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Help: Hey Lefties!
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Subject: Hey Lefties! From: Oversoul Date: 09 Sep 00 - 11:12 PM You are "left handed" and you play "right handed" instruments, no big deal, right? Ever have any doubts? (like me, when I am having TROUBLE) Do you think, maybe, you made the wrong decision to go it as a "rightie"? Or are we at an advantage in some special way? I relish your thoughts on this. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Mbo Date: 09 Sep 00 - 11:18 PM Actually, I've through about this for a long time. According to "handedness" rules, you are either left or right-handed depending on which hand is dominant. In playing guitar, fiddle, banjo, etc, the LEFT hand is doing the most important part..viz, playing the notes on the frets. The right hand is doing the more slavish job (ok, maybe not so much in banjo). SO, isn't THAT "playing left-handed"? Seems to me that if you turn the guitar to the RIGHT and play the frets with your RIGHT hand, that should be RIGHT-HANDED PLAYING, not left-handed. So all you lefties are playing it correctly, and all us righties are playing it wrong! Think about it! |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Brendy Date: 09 Sep 00 - 11:24 PM As Dory Previn remarked in 'Left Hand Lost': "..my left hand could have been President..." I was born left handed, but my early education changed that. B. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: JamesJim Date: 09 Sep 00 - 11:43 PM It's weird. I am left-handed (I write left-handed), yet most everything else I do right handed. For example, I play all stringed instruments right handed. I play golf, throw a ball and I bat right handed. I have been told by friends that I learned to play several instruments much faster than normal. I have no one to compare this with, but it would seem us lefties do have an advantage. Jim |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Musicman Date: 09 Sep 00 - 11:55 PM alas, I too am a lefty.... but have found it does very little to hinder me.. I play most instruments 'righthanded', throw left handed etc. there are many musicians who play 'lefthanded'. two ways of doing it... restring the instrument (guitar) or just turn it upside down. There are two people I can think of directly who have been very successful at it. One was a old female blues singer I remember seeing in the early '80s (don't remember her name, but she was fairly famous in those circles) the other is Bill Staines. Quite a mind bender watching him play and trying to sort out what he is doing on the guitar. I think playing that way really adds a different feel to the guitar, you can do so much more with bass runs because you can use several fingers on the bass line instead of just your thumb. might be worth a try. Which ever way you go, don't let it become an obstacle for you. enjoy. musicman
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: hesperis Date: 09 Sep 00 - 11:57 PM I'm pretty close to ambidextrous, and I learned several instruments very fast. I still can't strum stringed instruments like guitar and mandolin, though I can fingerpick fairly well. I play basketball better left, baseball better right, bowling, squash, volleyball better right. I write with my right hand and type mainly with my left. (My right hand's on the mouse.) Sailing is an ambidextrous sport, and I love it best! (Actually, I love dancing best, because that uses the whole body.) Definitely a right-hander though. *sigh* |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Linda Kelly Date: 10 Sep 00 - 07:27 AM I too am a lefty and like JamesJim other than writing I do most things righthanded. I do struggle however with instruments and wonder-are there any lefties who began playing guitar righthanded and swapped to play lefthanded? If so -did it help???? |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Lena Date: 10 Sep 00 - 08:05 AM I'm left handed,even if for many things in everyday life I could be right-handed as well-because I went THIS near to lose my hole left arm,when I was a kid,and for years I had to manage my right hand to work precisely somehow.Now my left wristle is the most precious thing I have on the whole planet,as my life revolves around my drawing(a few of my friends have seen my panic attacks when something happens to my left hand,I just freak out completely)and I know if something happens to it,I'd die of uselessness in a few days.My arm is not that good anyway,the wristle and the fingers being the only firm parts of it-the rest trembles a lot and that's probably why at artschool,when for five years we had to work on vertical easels,I was the worst in still life drawing.Anyway,it made me feel a lot different.Have you noticed how even potato peelers are for right handed people?!And scissors,and so on...when I was in my teens,all I wanted to do in life was the alchoolist bass player.They bought me a right-handed bass.My only problem was the fact that I had to put my strenght on the left arm,which wasn't comfortable.But for the rest,I agree with Mbo,string instruments are basically left handed. Lately I've been fighting a lot with my right hand to be as agile as the left one,since with clarinet you can't have any difference,they have to go at the same speed.... End of the chapter. