Right hand, left hand........

[Buc McMaster]

There's an old adage about playing guitar:  your left hand is what you know, your right hand is who you are (in my case, being a lefty, it's just the opposite).  What does this mean?  The left hand does the fingerboard work and, for the most part, from one player to another, this is the same work:  a first position C chord requires the same finger placement regardless of the player.  Yes, yes......which particular fingers are employed might vary and some might add that low 5th G note, but to play an open C chord every player makes the same finger placement on the strings.  This is what you know, be it an open string C chord or an Emaj7 at the 7th fret.  Indeed there may be different voicings of a chord available at different fingerboard positions, but to achieve the same voice the player must use the same fingering.  Of course some players know more than others but it's what the other hand does that makes the difference...........

The right hand is who you are, what defines your particular style of play.   This hand is your character as a player........pick attack, palm muting, scrubbing, strumming dynamics........all these and more are generated by the right hand.  It's the variations in right hand technique, developed over years, that make for a recognizable style........some more recognizable than others.

A correct assessment?  What say ye?

(Let me say I am very pleased to be returning to the acoustic guitar.  It's been at least two and perhaps three years since I last owned one and am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the J-185.  And as much as I anticipate that event, I must admit to having missed you guys and gals here on the forum...............it is a joy to share a common interest with others.)

[kidblast]

I think you have covered it adequately.

Put four guys on the same stage, playing the same gear,  playing the same song one after another.

Not one of them is going to do it exactly the same, and some won't even come close to what the others have done.

and it's mostly going to be the hand that holds the pick, or better yet, if it's not holding one,  that "right" hand  unless we're talking to lefties.

 

when people say the tone is in the hands, I think 75% that is not the fretboard hand

 

Edited January 9 by kidblast

[dhanners623]

Maybe not exactly on-point, but being someone who holds the guitar left-handed — and plays upside down — I’m probably the last person to ask. When I taught myself to play, I held the guitar in a way that felt natural to me and didn’t really even know I had the guitar upside-down. I don’t know about the neuroscience of guitar playing, but I’m wondering if instead of handedness, it’s a left brain/right brain issue. Two of the best players I’ve ever known personally are left-handed but play right-handed.

That said, if a left-handed person told me today that he/she wanted to learn to play the guitar, I’d probably suggest they learn right-handed. For one thing, you’re learning a new skill and creating new pathways in the brain, so it really doesn’t matter. Either way, both hands are learning new things so you might as well play a righthanded guitar because lefty guitars can be hard to come by, although things are better now than they used to be. There’s also the issue of finding teachers.

Edited January 9 by dhanners623

[Murph]

My daughter is left handed.

We started her on fiddle, then eventually guitar but never "lefty".

I knew of the lack of left handed instruments and trying to teach her backwards and as such, simply taught her to play "normal".

She now plays normal and doesn't even think about it.

[PrairieDog]

 

2 hours ago, Murph said:

My daughter is left handed.

We started her on fiddle, then eventually guitar but never "lefty".

I knew of the lack of left handed instruments and trying to teach her backwards and as such, simply taught her to play "normal".

She now plays normal and doesn't even think about it.

I’m glad to hear it Murph.  I probably am a lefty, I only write with my right hand, everything else my left hand jumps in to do.   I never understood the fixation with left hand/right hand guitars.  Righties, many whose left hands “are just along for the ride,” learn to fret, hammer on, pull off, and slide with their lefts.  

After all, piano players don’t get left handed pianos, flutes, reeds, and drums aren’t sorted.   If Eddie Van Halen could fly up and down the neck with his left hand even picking notes at the same time his right hand is, then a lefty can certainly learn to sound strings with their right hand.  They are just different motions.  A lefty’s right hand still “works.”  Most kids going into lessons  wouldn’t even know the difference if parents don’t make a big deal out of the possible challenge.  They have amazing brain plasticity.  

