue to their nature?
Here's my .02 (warning to our younger forum members - this is a GEEZER ALERT! - old guy opinion to follow):
I think in the classic rock era (late 60s - early 70s) there was more tolerance for unconventional thinking and appearance; relating to lefties specifically - two of the biggest musicians of that era were lefty (Jimi and Paul) and I don't recall anything much being made of that. I think today much of what passes for unconventional is actually quite stereotyped, scripted and commercialized - not alot of truly original creative expression. Specifically on commericalism in the music gear industry, alot of the 'cool gear' out there is all righty, so (righty) people's opinions are influenced by that, and they think if you want to be cool you gotta play righty.
I may be just romanticizing the days of my youth though, so set me straight if you need to!

Dude, awesome post. I think we share a brain...

Hmmm, Well at the risk of upsetting some folks here, which is certainly NOT my intent, here is my thinking on your question.

First of all I am right handed, I play left handed because a birth defect of my left hand makes it impossible for me to use it on the fretboard. Therefore I had no option but to play lefty and because I have had to adapt to various situations throughout my life there was no "coming to terms" as you put it, I wanted to play bass so I adapted the instrument to work for me, it really was as simple as that.

What seems interesting to me that when I was new to the instrument playing a left handed instrument as a right handed person made much more sense to me as it put my strongest, most dexterous hand on the fretboard. I couldn't understand why all right handers didn't play lefthanded instruments and vice versa. Many make their case for "handedness" by claiming that the "strong" hand is needed for the complex function of strumming/plucking but in my experience this is a fallacy, either hand can be trained for whatever function is necessary. If this were not so then explain pianists or for that matter typists in which both hands must perform independantly complex, rhythmic functions.

I would be willing to bet that most left handed musicians play right handed instruments at no disavantage to their skill. And I personally I think that an instructor does as much disservice to a lefthanded student by NOT determining if he is able to use a right handed instrument as one who insists that a student who shows a clear advantage to playing left handed learn the instrument right handed irregardless.

But I have also noticed a tendency of some lefties to wear their left handedness as a badge. "I am lefthanded, I am special" or more often "Poor me, the world just dosen't understand" (I see this often in people with disabilities too) niether of which is true lefthandedness is not a disability nor a disadvantage and does not convey any particular social status. Walk up to a stranger on the street and tell them you are left handed and they will probably say "So what?". The percentage of lefthanded persons that cannot function perfectly well in a "righthanded" world is extremely small and therefore there is practically no accomodation for them amoungst mass marketed, bottom-line focused product manufacturers. This is not a conspiracy nor even callus disregard, it's just economics.

Furthermore, in over 30 years of playing and performing I have never recieved any negative response from other musicians about playing lefthanded, ever. When I have taken lessons my teachers had no concern about which way the neck of my bass pointed. I will state that I did ask when I initially inquired about lessons if they had any issue with taking on a lefty and if they had I would not have wasted my time being angry or offended but simply thanked them for their time and kept looking. In fact the only place I have encountered any issues have been in internet musician forums!

All this is not to say that I don't have a few pet peeves about instrument manufacturers, I do, but in the final anaylsis these issues are completely irrelevent to my music making and the joy and satisfaction I derive from being a musician. So if any of you, my forum brothers (or sisters) are struggling with "coming to terms" with being a lefthanded musician I trully hope that you can do so as quickly and painlessly as possible so that this stumbling block will be behind you and no longer impede your journey as a bassist and musician.

Cheers!

Now, where's my new Fender catalog....those bastards!

This is exactly the kind of discussion I was hoping would be generated by this thread. One of the the most encouraging things I found in this forum were dissenting opinions that were posted without hesitation but also without malicious intent. Too many forums are filled with either mindless ditto-heads or assholes looking to pick a fight.



I would mostly agree with this statement. I don't particularly feel like I play left-handed because it's somehow more important for my dominant hand to be striking the strings while my recessive hand forms the notes. It could very well be that way, but for me the best answer I can give for why I play left-handed is that it felt natural for me to play that way at the very beginning. When I was handed an instrument even before I became a musician, I always naturally played it left-handed. It just felt right. Playing bass came very naturally to me left-handed. I learned fast and improved exponentially in the first year. I don't believe that if I had been forced to play right-handed I would have learned and improved so fast. It would have taken some time for it to feel natural to play that way before I could begin to improve at any significant rate. But, just to play devil's advocate, I have a left-handed friend named Chaz (the same guy who owns the CT bass from my other thread) who made the conscious decision to play right-handed when he started playing, and he is a great musician. It came to him right-handed just as naturally as it came to me left-handed. All I can say in response to this is that everybody is different, and we will all respond differently to the decisions we have to make.



I also agree with this statement, but I have to point out that this is a tacit admission on your part that playing left-handed has serious drawbacks. Otherwise, why would it be a disservice?



