are you cross lateral

[Guest Farnsbarns Wunterslausche]

I will start this thread by saying loud and clear that I do not believe I am an especially good guitarist, you've heard me play, I am a mediocre amateur at best. But, would I be worse, or better, if my brain was wired up "correctly"?

 

Let's start by defining "cross lateral".

 

Most people are right handed, right footed, right eyed and in the context of controlling their body (motor funtion), left brained.

 

A lesser number are left handed, left footed, left eyed and, again, in the context of motor functions, right brained.

 

A very small number, my self included, are neither, they have various odd mixes of the above. I am left eyed, left brained, right handed and ambidextrous in my feet.

 

So, my left brain is performing the motor funtions of my right hand, that's normal, but it is also recieving far more visual data than is normal because I am left eyed, ie my left eye does the seeing and my right deals with all the stereoscopic stuff such as depth perseption. It is also doing all the motor function stuff with BOTH of my feet (because I am ambidextrous footed), not an issue in terms of guitar playing? Well I play standing up so there is all the balancing to be done, heat, touch and all that.

 

Now, how does this impact the guitar player? I often ask my self. Is my left brain overloaded? Perhaps this leaves my right brain loads of processing power in the creative aspect? Perhaps there is an advantage in that my left eye, which abnormally does the looking, can comunicate with my left hand better than normal, despite me being right handed? Would that bennefit the guitar player being that the left hand of a right handed guitarist actualy does the more dexterous job?

 

I have wondered about all this for a long time and have never found any good information, even out side of the guitar player model.

 

A couple of BTWs...

 

1) There is an increadibly simple and quick test to find out if you are visually cross lateral but it doesn't really work if you know the second part before doing the first so you'll have to pm me if you're interested (it is pretty rare).

 

2) Cross lateralism is often a symptom of dyslexia and/or dyspraxia (I am all three) so you are far more likely to be cross lateral if you have either condition although not all people who are cross lateral are dyslexic.

 

3) doing what are known as "cross lateral exercises" is known to improve reading in young children. This means any activity which requires precise independent control of both sides of your body, such as juggling.

 

In another recent thread I said that I have an unusual mix of creativity and technical analytical thought. I believe this is because of the blurring of the functions of my left and right brains but that's just a personal theory.

[davidl]

I don't know if I'm cross lateral but I am right handed for some things (writing, tennis, throwing a ball, playing guitar...), left for others (batting a ball, golf, hockey...) throwing horse shoes I'm equally bad on either side.

Maybe I'm not cross-lateral, just a little off my nut.

[milod]

I really dunno...

 

I've an idea, though, that often those who are good instrumentalists probably have messed with physical control of their bods in other ways such as sports, crafts, etc.

 

After a certain age many may have dropped the soccer or baseball, shooting or golfing or whatever, but the habit of creating muscle memory, by conscious intent or otherwise, remains.

 

Some of "us" simply have the talent to take that farther than those of us who simply have developed skills.

 

m

[Guest Farnsbarns Wunterslausche]

I don't know if I'm cross lateral but I am right handed for some things (writing, tennis, throwing a ball, playing guitar...), left for others (batting a ball, golf, hockey...) throwing horse shoes I'm equally bad on either side.

Maybe I'm not cross-lateral, just a little off my nut.

 

It sounds as if you are, do you ever get a strange thing where you might be stanging more or less still and you just loose your balance ever so slightly for s second or so. Not that you fall over, just enough that you have to make an adjustment to keep your balance. It's quite subtle and can normaly be hidden, like hiding a yawn in a meeting.

[davidl]

It sounds as if you are, do you ever get a strange thing where you might be stanging more or less still and you just loose your balance ever so slightly for s second or so. Not that you fall over, just enough that you have to make an adjustment to keep your balance. It's quite subtle and can normaly be hidden, like hiding a yawn in a meeting.

That does happen. In fact I have a hard time standing completely still at all. I found out just how much dexterity I have with my left hand when my right one was in a cast. I am completely useless trying to play guitar left though. My brain fights it. Strangely, when trying to tap on guitar (not well)with my right hand, I find I can fret individual notes very proficiently and quickly. I just don't match up well with my left.

[EVOL!]

This thread is very interesting. I am strongly right handed, but through certain activities I have worked to make my left hand stronger and more dexterous. Two examples

 

- I play drums with traditional grip. The different technique used by my left hand forces me to be very aware of it and its movements.

