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Post by pete12345 on Feb 29, 2008 17:25:13 GMT -5
Hi all. Just a little experiment to see which way round everyone holds their guitar. I am naturally left handed, but I have always played the guitar right handed (probably because I never got the chance to try a left hander) Anyway,it makes more sense to me to use your dominant hand on the neck. Not that learning lefty as well wouldn't be cool, and swapping to an opposite hand guitar on stage would be a good trick Pete
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Post by ashcatlt on Mar 1, 2008 1:05:15 GMT -5
Would be cool if you had a "Dual Guitar Attack" ala Queensryche (first example that jumped to mind).
Could have this stage show with dueling solos. One guitarist walks up to the mic and looks to the other:
"You're good!"
"Why are you smiling then?"
"Because I know something you don't know..."
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Post by sumgai on Mar 1, 2008 2:44:56 GMT -5
........or you could try this stunt:
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Post by spitfire23bc on Mar 1, 2008 6:28:03 GMT -5
Would be cool if you had a "Dual Guitar Attack" ala Queensryche (first example that jumped to mind). Could have this stage show with dueling solos. One guitarist walks up to the mic and looks to the other: "You're good!" "Why are you smiling then?" "Because I know something you don't know..." Dude, +1 for the reference, although I think this sort of situation would be INCONCEIVABLE! ;D
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Post by jmartyg on Mar 2, 2008 0:26:27 GMT -5
Would be cool if you had a "Dual Guitar Attack" ala Queensryche (first example that jumped to mind). Could have this stage show with dueling solos. One guitarist walks up to the mic and looks to the other: "You're good!" "Why are you smiling then?" "Because I know something you don't know..." i love that movie. even before it became a cult classic. I do EVERYTHING left handed. i'm one of the few who cannot function in a right handed world. 40% of all serial killers are left handed. is 40% of the population? nope. EDIT: his arms are crossed in that vid, it doesnt count.... where is that thing with vai and that heart shaped beast?
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Post by Runewalker on Mar 2, 2008 8:50:57 GMT -5
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Post by newey on Mar 2, 2008 11:02:10 GMT -5
AHA! A eureka moment reading something Sumgai posted on the old thread above. I'm extremely right-handed, and at home I usually practice standing up, using my dominant right foot to keep time. But when I go to my lessons, the room is set up for sitting down and playing, which puts my guitar on my right knee, meaning I can't use the right foot as it jiggles the guitar too much. So I keep time with my left foot there, but can't do it very well. The reason why never occurred to me until just now!
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Post by sumgai on Mar 2, 2008 15:59:35 GMT -5
newey,
You're welcome - no charge! ;D
sumgai
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Post by ChrisK on Mar 2, 2008 16:30:34 GMT -5
I wonder what kind of cup one needs to wear when playing that thing.................
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Post by sumgai on Mar 2, 2008 16:53:53 GMT -5
Chris,
I about choked on my peanuts when I read that! +1!!
sumgai
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Post by ssstonelover on Mar 4, 2008 1:55:10 GMT -5
I play leftie and am happy about it except when looking for a guitar or if trying someone else's; but then of course they have trouble using mine, so this might give them some some idea of living in a backward world, something I deal with every day and can't gripe about. This is one area I can be leftie....even if at a cost.
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Post by pete12345 on Mar 4, 2008 9:15:44 GMT -5
One of these days I'll get a lefty or restring my strat and force myself to play it! Even though I can't play lefty at the moment, it feels oddly comfortable holding one that way Pete
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Post by cynical1 on Mar 8, 2008 16:23:12 GMT -5
Anyway,it makes more sense to me to use your dominant hand on the neck. I would have to agree with you on that. I'm left handed, but always played a right handed bass. About 20+ years ago I tried to play left handed bass. After 6 months I gave up. The left hand was always stronger and more articulate. Just my 2 cents Happy Trails Cynical1
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Post by andy on Mar 27, 2008 11:44:06 GMT -5
Well, I hate to be pedantic, but I play guitar with both hands! That Em7sus4 sounds a bit boring after a few strums with just my right...
