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Just as a point of interest really. The great Scottish guitarist Jim Mullen is left handed but plays right handed guitar with his thumb. I am the same and now a committed thumb player (having wasted years with the pick). Does anyone know?
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02-13-2015 04:57 PM
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Sorry don't know the answer but
Originally Posted by md54
thats interesting ...
I really love Jim Mullen's stuff ..... when did you ditch the pick ?
I heard Jim say he can't upstroke (although you'd never know it !....It doesn't seem to hold him back much!)
but that Wes could upstroke with the thumb
I play pick nearly all downstrokes with a pick at the moment
I might ditch the pick too , but I haven't built up the thumb callous enough yet
Why do you say the years with a pick were wasted ?
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I think you'll find a lot of left handed people play right-handed. The topic has come up here in the past and a number of people along with me are left handed and play right. It's all just a mind thing, guitar and drums are the two instruments that people will switch around, the rest instruments are designed to be played one way and if people don't think about they just play them that way. When I was in art school they had us doing exercises to work on being ambidextrous because it's an advantage for drawing and painting. If you want to do something you'll do it.
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Wes started using his thumb because he practiced late at night while his family was sleeping. I don't think it has anything to do with left-handedness.
Duane Allman is an example of a lefty who played right-handed - perhaps the greatest example if you ask me. I think he would have become a jazz player eventually if he hadn't died at 24. Apparently he only listened to Kind of Blue the last year or so of his life, and was very into Miles and Trane.
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Left/Right-handedness exists on a spectrum. It's always been natural for me to play guitar right-handed, but I'm left-handed when it comes to writing, brushing teeth, etc. So for most fine motor skills my left hand feels better, but for more gross movements like sport I'm right-handed. I think it's largely innate and to do with how our brains are wired.
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Knopfler
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Originally Posted by pingu
I find that I just phrase better..... more musically with the thumb. Also I really like the sound. Wes and Jim have a definite 'sound' that I prefer greatly over the the pick. No upstrokes or you will go nuts. You have to accept that upsweeps are out of the question. Also it limits velocity but most super fast players bore the crap out of me.
I love the great double bass players and I like to think the approach with the thumb is closer to that sound.
It is important that you hold the right hand like Wes and Jim. Keep the thumb close to the neck. Support with the rest of the hand on the guitar lower down index finger pointing sort of forwards. No thumb nail required just flesh. Yes it bloody hurts to start with!
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Originally Posted by coolvinny
I am very left handed but when I was kid left handed guitars didn't exist in England. ''Here's the guitar kid, you play it like this.'' No one ever asked which hand did I use! I know a classical guitarist of my age who was kicked out of the Royal College of Music on his first day when he started to play his guitar lefty!
Wes may have felt more comfortable playing with the thumb if he was left handed. Thats just me speculating.
Wasn't Duane Allman a slide player?
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Joe Pass was left handed, too, if I recall.
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On the subject of only down strokes Mundell Lowe told me that he almost never did upstrokes. In my opinion he also was one of the very few 'musical' pick guitar players with an exceptional tone.
Wes did use upstrokes but only occasionally for fast or rhythm chords. Nearly all downstrokes otherwise.
I am starting to think upstrokes are the root of all jazz guitar evil?
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George VanEps was left handed and strongly urged southpaws to play righty. I can attest to the advantages of having my stronger and more coordinated hand on the fingerboard as well as a useful pinky.
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Ha! I like it. Great line. I asked Frank Vignola about his picking and he said it was "mostly down." Originally Posted by md54
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Does this mean us righties who have struggled with picking should get left-handed guitars????
)
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Leftie here, cannot even imagine having to learn on a leftie guitar. I think all the righties who play standard set up are at a huge disadvantage. But, I could never make left handed scissors work, either. I bat right handed, as well.
I AM much more dexterous with my right hand when it comes to picking my nose, so maybe picking a guitar right handed works for the same reason, neurologically. (I wonder if that's why nobody ever steals my picks....)
(I just noticed how even "dexterity" has a right hand bias. "Sinisterity", anyone? Can I get an Amen?)Last edited by yebdox; 02-15-2015 at 11:10 AM.
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I've never found playing a right handed guitar a disadvantage but I know my picking hand is not as good as many. When I use a pick I often feel that the pick has a mind of its own and I tend to over play and loose the groove. I also don't like the 'plinky plonky' sound. However guys like Jimmy Bruno have monster pick skills and can make a fine tone. Imho Jim Hall also made the best sound I ever heard with a pick, especially in his later years. I never heard any one make a sound quite like him.
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Originally Posted by yebdox
And then there are guys like Art Tatum who was apparently ambidextrous and really could play almost anything with his left hand on piano. There is a story that Bud Powell was getting up the nerve to challenge Tatum in a cutting contest. Apparently Tatum said something like "Let's see what ya' got. Give me a day to work on it, and I'll come back tomorrow and do it left-handed..." Powell thought better of it, and backed off. Could be a tall tale, or maybe its part of the reason Tatum was Tatum.
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I think I saw a guy marching in the Catfish Day parade playing a left handed tuba.
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Was it up side down?? Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
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Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
I guess it's lucky we only have one mouth!
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[QUOTE=dortmundjazzguitar;503448]wes was right-handed[/QUOTE
Thanks for that. Would you mind explaining how you know? I am interested.
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Double post
DGLast edited by daveg; 02-19-2015 at 01:59 PM.
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....and he wrote the Autograph on my web page with his right hand on the bar at Ronnie Scott's in 1965. I also got to shake his right hand.
I had bought two books that day - a Folio of Kenny Burrell and the Charlie Christian Uptown Jazz. I thought that the Charlie Christian was the more appropriate one.
WES MONTGOMERY AUTOGRAPH
DG
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Right-hand guitar playing left-hander here.
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Originally Posted by daveg
That's about confirmed it I think. From a historical point of view that is of some interest. He was one of the greatest ever guitar players. However all lefties shake hands right handed. I've given up offering my left hand.
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Of interest to Wes fans, a doctoral research paper by Reno De Stefano, titled: The Wes Montgomery Sound:Sonoric Individuality In Jazz.
http://www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/de...ry%20Sound.pdf
And another link indexing other related articles by the same author,
Reno De Stefano, guitariste jazz
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