Funny story, in grade school,  I was not athletic at all, puny, asthmatic, didn’t know the rules, never picked etc.  One recess, some kids on the play ground saw me throwing a ball with my left hand and got all excited.  They asked me to be their pitcher! Thrilled, I went over to join the game.  I threw the ball fast and accurately, right into the box.  I was relieved I did it.  

But the other guy got a hit.  

Then I did it again,  another hit.  

And again.

My team was yelling at *me* and despairing.  I was confused.  Why were they mad?  Being raised Quaker, I thought the point was to help the batter hit the ball! 

They threw me out before I could show them I switch hit.  

Edited January 10 by PrairieDog

[Buc McMaster]

11 minutes ago, PrairieDog said:

They threw me out before I show them I could also switch hit.  

Ha!  Now that is funny!

The observation was not that right nor left handed has some kind of advantage.............it's what the pick hand contributes to a player's style and feel.  It is certainly true that right handers have a  much larger pool of instruments available to them and it's apparently true that it matters not which way a beginner holds a guitar........motor skills can be learned on either side.  And it does seem (to me, at least) that the right-brain/left brain division of labor could well play a part in what outwardly appears to be just a right-hand/left hand division, strictly a physical thing.  

[PrairieDog]

4 minutes ago, Buc McMaster said:

Ha!  Now that is funny!

The observation was not that right nor left handed has some kind of advantage.............it's what the pick hand contributes to a player's style and feel.  It is certainly true that right handers have a  much larger pool of instruments available to them and it's apparently true that it matters not which way a beginner holds a guitar........motor skills can be learned on either side.  And it does seem (to me, at least) that the right-brain/left brain division of labor could well play a part in what outwardly appears to be just a right-hand/left hand division, strictly a physical thing.  

Ahh, you responded before I could get back to you on your original observation, which I do agree with.  No matter which hands are in play, the string hand is the personal expression.

Edited January 10 by PrairieDog

[DanvillRob]

I get the "right vs left" dialog here...but Mike's point is that to make chords, or pick notes, a player's choices are limited....so the "fretting-hand" is "what you play"....while what your "strumming-hand" does is infinite.... I tend to "Palm-mute", (and play the lower notes more) with my right hand.....it's just what "Feels right" to me.

I'm no great player, (and even less of a singer), but after 60+ years of playing...I kinda have my own style.

[fortyearspickn]

A few years ago, I was trying to learn to throw a ball accurately with my left/non-dominant hand - playing fetch with the dogs - because my right shoulder was not 100%.   I googled/researched  Baseball players who were pitchers in the Majors who could throw, PITCH, with either arm.  As I recall there were only 2 or 3.    But, it is clear, you can learn to do anything with your non-dominant hand that you could with your dominant.  Switch hitters and ambidexterous folks prove it.  Although, teachers tried to force children learning to right to Only use their right hand.  Maybe because all the pencils were righties.   

The 5 string banjo requires much more hammering on, pulling off,  sliding and bending.  I'd guess some songs/players generate 15% of the 'notes' with their left hand.  I wonder if you are a better player, the more your brain is wired towards being ambidexterous?   But, obviously, it's a different animal.

[PrairieDog]

9 minutes ago, fortyearspickn said:

Maybe because all the pencils were righties.   

Ha ha! Another funny story: a bunch of us were eating at the new “real” Chinese restaurant where they had actual chopsticks set on the table.  My buddy was having a dickens of a time trying to make them work. My brother leaned over and observed: “hey, I know! those are right-handed chopsticks, that’s the problem. Ask the waiter for a left-handed pair.”  Much merriment at the poor guy’s expense ensued when the waiter laughed himself out of the dining room.  Not sure Greg ever forgave my brother.  

To the rest of your comment, yeah, but I think learning an instrument where both your hands have to act independently trains your brain to cross over and naturally makes you more ambidextrous.  The concept of brain plasticity, which is at the root of what we are talking about is really fascinating. How stroke victims can learn to speak and walk again, etc.  We all have it.  It just gets harder to access the more hardwired we are to one favored side as we age.  

