The other day I was wondering if lefties might actually have an advantage on bass because with a right handed bass you are using your dominant hand to do the part that requires more movement and dexterity. Plucking and picking requires it too but in my experience fretting requires more.
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Ditto. It still baffles me that this doesn’t seem to be the case and I keep falling into the logic that it’s only convention that makes us expect it to be the case.
Do they exist? That’s one of those thoughts/observations that make you wonder what else you’ve never noticed, isn’t it. Then again, there aren’t any left handed pianos either. There aren’t, are there?
In my family there are two lefties so I grew up knowing that they struggled with everyday things - woe betide anybody who used my mum’s left handed scissors! She was at school when they still forced you to write with your right hand, and although my brother never had it that hard he would still be treated differently by teachers who were in my mum’s generation. My observation through life has been that most lefties are quite ambidextrous. I don’t think it’s genetic so it must just be sheer necessity.
I wonder: are there any right handed players who chose to play left handed?
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I think we could probably learn to play with whatever we get put into our hands as a beginner (i.e., before we get “conditioned” and train our brains and muscles)… it is often just a matter of adjusting to that particular given situation! Beyond that, it is a lot about “monkey see, monkey do”. Phil Mickelson (the golfer) apparently is a right-handed person, but when he learned, he stood opposite his dad and literally mirrored/mimicked what he was doing and thus learned to play “left-handed”.
Most of us accept what is as the “norm” - “that’s how the piano is played! That’s how the bass is played! Deal with it!” But, occasionally, there are people challenging these “norms” - drummers who arrange their drums very differently; bass players, like Jimmy Haslip (of the Yellowjackets) playing left-handed on a right-hand bass (i.e., strung like a “normal” bass); I guess Jimmy Hendrix did the same on guitar, etc.
Haha, just tried to play my bass the “wrong” way around… hopeless! A bit like accidentally stepping on the brakes with your clutch foot (using the same force that you are used to apply with that foot) after first switching to a car with automatic gear 
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Yeah, my boss handed me his lefty acoustic once and my brain just couldn’t deal with it, total lockup 
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Really? I didn’t know that. Funnily enough, just this week I was thinking it would be neat to watch left handed instruction videos because it’s easier to mirror the person than to transpose what they’re doing - especially when you’re still learning the neck.
I’m guessing you won’t be the only person here to try that today.
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When I was little, I used to go after the lefty scissors, etc. But, after a time, I’d got tired of the lefty “penalty box” (crappy scissors, looking for that special thing, etc.). So, I started adapting to the right handed world in which I live; I can fly on the 10-key with my right hand, and a few other things. But, left handed I remain. I throw left, and I write left. I was the lonely lefty in my family. The nearest lefty in my family tree was a great uncle (the only lefty in the family I ever knew!). I married a righty who was from a family of lefties thinking my progeny would be a lefty – not to be, I am still alone.
Thinking back to the accordion and the right handed bass, it is interesting that you keep rhythm with the right hand on the bass, but on the accordion rhythm is on the left hand (bass buttons!). Both right handed instruments, but opposite hands keep the beat. Again I find the trick (hard part) is getting the hands to play cooperatively together.
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I can relate. When I used to bowl; I bowled left handed. I was surrounded with some really good bowlers, and I always had to invert / mirror image what I saw as I learned and improved my technique. My best friend asked me when I started out, “Are you going to get a left handed guitar?” Nope, tired of the mind tricks I had to play to learn, and besides I was starting out fresh. Same with golf. I am equally incompetent on both sides of the tee, so I tried it on the right side.
Oh yes! I’ve done that! Been there!
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Being a lefty it just fells natural to me.
In my opinion the plucking hand should be the “main” hand, it will be superior in dynamics, also the part of the brain responsable for an individual being lefty is also the parts of the brain that is responsable for the artistic and coordenation stuff some say (maybe…)
For me the plucking hand is where the soul comes from, the fretting hand will be more of a funcional thing. In the beggining neither hand will be used to the position or streching required for the fretting job so… in the long run, i think the right choice is to go with the main hand for the plucking.
I really was with that question on my head before starting (lefty or right) and that is really my Newb opinion 
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Definitely a point well taken on the plucking hand. In my case however, speaking just for myself, I’ve managed to acquire skills on my non-dominant hand that far exceed my left hand.
I believe (in general) lefties and righties differ in more respects than simply the hand they prefer to use. Living in a right-handed world, lefties have become more adaptable. They have to. For example, I don’t write with my right hand, but my writing with my right hand is much better that a typical right-hander trying to write left handed. Why is this? When I was 25, I suffered a finger crush injury to my right ring finger, and subsequently lost the use of my right hand for 3 months. Believe me, I missed that hand more than I could have ever realized! I need them both! I use them both. I think I could learn to play bass either way, but for me I just get so tired of dealing with looking everything in reverse, inverted, transposed, etc. Had I not competed in bowling, maybe I wouldn’t feel that way. Just got so tired of being different. Don’t get me wrong, I am a proud lefty–but I have a right hand too, and I like to use them both. 