 

- Hockey goalie. Trapper goes on the left hand and that improves hand/eye coordination. It did mess up my slap shot because as a young kid I was a right handed shot and now, because of playing only goalie, I am now a left handled shot (goalie stick technique is to hold the top of the stick with the blocker and push from down the shaft* with the trapper).

 

I also lose my sense of balance very easily. I always chalked it up to sinus congestion and pressure in my ears affecting my equilibrium. A large nose and allergies equal annoying sinus problems. On air planes I frequently have trouble popping my ears.

 

 

 

 

 

*<cue Beavis & Butthead laughing> i said shaft.

[davidl]

I just looked up cross lateralism and found an interesting site with a short test.

According to the test I am definitely cross laterally wired.

Very interesting thread.

 

http://mindbluff.com/phplater.htm

[Guest Farnsbarns Wunterslausche]

I just looked up cross lateralism and found an interesting site with a short test.

According to the test I am definitely cross laterally wired.

Very interesting thread.

 

http://mindbluff.com/phplater.htm

 

There you go, now, do you follow my thoughts on how this could have positive or negative effects on a guitar player? What do you think?

 

BTW, on that test everything except my handedness was left, I put left footed even though I am ambidextrose in my feet because when I was young I had s preference for left and I think I learned the ambidextrous nature.

 

So I am globally cross lateral!

[davidl]

There you go, now, do you follow my thoughts on how this could have positive or negative effects on a guitar player? What do you think?

 

BTW, on that test everything except my handedness was left, I put left footed even though I am ambidextrose in my feet because when I was young I had s preference for left and I think I learned the ambidextrous nature.

 

So I am globally cross lateral!

I'm guessing that there are likely positives and negatives. Positive being able to manipulate the guitar with both hands without thinking about it. Rather than splitting up what happens with either hand, treating them both as a whole if that makes any sense. I don't really feel a dominant hand while playing guitar or piano (what little piano I do play).

Now you've got me thinking. I hope I don't think this to death and screw myself up.

[Infamous]

Interesting thread. I wish I had more info to respond to the OP question about how cross lateralization impacts playing guitar.

 

I'm pretty well cross-lateralized, but I have one question about that quiz (which I liked - thank you!) - why would handwriting be not be the same as handedness? Is that not one of the key determinants of handedness to begin with?! I get that there are tasks other than handwriting used to determine it, but it's one of the biggies!

[LarryUK]

Wasn't Gary Moore left handed but played right handed?

[Guest Farnsbarns Wunterslausche]

Interesting thread. I wish I had more info to respond to the OP question about how cross lateralization impacts playing guitar.

 

I'm pretty well cross-lateralized, but I have one question about that quiz (which I liked - thank you!) - why would handwriting be not be the same as handedness? Is that not one of the key determinants of handedness to begin with?! I get that there are tasks other than handwriting used to determine it, but it's one of the biggies!

 

I agree, further more, why no option for ambidextrous on certain questions. Add to that the fact that I have shown an interest in cross lateral-ness for years and I have never heard of "Arm crossing preference" or "hand clasping" but I suppose it makes sense.

 

One thing I am really surprised about is the chewing thing. My FIL is a dental technician and I had a conversation with him about a year go and he was telling me how this changes throughout your life, sometimes sparked by tooth ache or wisdom tooth growth etc, but he was telling me that once you have changed, for a reason, the change usually sticks after the reason has gone away and that sometimes people's chewing side just changes for no good reason. He seemed to be saying that it stops your teeth from wearing on one side more than the other. He's away for a couple of weeks but I'll ask him again when he gets back and refer him to that test.

 

I'm not gonna call it out as poor or misleading but I am a bit confused about it.

[davidl]

I would never vouch for the validity of the test. Some things make sense to me there though.

It was something I found with a quick google search. There are likely other examples as well.

[retrosurfer1959]

I think something like that could affect guitar playing as coordination and spacial dexterity is the key to playing any physical instrument like a guitar. It probably doesn't hurt your playing but it might take longer for the muscle memory especially of the fretting hand to become something smooth that you don't need to think about.

 

I don't know if this is related to cross lateralization at all or not but I couldn't really take that test I use whatever hand is closet or most convenient for what I'm doing. I'm completely ambidextrous in both vision and my hands (I lost my right leg below the knee when I was 26 so I guess that makes me left foofted by default ) I don't know what it's called but I can use my hands independently for different things at the same time. Kind of hard to explain what I mean but if I'm drawing with my right hand I can color in my drawings at the same time with my left hand. I can also type two totally different things with two keyboards at the same time which I guess is pretty weird. The amount of separate control in my hands became really obvious when I was doing some competitive combat style shooting and I was able to use both hands at the same time with two guns and with different targets? They didn't really like it and I did get disqualified some, but I sure won a lot of match's.

