Interesting that musicians who play stringed instruments use their non-dominant hand for the typically more difficult bit on the neck, and their dominant had for the easier strummy/picky/plunky bits.
Yeah, you know, you're right. "what both hands are doing" might be key there, because it's really a big melange of different motor and cognitive skills that goes far beyond what your hand happens to be doing at any given time.
You know, especially when you play something intricate that requires fine motor skills - like punk rock.
But it really does go way past your hands, especially if you start throwing other gadgets into the mix. You can't just stick your foot on a wah pedal and rock it back and forth along with the beat. There's a whole other aesthetic at work there. And then on top of that, if you give a crap about playing in sync with the other musicians who may happen to be in the room, you have to be paying attention to them too...
Jesus, I'm glad no one ever told me all of that when I was 15 or I never would have even picked up a guitar. It sounds like a lot of work.
It seems to me that rythm is most important. Even if you end up playing out of sync from the main rythm in a band, you'll somehow place that wild strum at a specific time to break that rythm, giving the main rythm an even more intense presence.
I don't know if this makes any sense but I am actually trying to say something that I mean. :D Or is it that I mean what I am trying to say?
Dude, that's my charm!As so often occurs, it's difficult for me to separate the sarcasm from the self-deprication and/or the agreement, if, in fact, there is any from your point of view.
i cut meat with my right hand and then take the bite with my left.which hand do i write with?
How do you get the possum to stay still while you cut it?i cut meat with my right hand and then take the bite with my left.
In the two years since Purple Stickpin first enlightened me on the importance of the right hand, I've been watching those right hands a lot more than I used to (and thinking about what my own right hand is doing when I pick up a guitar).No matter the style of music one plays, and this gets to BlackSwan's point below, the rhythm is by far the most important for coherent music. Be the rhythm on or off the beat or anywhere in between, if it works, it works. My point being that the dominant hand (i.e., right or left-handedness) is the hand to make this happen.
In the two years since Purple Stickpin first enlightened me on the importance of the right hand, I've been watching those right hands a lot more than I used to (and thinking about what my own right hand is doing when I pick up a guitar).
Most of the rhythm is in the right hand, yes. But it would also seem to me that most of what makes a player distinctive, or gives them their unique style is in the right hand as well. The truth of the thing, as was pointed out earlier, is that it's the hands working together that make for style. But there are limitations on how many ways you can do something on the fretboard (left hand), but no such limitations on the right.