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Jeri Date: 10 Sep 00 - 08:20 AM It seems that a bunch of us are ambidexterous. I'd always believed that to mean a person could do everything equally well with both hands, but it doesn't. It just means that neither hand is more dominant. We first grab a pencil with out left hand, so that's the one that learns how to write. We throw a ball first with out right hand, so that's the one that learns that task. We could probably learn to do things with the opposite hand, but it's more comfortable to stick with what we know. When I first got my fiddle at age 18 or 19, I had to make a decision on whether to play leftie or rightie, because neither side felt more comfortable. Playing left handed would have necessitated making changes to the instrument, so I just went with playing rightie. When it comes to fiddle, (I think picking may take more dexterity than playing chords.) I agree with Mbo on fiddle playing. My left hand does the more intricate work, and my right just has to hang onto a bow and scrape it across the strings in a somewhat controlled manner. (Pre-flaming: yes, Jeri, that pretty well describes your playing! :-) I think picking may take more dexterity than playing chords. Lets talk hammered dulcimer or harp - now THEY take both hands! |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: death by whisky Date: 10 Sep 00 - 08:24 AM Don't quite agree with Mbo there.Its what you do "with" the notes.Dynamic,ornamentation etc. I suppose this would only apply to picked and strummed instruments. I'ma rightie,but when I first picked up a guitar I held it the other way round. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 10 Sep 00 - 09:49 AM I'm like JamesJim. I use my left hand for small, delicate operations such as writing and sewing, and my right for big jobs such as batting or throwing a ball. I can wield a paint brush or a plane with either hand, and that's nice. I play instruments right handed. Some book I read once reported that psychologists (or whoever else studies this kind of thing) once did a long-term study and learned that people can't usually tell you which hand they use to do a certain task, and that they may use one hand one time, and the other another time. Ha! So much for all those supposedly 100% right-handers who think they're so normal. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Bernard Date: 10 Sep 00 - 11:09 AM The Classical guitarist Andreas Segovia was left handed, but played 'right handed'. As a guitar teacher I've invariably found that lefties make better pupils... Interesting point - the words 'sinister' and 'dexterity' are from the Latin for left and right... I've a certain degree of ambidexterity - hand tools, etc. - I don't write with my left hand, but could with practice. The key word is PRACTICE! In reality, anyone can use either hand for any task, assuming that the hand exists and is fully functional. All that is required is practice, and the will to do it. Most people have neither the time nor inclination to bring their 'other' hand up to standard, until the fateful day that the accident happens... |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Jon Freeman Date: 10 Sep 00 - 11:11 AM Total thread creep but I am a left hander who prefers to use the mouse with my right hand. I find it really usefull as that leaves my left hand free to take notes if I wish to while browsing. Does anyone else do that? I have never seen a right hander use a mouse with their right hand and I have seen plenty of them having to let go of the mouse to pick up a pen. As for the instruments, I chose right handed playing as I didn't know instruments (strings) could be played left handed. I sometimes wonder if it would have made any difference if I had gone the other way but I doubt that it would have done. Jon |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Jon Freeman Date: 10 Sep 00 - 11:13 AM Opps - should have said never seen a right hander use the mouse with their left hand. PS, I agree with Bernard that practice is the real key. Jon
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Bernard Date: 10 Sep 00 - 11:30 AM I tend to use the mouse with whichever hand is convenient, although the buttons are generally a problem. Maybe, Jon, you used the mouse with your right hand because it was the wrong shape for your left hand, and you then realised you had a world beating advantage over mere righties?! ;-) I am left-dominant, but was brought up 'right-handed' - children in the Fifties tended to have to conform... My feelings regarding instrument choice in general is that you will learn to play the instrument in your heart DESPITE the obstacles the world puts in your way. As long as YOU are happy, sod the world!