 

Don't know if it matters or changed anything but I was predominately a left hander as a child, But at 51 I'm old enough that as a child in Catholic school they would not let us lefty's use our left hands. When I was in school using a left hand was considered just bad practice or laziness so they use to put tape on my left hand to prevent me from using it and make me use my right hand. The only residual weirdness wih that is that when I write now my letters all tilt the wrong way so everything slants to the left which makes people ask questions quite a bit.

 

 

I play guitar Right handed though - it's just too damn hard to find nice left handed guitars

 

'm also very right brain and left brain independent which I actually think is great I'm a artist now but my primary job was computer programing and software program design for years. I also have a weird combination of college degree's including - MS in Mathematics, BS in Electrical Engineering and and MA's in GraphicDesign and Fine Arts

[Guest Farnsbarns Wunterslausche]

I would never vouch for the validity of the test. Some things make sense to me there though.

It was something I found with a quick google search. There are likely other examples as well.

 

Sure, not suggesting that it is not interesting or that you shouldn't have posted it. Cheers

 

Further more it may be bang on, I'm just surprised that they seem to be coming up with stuff I haven't heard of despite having a healthy interest in the subject for quite a long time. Doesn't mean it's wrong.

[Guest Farnsbarns Wunterslausche]

I think something like that could affect guitar playing as coordination and spacial dexterity is the key to playing any physical instrument like a guitar. It probably doesn't hurt your playing but it might take longer for the muscle memory especially of the fretting hand to become something smooth that you don't need to think about.

 

I don't know if this is related to cross lateralization at all or not but I couldn't really take that test I use whatever hand is closet or most convenient for what I'm doing. I'm completely ambidextrous in both vision and my hands (I lost my right leg below the knee when I was 26 so I guess that makes me left foofted by default ) I don't know what it's called but I can use my hands independently for different things at the same time. Kind of hard to explain what I mean but if I'm drawing with my right hand I can color in my drawings at the same time with my left hand. I can also type two totally different things with two keyboards at the same time which I guess is pretty weird. The amount of separate control in my hands became really obvious when I was doing some competitive combat style shooting and I was able to use both hands at the same time with two guns and with different targets? They didn't really like it and I did get disqualified some, but I sure won a lot of match's.

 

Don't know if it matters or changed anything but I was predominately a left hander as a child, But at 51 I'm old enough that as a child in Catholic school they would not let us lefty's use our left hands. When I was in school using a left hand was considered just bad practice or laziness so they use to put tape on my left hand to prevent me from using it and make me use my right hand. The only residual weirdness wih that is that when I write now my letters all tilt the wrong way so everything slants to the left which makes people ask questions quite a bit.

 

'm also very right brain and left brain independent which I actually think is great I'm a artist now but my primary job was computer programing and software program design for years. I also have a weird combination of college degree's including - MS in Mathematics, BS in Electrical Engineering and and MA's in GraphicDesign and Fine Arts

 

Now that's really interesting Retro. Can you try something for me? May you have already tried...

 

Can you hold a pen in each hand, start signing your name with one hand and halfway though start signing your name with your right had as well. Also, could you try signing your name with both your left and right hands at the same time but do one of them backwards. In other words one is a mirror image (this means bot your hands a mirroring each others movement, most people can do the latter but are usually surprised by it when you ask them to try and the find they can do it.

[davidl]

Sure, not suggesting that it is not interesting or that you shouldn't have posted it. Cheers

 

Further more it may be bang on, I'm just surprised that they seem to be coming up with stuff I haven't heard of despite having a healthy interest in the subject for quite a long time. Doesn't mean it's wrong.

No worries kind sir.

Absolutely no offense taken.

[Guest Farnsbarns Wunterslausche]

One paper I have read before is this...

 

http://www.causeof.org/dominance.htm

 

I have no idea why they have changed the name of the paper (note in first sentence) to "The Cause of Internet and TV addiction?" and the paper seems to contain no reference to internet or TV addiction either .

 

It does say one very interesting thing in the context of this thread and I have highlighted the three things which first made me wonder about the effect on guitar playing. (Note:- I have read elsewhere that the tilt to the head while writing is to bring the dominant eye (left for me) nearer to the dominant hand (right for me), and to bring the dominant eye to the other side of the centre line of the body.

