I just finished module 5 and I am questioning my choice to go right-handed to learn bass. I’m sure practice will make it all better, but I am struggling with my right pickers when switching strings and playing lots of 8th notes. Is it a thing to want to lead with my middle finger instead of the index and should I fight that or keep practicing proper index, middle rotation? I was thinking of picking up a cheap left handed bass and see if it feels any more natural. I am a lifelong drummer and play my kit right handed, and always had issues leading fills with my right hand, so wanted to force learning more with bass. Any thoughts?
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Another righty playing lefty here.
Since both hands have to learn new skills anyway, my philosophy has always been that it doesn’t really matter which does what. Other musicians like pianists and violinists don’t really get a choice, after all. I’ve learned righty just fine, though my fast picking speed will take some practice to match what my left could naturally do.
On the other hand some people never get comfortable and just have to switch - lefty basses surely exist for a reason. But if you try going lefty, you’ve gotta commit to it for at least a few months without touching a righty bass. Since your hands are swapping roles, it’s going to feel like starting over. If you flip back and forth, you’ll just confuse your muscle memory and end up uncomfortable with both.
Funny enough I just picked up a drum kit and I plan on setting it up right-handed. I don’t expect to be joining a band or anything, but I don’t want to lock myself out of the option. I’ve heard of drummers with lefty setups getting passed over just because of the hassle of having to reset every drum kit in every rehearsal or performance space to accommodate them.
The biggest downside to playing a lefty bass is just never being able to borrow gear and having to buy most of your instruments online without trying them first. Compared to a lefty drum kit, if you’re fine with that tradeoff it’s not a huge deal.
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I’m also a lefty playing right-handed. I first learned guitar that way years ago because there’s just so much more right-handed gear available, and it just feels natural now. Like CrayWolf says, both hands have to learn new skills, and TBH I suspect if you were to switch now you’d then find fretting to be the hard part. But you’re still early in your progress so it probably doesn’t hurt to try a left-handed bass at this stage to see if it feels better for you. If you pick up a tennis racket and play air guitar with it, how do you hold it? That might be a clue.
As far as leading with the middle instead of the index finger, Josh’s insistence on plucking the way he says is a technique drill to build consistency. But I’m working through the course a second time and I noticed there was a chugging exercise in Module 6 where he mentions that you could practice it starting with either finger, because in some situations it’s easier to start with one over the other. So I’d say work on starting with the index, since the course is designed the way it is for a reason and the techniques build as you go along, but know that really it’s situational which finger is best so you should eventually try to get comfortable with either.
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Yes just power through it. When you are a beginner of anything, everything is hard, left or right handed. Repetition helps with muscle memory and makes things less awkward.
I play drums cross handed for the longest time until I saw one of Simon Phillips video then I decided to try open handed and play hi-hat with my left hand but keeps everything else the same. It took quite sometime to get used to but eventually all but more demanding one handed 16th, I can do it on my left hand, and left lead fills somehow just came automatically for me.
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Not to derail the thread too much from OP’s question, but since I’m about to start learning drums, would you recommend that for a lefty? I definitely want to keep a right-handed setup but I’ve heard some lefties prefer open-handed playing and some go full right-handed. It’s just swapping hi-hat/snare hands and doing everything else the same as a righty?
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This is basically just trivia, but it took around a year of playing bass righty for my air guitar instinct to even start to flip from lefty to righty, and a bit longer for it to start feeling more natural.
Meanwhile my right-handed spouse has, somehow, always had the instinct to air guitar left handed. He doesn’t do anything left-handed except that. It’s wild.
If the thread is not derailed then it’s not a BassBuzz forum thread, 
If you have a Vdrum or E kit then it’s easy because hihat controller can be assigned to a couple of cymbal pads. On acoustic set you just have to commit. As you can see I have 2 sets of bass pedal I can chose to play and on my main position I can also choose to play bass drum on either left or right foot which I do from time to time just to extend my left hand Kung Fu.
If your kit permits I highly recommend you try it as is for right handed. The only thing you’ll need to add is a bell on the left side.
Here’s one of my acoustic set, love the 1 up 1 down setup.
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That was definitely the plan. It’s an e-kit - found a code for $500 off the Roland TD316, that was hard to pass up.
Thanks for the advice!
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Oh Yeah!!!