Re writing, I learned to print when I was in preschool, I went to some beatnik, let the children “blossom” on their own kind of place. I don’t recall being forced to use my right hand, I think that is just the hand teacher put the pencil in, so that is the one I assumed I should use.  I remember being seven or eight, and my older sister crying over the table, I was using my knife and fork backward! First time I was aware there were “hands” at all.  

[DanvillRob]

27 minutes ago, fortyearspickn said:

  Maybe because all the pencils were righties.   

 

That's funny....but most of the desks in my schools WERE "Right-Handed" desks.... the tops were extended  down closer to the seat on the right side....and the other side was shorter, (and the students got in and out of the desk on the left side).

My old boss wanted to get and learn guitar....he's a "lefty".... I went with him to a friend's guitar store and found him a very nice guitar.....he was no better on a regular guitar than he was on a left-handed one....so I told him him choices would forever be broader if he learned to play right-handed.

[PrairieDog]

2 minutes ago, DanvillRob said:

That's funny....but most of the desks in my schools WERE "Right-Handed" desks.... the tops were extended  down closer to the seat on the right side....and the other side was shorter, (and the students got in and out of the desk on the left side).

My old boss wanted to get and learn guitar....he's a "lefty".... I went with him to a friend's guitar store and found him a very nice guitar.....he was no better on a regular guitar than he was on a left-handed one....so I told him him choices would forever be broader if he learned to play right-handed.

I guess thinking about it, the inkwells in our desks were on the right hand side too.  didn’t realize what that meant for the poor lefties who had to use them back in the day. Awkward.  

Edited January 10 by PrairieDog

[DanvillRob]

5 minutes ago, PrairieDog said:

I guess thinking about it, the inkwells in our desks were on the right hand side too.  didn’t realize what that meant for the poor lefties who had to use them back in the day. Awkward.  

How about how the lefties have to drag their palms through what they just wrote!   Smeared the pencil marks...or WORSE....the wet ink!

[Boyd]

I was a camp counselor as a college freshman and one of my assignments was the craft shop, where they had a peg board with labels for each tool. Just for fun, we put half of the hammers facing in one direction and the others facing the opposite way, then labelled them right-handed and left-handed. It was pretty funny, all the "right-hand" hammers would get snatched up immediately when the kids came in and most of the left ones would remain. Kids would come up and ask if it was OK to use a left hammer if they were right handed, we'd say, "well, I don't know, the balance is gonna be WAY off..." The best part of it was, if we needed a hammer ourselves, there were always plenty. Eventually we let everyone in on the joke.

Have been taking a break from guitar for the past few months and got a Yamaha P-125 digital piano (had an earlier version about 30 years ago and they have come a long way, it feels and sounds like a grand piano). I studied classical piano for almost 10 years but quit in college. Kept playing on and off over the years, but my old digital keyboard became really bad and I completely quit about 15 years ago. Anyway, slowly getting back into it, and pleased that the muscle memory is still there. But that's a whole different right hand, left hand thing. As a "righty", of course I favor that. But you also really depend on the left hand and putting them both together is the real challenge.

[Larsongs]

I’m no great player but have played with many who are.. I agree with the OP for the most part..

But, There are guys who can do things with their String hand most people can’t. Whether playing a simple C chord or playing Hendrix, Page, Beck, Eddie or those level of players..

I don’t think there is an easy for playing a Geetar..

Edited January 10 by Larsongs

[10PoundLester]

For me it's tone from the right hand and inflection from the left. Of course there's a lot more to it but in short that's where it is for me. I impart a sense of feel from both hands which seems to come through in my playing.

Edited January 10 by 10PoundLester

[Buc McMaster]

30 minutes ago, 10PoundLester said:

For me it's tone from the right hand and inflection from the left.

Hmmm.  Please elaborate on this inflection.  Aside from bends and vibrato what inflection do you impart?

[Dave F]

First of all, I'm not that good of a player but when I'm learning a new song I have to teach the fretting hand not the picking hand. The picking hand keeps the rhythm and timing for me while the fretting hand tries to play what it's learned without messing up. 

