Mark and the cerebral hemispheres

[Tol´83]

Hello, I am new to the forum. It is a pleasure to be here and enjoy so much accumulated knowledge. I am writing from Spain. Sorry for my translation.

I wanted to share my theory of why Mark is a unique and hardly repeatable guitarist/singer, apart from his great talent and sensitivity. As we already know, Mark is a lefty who plays well with his right hand. The left hand is directed by the right hemisphere of the brain. That is his strong hand for controlling the guitar fretboard, coupled with his right-handed proficiency. Mark is/was capable of true left hand virtuosity that to some extent and with some resemblance can be reproduced by some tenacious and disciplined guitarist. He is also able to complement it perfectly with his right hand. The problem comes when, wanting to imitate Mark's style, you want to play and sing at the same time his songs. The part of the brain that controls speech is the left hemisphere. This is why Mark can perform those magnificent guitar fills during the songs at the same time he sings, as for example in Alchemy's version of Tunnel of Love. His dominant hand and his voice do not “step on each other's toes” during brain processing, as they are directed by two different hemispheres, as would happen if the same were attempted by a right-handed player.
Being an amateur guitarist I have managed to learn and get a little bit closer to those magnificent guitar fills of Tunnel of Love and Sultans of Swing, but as much as I try to do the same while singing, I find it practically impossible. For that I would have to simplify the guitar parts as much as possible and then it wouldn't be the same.
I wanted to share this here as it is something I often think about and I believe that even with all the talent in the world a right-handed player could never reach those levels of fluency that Mark reached while playing and singing.
Sorry if there may be some error in my theory but I wanted to share it here in case there is a possibility that any of the guitarists here have ever come to the same conclusion.

[stratmad]

Hello Tol`83!
Sadly no one has replied to your post yet because we've all been following the wonderful Q&A threads.
I'm not a brain specialist at all, just a hopeless amateur guitar player, and what you wrote seems totally convincing to me! I'd never thought about it from that angle before...
From what I remember from my linguistics classes, there are two brain areas that control speech: Wernicke's Area (for meaning) and Broca's Area (for fluency, grammar, rhythm? etc.), and both are usually located in the left hemisphere. So if the hand on the fretboard and the speech production were controlled by the same hemisphere, it would speed things up considerably!
I know there's a lot a of research going on about left-handedness, but it still seems to be quite mysterious.
All I know is that I can't think of any other player who blends the solos and the vocals into each other like MK, and that's not mentioning the rhythm parts he plays in between. Just amazing! Chet Atkins said: "He sounds like a whole band." :-)
 

[quizzaciously]

Yeah, hello indeed! To be honest, the idea of Mark having extraordinary skills thanks to how his brain is wired is a little bit far-fetched. John Mayer is as right-handed as it gets, and yet he can do the same stuff, amplified to 11. His famous song "Neon" is a nightmare even to play on a guitar alone, but he sings it and plays it at the same time perfectly.

Playing and singing at the same time is not magic and is something musicians have done since ancient times. It's practice, practice, practice, and practice.

It's known that a lot of creative people are left-handed, and when I was a kid, I thought that was why I was not creative, but I found out it was just an excuse for me not to work. Again, there are tons of examples of extremely talented, skilful or successful people who are not left-handed or blue-eyed. Talent and work are the only things that matter.

[quizzaciously]

Not to say the brain doesn't matter completely. Of course, it matters! If you're good at maths, you have a pretty high chance of becoming a good programmer or a scientist. Just like if you're tall you can play basketball or if you've got a truffle dog, you can go truffling.

The fact that Mark plays the guitar right-handed while being left-handed is also not as important as when you learn to play the instrument; you're pretty much equally bad with both hands. I believe it's the function of getting used to something, like playing guitar left-handed with strings upside-down, or playing the right-handed drum kit while being left-handed like Ringo or Stewart Copeland.

It affects the sound (Stewart is known for playing hi-hat A LOT, and Ringo is known for his "reversed" drum fills). Does it affect anything else? I don't think so... There are The Beatles tribute bands where right-handed bass players learned to play with the left hand just to look like Paul McCartney, and they sing and play at the same time.

[stratmad]

Quizzy, you're probably right, as always :-)
Just when I thought I'd finally found an excuse for still not being able to play like that... 

[Tol´83]

Hello Tol`83!
Sadly no one has replied to your post yet because we've all been following the wonderful Q&A threads.

You mean Ed Bicknell's? I've read them all.

[Tol´83]

Thanks for your input. The truth is that Mark's ability in his prime was amazing. My favorite example is TOL in Alchemy. How he intersperses guitar and vocals and even both at the same time and they are not mere rhythmic accompaniments. They are complex parts, licks that require a lot of precision. Hal Lindes said that Eric Clapton went to see him several nights in a row at Wembley and I thought he wanted to see if he did the same thing every night or if he improvised sometime.