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This has been a fascinating detour into left/right handed matters. Maybe it justifies a thread of its own? Future new arrivals could find it enlightening & helpful.
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Well, it’s been 6 weeks since I asked the question about Index vs. Middle, and since then I learned to lead with the index finger. Everything working like a well oiled machine and then…
Billie Jean.
According to Josh, the Index Finger is not the one, or the two, or the three. It’s the “and” and this really did a number on me. I pluck the right strings; I fret the right frets, but now my fingers are confused – lost.
I guess my index finger wants to be the “upbeat” finger? Does this make sense? On Bootsy’s ONE I feel like it’s got to be the ONE finger. If I start on the Middle Finger, my fingers will try to correct themselves by getting the Index finger back on the ONE.
“Index Finger is not my leader
It’s just a finger that claims that it’s the one
But the rhythm is all wrong
It says I am the one, but the rhythm’s all wrong”
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Even if I intend to play a certain note with a certain finger, either on the left or right hand, sometimes it gets lost in translation in my brain. However, the music generated including notes after, don’t usually suffer. Not sure what you do when this happens, but I would just keep playing. If it is crucial to you, then focus a lot on it and you’ll get there in time. But just remember that the main thing you want is for the output (sound) to sound good. There are many ways/techniques on a bass to get the same output.
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Sometimes your hand knows better than even our sensei. I tried to force my index to lead but it concedes to my middle every time. I’m happy with that because it works.
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OK, so here’s the thing:
Stretch your fingers and look at them. The middle finger sticks out the furthest.
Now imagine resting your thumb on the pickup – or on the e-string. You’ll see that the middle finger is the one that comes closest to the G-string (shut you there in the back). Or, in other words, the middle finger is reaching the furthest away from your face if you position your right hand over the string.
So, if you want to transition upwards, it is arguably the easiest to transition using the middle finger, but if you need to transition downwards (towards a string closer to your face), it is easier to make the transition with the index finger. And that’s what happens at the beginning of the bars in Billie Jean.
Now, in my new arch enemy, Module 6 Lesson 4, Josh also tells me to start with the middle finger. If I apply my above reasoning, I do not understand why this is, because there are upwards as well as downwards string transitions.
So I think it would be interesting if @JoshFossgreen would provide us with the rationale behind this – when he subjected us to Billie Jean, he merely said that it was too complex to explain, or something like that.
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And in a separate reply:
I have the same issue, and I, or rather my right hand, which seems to have its own brain stem, recently added another one to it. When I got me a bass and started dabbling with it, rather than jump on this course, I started out dabbling.
I looked at quite a lot of YouTube videos of bass players I liked, and I saw that akmost all of them used indes/middle/ring finger on the right hand. So I made it a point to do that too… and in one of the Bassbuzz lessons, I trapped myself doing exactly that. Daaaaaang…
The reason why we use the non-dominant hand for fretting, and the dominant hand for plucking, is (I think) because our dominant hand (the right hand for most of us) has much better fine-motion control, which is what you need on plucking (think dynamics). The left hand fingers only need to be in the right position at the right time – there is no dynamic control involved.
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@PeteP @Jt What you are describing is what’s going with my. My mind is autocorrecting, and the rhythm is ok. I’m getting there, it’s just that I don’t know if I am alternating or not because I feel very unnatural. Maybe it’s time to video myself…
@peterhuppertz I hear ya. There’s got to be a good reason, and I trust Josh. He might not explain why exactly at the moment, but there’s a reason. I just do my best to do what he advises. It can be done; he himself is a lefty too.
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So, I had this in a different thread back in December, but it probably bears re-posting here: this is an exercise I like that forces me to really pay attention to the fingers I use. The exercise involves string-crossing and thus it also uses “raking” together with “alternate” plucking. The main rhythmic figure contains five notes and is repeated four times with two string crossings, and if you use raking, then the sequence of index-middle gets broken and becomes “asymmetric”, meaning that while you start the entire sequence with your index finger the first time, you will have to start on your middle finger the next time, and so on. (If you are not “raking”, then it should be “symmetric” with respect to your starting finger).
This all sounds more complicated than it is - but it still is challenging to play, and thus a good exercise.
Here is the hand-written sheet music - hope it is all legible and understandable:
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I would be sooooo tempted to play that with three fingers.
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Might be worth a try!!
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Do I really? I’m using index-middle in fast workout, from what I can see. The line is playable either way, but index-middle seems easier, unless past-Josh knew something present-Josh doesn’t…
I find this is more true in transition upwards than downwards, because of the angle we attack the bass at, kinda works to come down with either finger. But I often try (or just hope) to be on my middle finger when going upwards, for sure.
Hmm I’m not sure about this! Fretting requires more precision positioning, plucking is a less nuanced motion (besides the dynamic control). As a random piece of fun data, my chiropractor says he noticed a distinct difference in my forearms, the plucking forearm has more brute strength and the fretting forearm has more differentiated/nuanced muscle development (except he used technical terms I don’t remember).
Unless you’re tapping, then all bets are off. 
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