That’s an excellent module, V31. You can slowly build the kit and have it both ways. Unless you have to share your music with others (wife and kids) skip the Amp and use either headphones or IEMs. It never works right because you just hear the clacking sounds when you hit the pads, better to skip it altogether. 
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I learned to play Drum Set on my own before and played open left hand high hat since, but knew it was being a little lazy, so now Im thinking to go back and resally focus on right handed high hat to get more of Josh’s cool SyNcoPatION in my limbs. I was just struggling with the Rock star song I can do the fretting with my left or the correct plucking, but not both yet, and thats what I am ready to over come!
Isn’t Josh left handed, but learned righty because that’s what instruments he had available to him?
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yup
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Lefty playing righty here as well @mrsarcazim Started 6 years ago from scratch.
Work through it. It will come, but you just have to get your head down and put in the work.
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I still think having the dominant hand fretting makes much more sense. I think us righties get shafted with right handed guitars
I have tried a friend’s lefty though and I was terrible, so who knows.
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I am sure there are plenty of threads here, but as I got into lesson 8 and that catchy smash mouth daddy, my right hand had no clue how to change strings and alternate and while I know it’s going to get better, it really frustrates me to feel so out of rhythm in some otherwise nimble fingers. Question, is it better to just slow it all down and practice the fret, finger combo or power through single plucking and make it bad habits? Yes I know I answered myself, but no one said I had to be patient.
You can be impatient sure. But you will lose in the long run. It’s a long old game, measured in years of consistent practice.
I have almost completted the course. Strong Lefty but went Righty. Glad I did. My left hand fretwork learning was quicker and becoming much easier. My right hand fingering has become natural feeling now.
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A little update to my lefty-learning-righty adventure, because today turned into one of those days where every decision somehow made perfect sense right up until it didn’t. 
What actually sent me into Guitar Center this morning was curiosity about left-handed basses. I’m naturally left-handed, but I’ve been learning on a normal right-handed bass for the past few weeks, so I wanted to finally pick up a true lefty and see whether I had made the right choice.
Then I saw it.
A used Fender Player Jazz Bass in Capri Orange for about $700.
Beautiful bass. Great color. Exactly the kind of thing that could have tempted me into making a very expensive decision.
I picked it up fully prepared for the possibility that it might feel amazing and send me home questioning everything.
Instead, it felt completely wrong.
Not just unfamiliar. Wrong.
After only a few weeks of learning right-handed, my hands and brain had apparently already decided that right-handed bass was home. That was actually a pretty big moment for me, because it finally killed the lingering thought that maybe I should switch to lefty.
So naturally, having just saved myself $700, I moved on to creating a completely different problem.
My wrists have been aching from too many lightning-round practice sessions, my fingers are still flailing around trying to learn where they belong, and suddenly every bass I picked up in the store felt gigantic compared with mine.
I tried a Jazz, a few others, and a used Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Bass Special that I really liked.
At this point I had completely convinced myself that my current bass must be some kind of short-scale “baby bass” and that I obviously needed a proper full-size 34” instrument if I was going to learn correctly.
So naturally, I bought the Jaguar.
Then I got home and measured my original red Squier.
Nut to 12th fret: about 17”.
Measured the Jaguar.
Same.
Turns out I have been learning on a full-size 34” bass the entire time.
So today I confirmed four important things:
- I definitely don’t want to switch to a left-handed bass.
- My original bass was never a baby bass.
- My wrists hurt because I’ve been practicing too much, not because my bass is too small.
- Apparently the correct response to all of this was still to buy a second bass.
And if my wife asks, I’m going with the highly technical explanation that the active electronics were essential to my education.
Also, according to my math, I did not spend $235 on a Jaguar.
I saved $700 on the left-handed Fender and therefore made a $465 profit.
I see no flaws in this reasoning.
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Late to the thread, and glad to see you found such a good financially sound solution!
I’m a lefty who plays righty now, but tried for decades off and on to play guitar and uke lefthanded. I didn’t even try right handed because I just assumed I needed to play lefty.
Eventually someone suggested I just try righty anyway and it all clicked. Finally everything worked and felt comfortable.
So… you never know. I encourage all lefties to try both if you are struggling. Don’t be like me and waste decades barking up the wrong tree!
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Sounds like good financial reaoning to me! Nothing like saving a few hundred dollars.
I too recently saved several hundred dollars buying a Rumble 100 for $350 instead of a Rumble 800 for $900. Saved $550 dollars!
Amazing how studying Nashville Numbers improves your Math skills! 
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