 

Problems with Lateralisation

"The following are issues that may occur in a person experiencing difficulties with lateralisation:

 

∙ Delayed decision of lateral dominance

 

∙ Tendency to scatter and misplace objects in personal space

 

∙ Extreme rotation of writing or reading surface

 

∙ Unusual tip of the head while writing (30-40 degree tip usually indicates crossed dominance between eye and hand)

 

∙ Difficulty perceiving left and right sides of objects and letters

 

∙ Uncertainty about personal left and right body sides

 

∙ Tendency to move toward the non-dominant hand in motor activities

 

∙ Need to rotate surfaces to complete motor activities that cross the midline

 

∙ Difficulty making decisions

 

∙ Difficulty accepting a change in a rule or decision once it is made.

 

∙ Excellent batting in cricket or baseball but difficulty with many other sports.

[LPguitarman]

I have always wondered why right handed guitarist's (myself included) actually do more with their left hand. It just comes naturally, but it really stumps me. I can't do anything else left handed (very awkward), but my left hand smokes on the neck of a guitar. I know I would not be able to play left handed, so go figure...

[Guest Farnsbarns Wunterslausche]

I have always wondered why right handed guitarist's (myself included) actually do more with their left hand. It just comes naturally, but it really stumps me. I can't do anything else left handed (very awkward), but my left hand smokes on the neck of a guitar. I know I would not be able to play left handed, so go figure...

 

That's normal, drummers tend to do a steady beat with their right hand (when it's called for) and the trickier stuff with their left. It's because the dominant hand can be left to do that with very little conciousness while the left had is concentrated upon (You'll often see a drummer cross their arms!).

 

Try taping a steady 1-2-3-4 with your right hand and then add the accents to make it a "break" beat with your left, easy right? now try doing the other way, not so easy you'll find.

 

Like this...

 

R---R---R---R---R---R---R

--------L-----L---L-----L

 

Then

 

L---L---L---L---L---L---L

--------R-----R---R-----R

 

Of course, you are right handed, a lefty should find the reverse it true.

[retrosurfer1959]

Now that's really interesting Retro. Can you try something for me? May you have already tried...

 

Can you hold a pen in each hand, start signing your name with one hand and halfway though start signing your name with your right had as well. Also, could you try signing your name with both your left and right hands at the same time but do one of them backwards. In other words one is a mirror image (this means bot your hands a mirroring each others movement, most people can do the latter but are usually surprised by it when you ask them to try and the find they can do it.

 

 

 

Yep those both seem fairly simple to do the first one is one of the standard things I've done for years to freak people out a bit, it was especially fun as a kid when I got called to the front of the classroom to write on a blackboard (Wonder how many of the kids on the forum don't know what a blackboard is) ,

 

I had never tried the second one but it's actually a lot easier than it sounds. Strangely enough it much easier than just writing your name backwards with just one hand?

 

So what's that mean doc, am I gonna live?

[Guest Farnsbarns Wunterslausche]

Yep those both seem fairly simple to do the first one is one of the standard things I've done for years to freak people out a bit, it was especially fun as a kid when I got called to the front of the classroom to write on a blackboard (Wonder how many of the kids on the forum don't know what a blackboard is) ,

 

I had never tried the second one but it's actually a lot easier than it sounds. Strangely enough it much easier than just writing your name backwards with just one hand?

 

So what's that mean doc, am I gonna live?

 

Means nothing, the only reason I asked was that most people can do the mirror image thing if they try but it usually surprises them. Signing forwards with both hands starting at different times however is EXTREMELY hard. I asked because my father has a friend that can do it and given what you had said I wondered if you might be able to.

[DMichaelG]

It makes my head hurt just reading it.

 

I think therefore I am cross.

 

No matter what, I still gotta deal with it.

 

Thanks for the heads up...or is it the cross up?

[sausagefingers]

Hi Farn

 

you may have hit on somethink here ....it started me thinking..(.i know dangerous )

 

i think im the same , i,m right handed mostly but am left eyed i.e. i shoot a gun, a bow and arrow, can kick a ball lefty wise, i was, dare i say it pretty good at sports, played rugby first class, cricket and baseball for "Cardiff", and got to single figures in golf, so my eye hand coordination must be o.k.

now hears my point, whenit comes to playing the geetoor i thought iwas going to be good, im having lessons (3 years) but it s not happening as fast as i expected, there lies the difference having to perfom a task without my eyes, whilst im getting o.k with the neck fiffing etc my picking at the same speed lets me down.

 

I think your theory is bang on.

 

I guess what god gives on one hand he takes away with the other.....no pun intended