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Post by pete12345 on Apr 7, 2008 14:26:29 GMT -5
lol.. should have guessed some smarty would come up with that
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Post by gitpiddler on May 19, 2008 21:49:31 GMT -5
pete & cyn1, +1 here. i figure maybe 3 yrs. on a cello beforehand started me playing righty. steve morse also said that playing 'righty' is using your left to do most of the creative work. i write lefty, but mouse righty, leaving the writing hand free. cheers, git
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Post by pete12345 on May 20, 2008 14:51:36 GMT -5
i write lefty, but mouse righty, leaving the writing hand free. cheers, git Same here. I can almost type one-handed with my left, so use the mouse with my right. I think I'm fairly ambidextrous- the only things I can't do with my right hand is drive and use a pen. When I'm driving I steer mainly with my left, and just use my right to steady the wheel when I have to change gear. Guitaring though, I've had a go with it turned over, but I suppose I won't get a true feel for left-handed playing unless I try one with reversed strings. Pete
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Post by newey on May 20, 2008 19:44:40 GMT -5
Pete- Took me a minute on that, then I remembered where you're driving!
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Post by pete12345 on May 24, 2008 8:29:13 GMT -5
Yeah, we tend to drive on the wrong side of the road over here... or perhaps left is right and right is wrong? I had a friend over a couple of days ago who had a go on my guitar. Being a fellow lefty, and having never played guitar before, he picked it up left-handed. He just couldn't get the hang of playing it right-handed, so he carried on playing it left-handed, upside down strings and all. Maybe I should learn to play that way sometime. Pete
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Post by warmstrat on Sept 21, 2008 10:12:13 GMT -5
I met a guy the other day who plays beautiful sweet fingerpicking melodies left-handed on a right handed guitar. He had all the regular bass thumb strokes going and everything - using his ring finger.
It was amazing.
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Post by ashcatlt on Sept 21, 2008 10:29:11 GMT -5
Well, I hate to be pedantic, but I play guitar with both hands! That Em7sus4 sounds a bit boring after a few strums with just my right... I guess I never posted my playing preference in this thread, but first I have to correct this. It's actually Em11. E7sus4 wouldn't have a 3rd, and would be neither major nor minor. I could swear I've related this story around here before. Aw well. I play right handed and always have. Can't even imagine trying to play left handed. Early in my "career", my best friend was a couple steps behind me in learning to play. He's left handed, but his mom wouldn't let him restring his guitar, claiming that Hendrix never bothered to restring his. I'm pretty sure that's false, but it did turn out to be a benefit to him to learn to play "normal" guitars without having to restring them. I was teaching him, and got pretty used to looking at the guitar upside down and translating fingerings for him. Years later my youngest brother starts playing guitar. He's left handed too, and learned to play on a left-handed guitar. Can't do much with a right-hander. It makes him very angry when I pick up his guitar and just play like there's nothing unusual at all! I laugh at him. This skill also comes in handy when playing things like mandolin, where the chord shapes are basically just upside down from what they would be on guitar. Sure, the notes are in different octaves, but the shapes are the same.
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Post by andy on Sept 23, 2008 4:26:30 GMT -5
E7sus4 wouldn't have a 3rd, and would be neither major nor minor. Hee Hee, another reason why my parents were right- I DID waste my time and money at music school! I think to be a complete 11th it needs all the steps prior to it (still needs 9th?) so might be an 'add 11' or something. Either way, quite right, sus (suspended) 4 or 2 really ought to be sub (substituted) 4 or 2, as it is in place of the third. And I ought to have remembered that!