[10PoundLester]

13 hours ago, Buc McMaster said:

Hmmm.  Please elaborate on this inflection.  Aside from bends and vibrato what inflection do you impart?

It's hard to describe. The grip I use changes depending on what I'm playing. Little pull-offs and hammer-ons but not full on like you would think. Just little slide movements and mutings - actually now that I think about it and try to elaborate in writing I can think of several little nuances I might use in my fretting. Over the past 53 years or so of playing things just develop that I'm not even fully aware of. The way I come into a note for instance - might be a slide from above or below - little things that are sort of unconsciously applied.

[QuestionMark]

First I defined myself as a fingerpicker, with my right hand technique leasing the way.  But, then over the years I became an instrumentalist and while my right hand went on autopilot, just know where to go and what note to hit, my left hand became dominant, knowing what note to hit, what chord and not not hit, what triad to hit, and what made up chord to make up.  My right hand instinctively knew what my left hand was doing.  61 years of playing guitar now and it all still keeps amazing me.

QM aka “ Jazzman” Jeff

[DanvillRob]

30 minutes ago, QuestionMark said:

First I defined myself as a fingerpicker, with my right hand technique leasing the way.  But, then over the years I became an instrumentalist and while my right hand went on autopilot, just know where to go and what note to hit, my left hand became dominant, knowing what note to hit, what chord and not not hit, what triad to hit, and what made up chord to make up.  My right hand instinctively knew what my left hand was doing.  61 years of playing guitar now and it all still keeps amazing me.

QM aka “ Jazzman” Jeff

This is why music should be taught in schools...and kids encouraged to play SOMETHING!    I was already playing before The Beatles happened....but they sparked my TOTAL interest...which I've been able to keep for all these years!

Music teaches us MUCH MORE than  how to play songs.

[Buc McMaster]

1 hour ago, 10PoundLester said:

......things just develop that I'm not even fully aware of.

I understand and I do agree that hammer-ons, slides and the like do make contributions to a player's style.  I also believe these 'inflections' fall more under the category of 'what you know' rather than 'who you are' as a player.

28 minutes ago, QuestionMark said:

......my left hand became dominant, knowing what note to hit, what chord and not not hit, what triad to hit, and what made up chord to make up.  My right hand instinctively knew what my left hand was doing. 

Indeed.......the pick/finger hand goes on 'autopilot' once a player has a broad knowledge of the fretboard.  And yes, the two absolutely learn to work as one, but I assert it is the pick/finger hand that imparts the lion's share of a player's recognizable style.

[Murph]

4 minutes ago, Buc McMaster said:

 I assert it is the pick/finger hand that imparts the lion's share of a player's recognizable style.

One thing for sure.

It's the hand that decides what will be HEARD.......

[10PoundLester]

10 minutes ago, DanvillRob said:

This is why music should be taught in schools...and kids encouraged to play SOMETHING!    I was already playing before The Beatles happened....but they sparked my TOTAL interest...which I've been able to keep for all these years!

Music teaches us MUCH MORE than  how to play songs.

Totally agree. I was in 5th grade when the teacher told us to pick an instrument if we wanted to learn how to play one. I chose bass - as in bass with a bow. From that day to this I've been learning to play music. My reading skills aren't as sharp as they once were but I can muddle through a page of easy stuff.

[DanvillRob]

Just now, 10PoundLester said:

Totally agree. I was in 5th grade when the teacher told us to pick an instrument if we wanted to learn how to play one. I chose bass - as in bass with a bow. From that day to this I've been learning to play music. My reading skills aren't as sharp as they once were but I can muddle through a page of easy stuff.

The bonus is that you can do it all the rest of your life..... I'm old and feeble.... can barely hold anything with my hands....no stamina these days.....but.... I still play guitar several hours each morning (while the wife sleeps).    Playing right now!   I'm far from the oldest guy on here....but I'm also no where near the youngest!