[vape68]

Hello, I am new to the forum. It is a pleasure to be here and enjoy so much accumulated knowledge. I am writing from Spain. Sorry for my translation.

I wanted to share my theory of why Mark is a unique and hardly repeatable guitarist/singer, apart from his great talent and sensitivity. As we already know, Mark is a lefty who plays well with his right hand. The left hand is directed by the right hemisphere of the brain. That is his strong hand for controlling the guitar fretboard, coupled with his right-handed proficiency. Mark is/was capable of true left hand virtuosity that to some extent and with some resemblance can be reproduced by some tenacious and disciplined guitarist. He is also able to complement it perfectly with his right hand. The problem comes when, wanting to imitate Mark's style, you want to play and sing at the same time his songs. The part of the brain that controls speech is the left hemisphere. This is why Mark can perform those magnificent guitar fills during the songs at the same time he sings, as for example in Alchemy's version of Tunnel of Love. His dominant hand and his voice do not “step on each other's toes” during brain processing, as they are directed by two different hemispheres, as would happen if the same were attempted by a right-handed player.
Being an amateur guitarist I have managed to learn and get a little bit closer to those magnificent guitar fills of Tunnel of Love and Sultans of Swing, but as much as I try to do the same while singing, I find it practically impossible. For that I would have to simplify the guitar parts as much as possible and then it wouldn't be the same.
I wanted to share this here as it is something I often think about and I believe that even with all the talent in the world a right-handed player could never reach those levels of fluency that Mark reached while playing and singing.
Sorry if there may be some error in my theory but I wanted to share it here in case there is a possibility that any of the guitarists here have ever come to the same conclusion.

Many players can both sing and play at the same time, so I don't think it's due to the left-hand thing
but surely playing with your dominant hand gives you an edge.

I have seen the extreme position of ring finger above the little finger only with Mark Knopfler
and Jimmy Hendrix and they are both left-handed

[stratmad]

Ring finger above the little finger? Have you got a specific song in mind, the twiddly bits maybe? Could you post an image?

[TheTimeWasWrong]

Ring finger above the little finger? Have you got a specific song in mind, the twiddly bits maybe? Could you post an image?

Barre chords?

[stratmad]

Oh yes, the steel claw! 
It kind of reminds me of Inigo, of the "Princess Bride", the guy who used to squeeze rocks as a hobby.

[MagicElliott]

Ring finger above the little finger? Have you got a specific song in mind, the twiddly bits maybe? Could you post an image?

Barre chords?

Yes I’ve noticed this too. I still can’t play that “A” shape barre chord with just the little finger barring the three strings.

[quizzaciously]

Ring finger above the little finger? Have you got a specific song in mind, the twiddly bits maybe? Could you post an image?

Barre chords?

Yes I’ve noticed this too. I still can’t play that “A” shape barre chord with just the little finger barring the three strings.

Right-handed here. Can play little finger bar chords all day long, 3 or even 4 strings. One of the best chord shapes on guitar. Bonus track: I've got small hands. So I'm still not convinced about the huge advantage of the left hand

[stratmad]

Right-handed here. Can play little finger bar chords all day long, 3 or even 4 strings. One of the best chord shapes on guitar. Bonus track: I've got small hands. So I'm still not convinced about the huge advantage of the left hand

I was just going to mention the large hands as an additional advantage... Quizzy, did you maybe fall into something when you were a baby?   
https://www.deviantart.com/zenitram-anth/art/Asterix-drinking-magic-potion-284904371

[quizzaciously]

Right-handed here. Can play little finger bar chords all day long, 3 or even 4 strings. One of the best chord shapes on guitar. Bonus track: I've got small hands. So I'm still not convinced about the huge advantage of the left hand

I was just going to mention the large hands as an additional advantage... Quizzy, did you maybe fall into something when you were a baby?   
https://www.deviantart.com/zenitram-anth/art/Asterix-drinking-magic-potion-284904371

Hahaha! Magic potion is called "No matter how good you are at something, there's always an Asian kid better than you". Look at Asian kids playing full-scaled guitars (no 3/4 size BS or anything like that) and playing things I deemed impossible even for my fingers. I don't even want to search for these videos as I'll want to burn my few guitars again!

I remember struggling to get all these thumb-over-the-top, little finger bars and other crazy tricks, but as long as I understood its huge advantage, I couldn't live without it. This little finger bar is hands down the best way to play major chords on guitar. And coupled with the thumb over the top — it's a powerful weapon.

In my experience, people rarely can't physically play something, most of the time, it's the lack of practice or, most importantly, lack of motivation and understanding of this technique. Together with the movable E shape, this A shape gives a way to play ANY major chord in existence. Worth it!