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Post by ashcatlt on Sept 23, 2008 13:02:07 GMT -5
I think to be a complete 11th it needs all the steps prior to it (still needs 9th?) so might be an 'add 11' or something. This was news to me, but I checked and you're right! Good gravy, in a close voicing (impossible on standard tuned guitar) you'd have 5 scale tones in a row! I'm going to have to try this... So it's Em7add11. When I used to do the Cafe Be At Nights in the French Quarter, we once had a mentally handicapped homeless man spend almost an hour playing that chord in perfect rythm while adapting Beatles and Beachboys songs to incorporate the people in the room and the events of his day. Oh, those were the days!
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Post by ashcatlt on Sept 23, 2008 13:04:15 GMT -5
i write lefty, but mouse righty, leaving the writing hand free. cheers, git Same here. I can almost type one-handed with my left, so use the mouse with my right. Ack! Then these lead me to think about the author of a website I used to maintain. Whenever he came to us with a "bug report," we used to accuse him of typing with one hand... It was an adult website...
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Post by andy on Sept 24, 2008 5:16:43 GMT -5
Ash, perhaps between the two of us, we'll learn to play guitar one day! ;D And I suppose we can think of the one-hand-typing skill as a modern example of the human species' inventive adaptability to any task which it may encounter! What with opposable thumbs and all...
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Post by crazymanandy on Nov 23, 2008 3:00:48 GMT -5
I'm right handed. I tried flipping the guitar over and playing lefty. I couldn't even make a chord! LOL!
Typing with my left hand is pretty easy. I can't write with it though.
CMA
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Post by crazymanandy on Nov 23, 2008 3:02:01 GMT -5
Pete- Took me a minute on that, then I remembered where you're driving! Ditto. ;D
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Post by BlackAngusYoung on Feb 10, 2011 13:28:40 GMT -5
This is an interesting topic and timely for me. I'm right handed but have been doing all writing with my left hand for the past 3 months and also trying to use it for dominant-hand tasks as often as I remember. I've been doing this since seeing the website of a guy called The Hammer Man, who has trained himself to be ambidextrous and ultra-coordinated by bouncing a golf ball on the heads of various types of hammer. I heard about him through YouTube guitar teachers. He was on Letterman, too. It makes sense to me that working on your left hand's ability would make a lot of things more precise, most importantly fretting.
I also really liked what sumgai wrote on that earlier thread. I doubt there'd be any benefit for myself to get to the point of being able to play a lefty guitar, but probably not a bad idea to be as capable as possible with both hands. Though it would be cool to try that.... especially if I find a great deal on a cool lefty.
I've always been right-handed for writing, but if I rode my bike I could keep going straight holding only the left grip but would be all over the place if steering with just my right hand. Same goes for driving a car, which is handy since I can hold the wheel and change the CD! But if there was any real steering required I'd be better off with just the right.
Since starting with computers, I used my left hand for mouse because my mom is left handed and her's was the first computer in the family. At first, I'd switch the mouse over to the other side but soon just started sitting down and using it as it was. I find it so much more convenient because I can mouse with the left and type with the right. I've converted at least one person, too. (At least!)
That info about the difference between the fine, precise stuff and the automatic is very cool. I like the ideas about holding a chord compared to beating out the rhythm. It wouldn't be as precise if I tried to keep time with my left hand for too long. Just like my handwriting with left is getting faster and more legible... but there are sudden weird lines or circles which I can't completely control. Like, I'll be writing something but one letter turns out 5 times bigger than the others and ends in a streak across the page that I didn't see coming.
I have a Sears catalogue desk in my secondhand shop. I've been doing all the daily paperwork with my left hand for the last 3 months or so. Whenever I'm writing something with the customer there, I use my right hand so I don't look stupid and struggling. Though it's my new habit to grab the pen with my left hand, so I'll now start filling out a form or whatever for someone and then switch partway through, which I don't think has been noticed yet.
I think it would be cool to be able to play something "backwards" just because you might find something interesting you normally wouldn't... just like trying a different model of guitar or another instrument altogether.
Of course... we happen to be into guitars here. But what about ambidextrous theremin? With no resistance to help hold things in place.... that would be good exercise.
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