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I've always wondered. When playing a guitar right handed how come you're doing most everything with your left hand?


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Hello, I am your right hand. How dare you say I am not doing anything! Without me, no music would be heard. You've always been partial to your left hand. I feel betrayed and upset.

No longer affectionately,

Your Right Hand

************************************

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I've always wondered. When playing a guitar right handed how come you're doing most everything with your left hand?




That depends. Are you finger pickin' with your right hand or pick pickin'?


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You have to turn the knobs, or tap the mic, or order the beers, or wave at the girls, or pick your nose. There are unlimited things you can do with your right hand in between plucking the strings.


Chris
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Well I'm a bass player so I finger pickin'.


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Reminds me of why so many right handed guys shoot left handed in hockey. They pick up the stick end in their right hand, and put their left hand down further making them actually shooting with their weak hand. Otherwise there would be a shortage of left wingers. Funny how often that phenom comes into play.

Actually, considering that often you play the same note more than once on bass, your right hand is hitting the strings more than the left is moving .. or at least an equal number of times... except for pull-offs etc.


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Not sure who thought it up, but most of your tone, power and dynamics come from the right hand so it probably makes more sense. I doubt that I could do that with my left.

Lefties also usually reverse the guitar, so maybe that's true for them also.

This is especially true if you use a flatpick. The right hand gets much more of a workout than the left, at least for me.

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Don't ask me...My stage name has been "Flicker-Von-Pick" for over 60 years.

Goin' on '77, Sunset Strip next Feb.

Let me count the callouses I've had, playing guitar, bass and sittin' on my arse behind my keyboards.

Oh, and now I accompany myself with RealBand just a right hand touch away....velcroed my IPOD "touch" next to the volume knob, on the guitar bass or keyboard!


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Russ is actually more correct than he might think he is here.

The plectra hand, used in the fashion we now call "fingerpicking" was once the only method of playing the Lute, later the guitar.

Still of utmost importance in the Classical and especially the Flamenco styles.

I recall a certain famous jazz guitarist who used to evaluate players immediately by simply handing them his guitar and noting how their right hand addressed the strings without a pick in the fingers.

If your hand immediately curled into the "fingerpicking" position as soon as you addressed the guitar, he would smile and pronounce you to be a "proper" player who "knew where the strings were".

If your picking hand is doing less than your fret-hand, it says more about the kind of music you are playing.

However, for certain genres, I think there's nothing like the feeling of layin' back and spankin' the plank with a Fender Medium.


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Along those same lines, I sometimes lay awake at night wondering:

1. Why is it we park in driveways, and drive in parkways?

2. If you eat a peanut butter sandwich upside down, will it stick to your tongue instead of the roof of your mouth?

- and many other deeply philosophical questions. Just some of life's little mysteries.

Jon

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The left hand can press the finger board all day and not produce a sound audible beyond the few inches from the neck (Unless you are Stanley Jordan of course). The right hand determines the dynamics for the notes you are choosing with the left hand. In essence, we all play the same notes. But, each instrument allows us to attack those notes using our own signature sound that is a reflection of who we are. For the guitarist, the majority of that personality comes from the picking hand.

One of the ways I express this to my students is to give them a chart of chords that share one common tone. And I will play that note in various ways as they strum through their chords. They learn not only how the notes is affected by the backdrop of the chords but also the attitude in which I use to strike that same note for a dozen or so measures in order to keep it interesting. I think I learned that idea from a trumpeter a long time ago.

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Quote:

Along those same lines, I sometimes lay awake at night wondering:

1. Why is it we park in driveways, and drive in parkways?

2. If you eat a peanut butter sandwich upside down, will it stick to your tongue instead of the roof of your mouth?

- and many other deeply philosophical questions. Just some of life's little mysteries.

Jon




3. If you make a cow laugh, does milk come out its nose?

4. If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?



R.


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Lol, funny topic this is.

5. Can you find words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange,
purple or silver?

6. Did you know that 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321?


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