Lefthandedness is certainly not a disability but it is a disadvantage. Virtually every product ever designed that isn't symmetrical is made to be easily used by people who are right-handed. That puts lefties at a disadvantage at virtually every turn. The point of this thread is not necessarily to whine about being mistreated. It is more of an opportunity to reflect on our experiences and ask if we made the right choice. Ultimately every one of us (except for you of course) knows that we could have learned to play right-handed, and it is a necessary step in our musical development to come to terms with the choice we made. We do not deserve pity, and we are not asking for it. We made our choices and we live with them. By sharing our individual experiences with playing left-handed, we are provided an opportunity to strengthen our collective bonds and I think that would be good for the forum.



I would argue that a lack of left-handed products being a result of economics by virtue is a callous disregard for our needs. They don't care about us because economically we don't matter.



Again, I don't think coming to terms with the way we play is an impediment to our journey as musicians; rather I think of it as a necessary step. We as pragmatic beings have to come to terms with every major decision we make in our lives, and determining which way we play our instruments certainly qualifies as a major decision. And I don't mean any offense, but you may not be qualified to assess the value of our coming to terms with playing lefty. You did not choose to play left-handed, you had left-handedness thrust upon you. You have nothing to come to terms with, no regrets to harbor, because you had no choice. You share all of our frustrations over playing left-handed but you never have to reassess whether it was all worth it. For you there is no "it".

Handedness is certainly a difficult issue to get a proper handle on. I hope it's fairly clear from the link I posted above where I stand in this debate, so I trust folks will forgive me if I don't rehearse it all again. However people do make handedness choices for a whole bunch of different reasons, not always easy to fathom. One point I feel I should make though... given that around 90% of people think of themselves as right handed, one of the main issues for tutors is to determine whether a student feels more comfortable playing lefthanded, not the other way round (and with great respect to Basshappi, I do have to disagree with him on the point of testing whether a clearly lefthanded student can play right handed - it doesn't work that way, mainly because a lefty in a righty world will generally know it long before they sit down in front of a tutor; to then ask them to see if they fancy playing righthanded... ).

I'm glad that we can all talk about this as adults, very refreshing!

It may seem strange to some but even though I am right handed all my life has been left hand focused and as a musician I have always concieved myself as being lefthanded and lefties as "my people".........I hope I'm not about to get kicked out of the lodge!

One thing that I edited out of my original post because I couldn't make it fit the flow of my thoughts was that I have noticed that (no offense to anyone, I just can't think of a better way to describe this) some people are "more lefthanded than others" and generally speaking these are the people most likely to need a lefthanded instrument. They simply will not be as comfortable or progress as quickly on a right handed instrument. However, there is no reason not to play which ever way you want to, there is no "wrong" or "right" to the issue. Take Greta Brinkman for example she is right handed and plays lefthanded simply because the only bass she had when she was learning was a lefty and so she just went with what she had and played it.

As for any "tacit" admission that there are drawbacks to playing lefthanded, let me clearly "un-tacify" it There are, but then I think we all know that. The important thing to keep in mind is that unless you seek a career as a orchestral bassist the drawbacks are all material i.e selection of instruments and their associated options/prices. This doesn't aversly effect ones ability to be a competent and successful musician or prevent one from having enriching and rewarding experiences playing our chosen instrument and interacting with our musical peers.

It seems to me that most of our gripes and complaints focus around instrument manufacturers and their products or lack of them. I have heard some of us complain that they have been treated poorly by other musicians specifically because they play lefthanded, this is outrageous and no one should stand for that! If this happens then the people who do such things are not musicians worthy of ones time or talent. It has been my experience that true, mature musicians only care about what happens when you play not what color your skin is or what your native tongue or which way your instruments neck points (though that may make a difference on a small stage! )

Perhaps as reynoldbot has pointed out, I am not well equipped to assess the "coming to terms" with playing lefthanded as I have no choice and never did. But to me "coming to terms" means that there is some insurmountable obstacle that must be worked around or that a person is experiencing self-doubt or other inner conflict as a result and if this is what you meant then I do, by God, understand that! I could relate personal experiences that would make you cringe that were directly atributable to the fact that my left hand is a bit different than everyone else's, but so what, that's just a pathetic game of "my suffering is worse than yours" and it's BS. However, it is true that these experiences have made it difficult for me to view which way a person's instrument hangs as an "issue", but I also accept your statement that for some it is. Therefore I really do want to try to help those who have this quandry and I'm willing to share my personal observations and viewpoints on "coming to terms" if anyone is interested.

Again thank you for your courteous responses and I'm looking forward to how this discussion develops.


Cheers!

This is a really good discussion, and it's nice to see it conducted in a mature fashion, I agree with you basshappi. I also agree that there are some who are more 'lefthanded' than others, it may just be habit or biology, but some of us (I am one) are strongly oriented in that direction. I admire you for being able to play lefty, can't imagine doing that kind of switch (to righty) myself. For alot of us, the frustration comes down to availability of basses, as you said. Although it is better now as compared to years ago. I must say also that I try to do business with companies (like G&L and Carvin) that provide their full product line to lefties, figuring that if enough of us do that it begins to shift the market.