Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The surprising geography of American left-handedness (2015)

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 55 posts

Re: The surprising geography of American left-handedness (2015)

#41

Post by cluckindan »

kazinator wrote: post #19

Why is it that right-handed people play stringed instruments such that the strings are actuated with the right hand (finger picking, flatpicking, strumming, bowing), and fingered with the left? Many left handed players reverse the arrangement. On the other hand (pun inteneded) left-handed pianos are almost unheard of.

To dispel some apparent ignorance, both left and right hand dexterity is important for playing fretted string instruments, such as the guitar.

On the guitar, the left hand is doing a lot more than just pressing on strings: chords, slides, bends, tapping as in hammer-ons/pull-offs, natural harmonics, even muting strings in some techniques (see Stevie Ray Vaughan’s style).

The right hand is also doing more than just strumming or picking: two-handed tapping, artificial harmonics, palm muting, using the whammy bar to produce vibrato or whole-chord bends.

There are also techniques like sweep picking which require very precise coordination between both hands.

Same goes for fretless string instruments: playing long notes by drawing the bow over the strings (legato) is the bread and butter of bowed instruments like the violin and the cello, but they can also be played with short stabs of the bow (staccato) or by picking the strings with the fingers of the right hand (pizzicato), among others. Vibrato and slides are played using the left hand, simply by moving the finger up and down the string.

Re: The surprising geography of American left-handedness (2015)

#42

Post by pjm331 »

kenhwang wrote: post #30
kazinator wrote: post #19

Why is it that right-handed people play stringed instruments such that the strings are actuated with the right hand (finger picking, flatpicking, strumming, bowing), and fingered with the left? Many left handed players reverse the arrangement. On the other hand (pun inteneded) left-handed pianos are almost unheard of.

String actuation requires much finer and varied motor skills than simply pressing down on the string. There's many strengths and directions in how a string can be plucked or bowed or strummed and it changes how it sounds, but pressing down on the string is pretty on/off binary.

yeah i am left handed but learned to play a right handed guitar and I have often wished i had done it differently - maybe one of these days i'll pick up a lefty guitar and learn all over again

Re: The surprising geography of American left-handedness (2015)

#43

Post by bmacho »

kazinator wrote: post #19

Why is it that right-handed people play stringed instruments such that the strings are actuated with the right hand (finger picking, flatpicking, strumming, bowing), and fingered with the left? Many left handed players reverse the arrangement. On the other hand (pun inteneded) left-handed pianos are almost unheard of.

According to the internet several left-handed guitar players play normal (right-handed) guitars normal way. For the "why", I don't think there is anything particularly interesting here; several left-handed people tend to use asymmetric items that are made for right-handed people.

Re: The surprising geography of American left-handedness (2015)

#44

Post by kazinator »

cluckindan wrote: post #41
kazinator wrote: post #19

Why is it that right-handed people play stringed instruments such that the strings are actuated with the right hand (finger picking, flatpicking, strumming, bowing), and fingered with the left? Many left handed players reverse the arrangement. On the other hand (pun inteneded) left-handed pianos are almost unheard of.

To dispel some apparent ignorance, both left and right hand dexterity is important for playing fretted string instruments, such as the guitar. On the guitar, the left hand is doing a lot more than just pressing on strings: chords, slides, bends, tapping as in hammer-ons/pull-offs, natural harmonics, even muting strings in some techniques (see Stevie Ray Vaughan’s style). The right hand is also doing more than just st…

Exactly; both hands have a complex job to do requiring dexterity and timing. Hence the question.

Re: The surprising geography of American left-handedness (2015)

#45

Post by kazinator »

bmacho wrote: post #43
kazinator wrote: post #19

Why is it that right-handed people play stringed instruments such that the strings are actuated with the right hand (finger picking, flatpicking, strumming, bowing), and fingered with the left? Many left handed players reverse the arrangement. On the other hand (pun inteneded) left-handed pianos are almost unheard of.

According to the internet several left-handed guitar players play normal (right-handed) guitars normal way. For the "why", I don't think there is anything particularly interesting here; several left-handed people tend to use asymmetric items that are made for right-handed people.

Did you perhaps want a word other than "several"?

Several is commonly understood to be a single digit figure, above 1, but well below 9.

The habits or preferences of "several" people in the entire world don't mean anything.

("Several percent", and you've got something).

Re: The surprising geography of American left-handedness (2015)

#46

Post by bmacho »

kazinator wrote: post #45
bmacho wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the internet several left-handed guitar players play normal (right-handed) guitars normal way. For the "why", I don't think there is anything particularly interesting here; several left-handed people tend to use asymmetric items that are made for right-handed people.

Did you perhaps want a word other than "several"? Several is commonly understood to be a single digit figure, above 1, but well below 9. The habits or preferences of "several" people in the entire world don't mean anything. ("Several percent", and you've got something).

Yes, I was unaware of that. Thank you for pointing it out

Re: The surprising geography of American left-handedness (2015)

#47

Post by reactordev »

mcv wrote: post #18
reactordev wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m the same. No one in my family tree going back to my great grandparents were lefties. Nor any cousins or 2nd cousins. Just me.

Me and my sister are left-handed, but nobody else in our family. And suddenly not one but two kids? (We're not twins.)

That is… bizarre indeed.

Re: The surprising geography of American left-handedness (2015)

#49

Post by cowboylowrez »

pjm331 wrote: post #42
kenhwang wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

String actuation requires much finer and varied motor skills than simply pressing down on the string. There's many strengths and directions in how a string can be plucked or bowed or strummed and it changes how it sounds, but pressing down on the string is pretty on/off binary.

yeah i am left handed but learned to play a right handed guitar and I have often wished i had done it differently - maybe one of these days i'll pick up a lefty guitar and learn all over again

same, I actually switched hands for a bit out of curiousity but didn't restring. mainly used to buy used guitars, pawn shop specials so finding a specifically right hand guitar would probably be more difficult, plus I liked the idea of being able to play a guitar that wasn't mine. I didn't do too much tho, as I'm not that good a right handed player either hehe

Re: The surprising geography of American left-handedness (2015)

#50

Post by cowboylowrez »

mcv wrote: post #17

After the resurgence of homophobia, racism, antivax, misogyny, I've been wondering if we're undoing the last couple of centuries of civilization. I never expected the next step to be left-handedness becoming associated with evil again.

history sort of rhymes but its because even in the past, we are still merely humans. I suspect there's no resurgence of these "philosophies", they were probably always there but hidden to whatever degree appropriate to the state of the current things.

I definitely agree tho, in my youth I thought science and rational thought would be spread by enhanced worldwide communications but should have known all that would be spread was the natural and inevitable state of human degeneracy.

Post reply on HN