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Sorcha Date: 10 Sep 00 - 11:39 AM I am mostly a "right-ambi", but Kate is a "left-ambi". She writes and bowls with her left, but uses her right on the mouse. I don't mind lefties being leftis (even if it makes things like can openers and scissors difficult) but as a fiddle teacher, I insist that students play with left on the fingerboard and right on the bow. Violins are just too difficult to switch over, with the bass bar etc. Once saw a fiddler playing a standard set up on his right shoulder---weird, weird. He had not swapped anything except his hands. I could never even teach somebody to do that, let alone do it. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Mbo Date: 10 Sep 00 - 11:48 AM When you do metal-work, you have to be good with both hands. Your right hand works the blowtorch while your left hand has to be able to manipulate small parts with a pair of tweezers or pliers...not an easy thing to do. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Jon Freeman Date: 10 Sep 00 - 11:49 AM Bernard, I have just had a think as to the why and I have remembered. It was nothing to do with the shape of a mouse (although my current mouse is definately shaped for use with the right hand) but because I often shared PCs with a numebr of right handed users and I decided it was easier to operate right handed than to try to untangle (or whatever) the cable and move it round to the other side. Jon |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Jon Freeman Date: 10 Sep 00 - 11:52 AM Now here is a thought. Given that where items are "handed", the right handed items are the most common, would it be fair to suggest that left handers have had to learn to be more ambidextorous than right handers? Jon |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Sorcha Date: 10 Sep 00 - 12:43 PM I suppose you could say that. I know Kate would dearly love to have a left handed can opener, among other things. When I was a Cub Scout Den mother I had 6 left handed Cubbies---I was forced to learn how to do lots of stuff left handed to teach them how. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Brendy Date: 10 Sep 00 - 12:51 PM The only thing I do with my right arm is play guitar, and write. This makes me 'faily' well 'right handed', I suppose, as the hand you write with, anyway, is bound to play an important part in your everyday life, and to a certain extent, will determine a lot of your actions. I have gotten used to being right-handed, but it still doesn't feel 'normal'. B. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: JenEllen Date: 10 Sep 00 - 12:54 PM I thought I was somewhat ambi until I got my left hand squashed. My left handedness was (I thought) confined to writing and silverware. Everything else I learned while growing up (music and sports) I learned from righties, so I learned to do it right-handed. I mouse right-handed just because that's what I learned and now it seems comfortable that way. I don't know that I've ever thought what Davecoje was trying to explain, if I ever had any doubts it wasn't so much for the handedness. If I switched, then I'd just have to learn everything all over again... Sorch, what's Kate's stand on spatulas?? *bg* I LOVE teasing the mother-in-law, all her rubber kitchen spatulas are bent "the wrong way"....LOL ~Elle |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Sorcha Date: 10 Sep 00 - 01:09 PM When flipping, either hand will work. When scraping, only the left will work. Hold bowl in right, scrape with left. She also wants to only use the mixer with her left, which for some reason, causes problems witht he cord. A mixer should be either/or, and I can use it in either hand w/o problems, but she can't...........cord gets in her way. Then there are the teachers who insist on spiral bound notebooks--I suggested using them back to front. Works great and drives the teachers Bonkers!! |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: hesperis Date: 10 Sep 00 - 02:22 PM A note about scissors, can openers, etc. My step-dad is a leftie, and we got him his own scissors and stuff. I was hunting for the scissors one time, and I picked up the left-handed one by mistake. It really hurt my right hand! Now I know what 'normal' scissors feel like to lefties - ouch! Get that woman her own can opener, as soon as you can! |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Giac Date: 10 Sep 00 - 02:56 PM I was born left-handed, but as Bernard noted, a lot of us were made to conform. I write, play guitar, hammer, use a hairbrush right-handed, but use garden and yard implements left-handed. There are many things I do left-handed because it is more comfortable. Someone asked about anyone who learned to play an instrument one way, then switched. I have a friend who is a true left-hander. He can't even think right-handed. But when he got a guitar as a teenager, he started to play it right-handed, then turned it upside down (as did Elizabeth Cotton), then, in his 30s, roomed with a guitar teacher who forced him to get a left-handed instrument and start all over. He is a good guitarist now and said he learned more in those first few months of left-hand playing than he had in the previous 15 or so years. Of course, I sure the teacher had a lot to do with it. But that is one success story about switching. Here is a link to left-handed products. A Google search turned up more than 2100 hits for those terms. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Llanfair Date: 10 Sep 00 - 03:11 PM I'm "left-ambi" Write with my left hand and do everything else with both equally. I was lucky and was not made to write right-handed, so didn't suffer the subsequent speech problems that happen sometimes. I did "mirror writing" though, if I couldn't remember which side of the page to start on. Still no good at identifying left and right quickly. I decided that the ability to be adaptable was the reason for not being very left handed. There has been a thread about this before. Regards, Bron. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Quincy Date: 10 Sep 00 - 03:13 PM I'm very left-handed and I would give my right arm to be ambidextrous, but like they say...if the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls the right....then only left handed people are in their right mind!! An interesting site to look at is... lefties |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: JenEllen Date: 10 Sep 00 - 07:15 PM LOL Sorch....I'd forgotten about the spiral notebooks. For a leftie, I write "up and down" (no wrist curl at all)..but I still have to start in the middle of the page. Writing on overhead projectors in the classrooms is a treat too...I'm continually smudging. When I first found the notebooks bound at the top I bought a case of them. ~Elle |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: bflat Date: 10 Sep 00 - 07:51 PM There are those who lean to the left politically. I naturally thought this thread was a fund raiser request. bflat |
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Subject: RE: Help: Hey Lefties! From: Sorcha Date: 10 Sep 00 - 08:48 PM You could send money for a can opener.........*BG* |
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