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I've been playing guitar since I was a little kid. I wonder how learning "two-handed" skills such as playing music impacts how "handy" or "polydextrous" one is.
by wvh 5mo ago
I've been playing guitar since I was a little kid. I wonder how learning "two-handed" skills such as playing music impacts how "handy" or "polydextrous" one is.
There are left-handed guitar players that play right-handed, such as Nick Johnston, who claim the gaps in their technique or preference for certain left-hand-only techniques are informed by being left-handed; so it seems that a life-long of an insane amount of practice does not necessary change how comfortable one is using either hand for a given task.
- postexitus 5mo agoSome of the best guitarists I have met are left-handed playing right-handed guitar ones. Which also makes sense - The more difficult part of playing the guitar is not fingering/picking, it's the fretboard. By using their dominant hand on the fretboard they have a genuine advantage. I've never understood why we formed the right handed guitar to have the dominant hand on the body. There must be a reason.
- AlecSchueler 5mo ago> The more difficult part of playing the guitar is not fingering/picking, it's the fretboard. I would have said the opposite. The fretting hand only needs to press onto the strings in the correct places whereas the picking hand is responsible for all the subtlety of expression in terms of how you attack the string. Saying this as a professional mandolin player fwiw.
- postexitus 5mo agoWhile true - left hand changes position all the time and has to go on the correct frets all the time - right hand is gentle and subtler, I agree, but is also a lot more forgiving.
- vikingerik 5mo agoI think this reason is dependency. Anything I'm doing where the action of one hand depends on the other has to go left-to-right. I can only finger frets with the left and then pick with the right. Can't go the other way, can't have the right hand act before the left, even if the left has the more complex task. It's like Super Mario Bros. With a 4-way d-pad and 2 action buttons, why is the more complex 4-way on the left? Because most of the time you're holding a direction first with less requirement for precise timing, and then pressing the button at the correct instant depending on the movement. (We're talking general platformer play, not hyper precise d-pad moves for something like Super Metroid speedrunning.) Even typing on a keyboard, I never hold a right-side shift or other modifier key, it's always left-shift then the target key.
- hilbert42 5mo agoSee my comment, I'm much better at playing with my less dominant hand (even after many years).
- peepee1982 5mo agoI write with my left hand but play guitar right-handed. I don't think it had any effect on my playing, because I think I'm a naturally right-handed guitar player. Here's a list of things and whether I do them right- or left-handed: ┌───────────────────────────┬───────────┐ │ Activity │ Hand │ ├───────────────────────────┼───────────┤ │ Baseball (Bat/Catch) │ Left │ │ Hold Spoon │ Left │ │ Soccer │ Left │ │ Tennis │ Left │ │ Throw Ball │ Left │ │ Darts │ Left │ │ Write │ Left │ ├───────────────────────────┼───────────┤ │ Bow and Arrow │ Right │ │ Hold Fork/Knife │ Right │ │ Play Drums │ Right │ │ Scissor │ Right │ │ Shoot Rifle (Nerf Gun) │ Right │ │ Skateboard/Snowboard │ Right │ │ Use Mouse │ Right │ └───────────────────────────┴───────────┘ Basically, the only reason I call myself left-handed is because I write with my left hand. All in all, I have no idea if I do more things left handed or right handed.
- daveslash 5mo agoI'm similar. I do very little with both hands, but I'm split between left and right on individual things. Throw is right, write is left. Where I especially get hung up is learning something to do with feet - surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, etc... I struggle to figure out which one is my preference. I usually find that I'm equally bad at both.
- peepee1982 5mo agoOur sports teacher in high-school would tell us to stand straight. Then he would shove us from the back a few times. The foot we would stop ourselves from falling would be our leading foot (for snowboarding). So if you catch your fall with your left foot, you're regular. Otherwise goofy. Don't know if that's a safe bet, but it seemed to work out for us back then. OTOH: I am convinced I can't snap my fingers with my right hand and never will because my specific mix of handed-ness makes it impossible for me to do so, no matter how hard I try and practice. No problem at all with my left hand.