Apparently we are all very special little snowflakes indeed when it comes to finger drumming.
I do both, and find that while pinky-to-index is easier and more unconscious, I can do it the other way and it gets easier with practice. It is also easier if I start with the thumb rather than the index.
Probably a lot of it is individual wiring. I’m with whoever said they had to work hard to raise their right eyebrow. The left came naturally, and unconsciously, but I had to train myself to raise the right and it still takes a lot of deliberate effort.
Surely that must say something about me, I know not what.
:dubious:
(Illustrate your comments)
We used to do that on the college forensics team. It was a subtle technique to distract our opponent.
I’d be interested in your facility with this one: tap fingers 1 & 4 on the edge of a table. Then tap fingers 2&3 on the table. Repeat quickly: 1,4 ; 2,3; 1,4; 2,3; etc. That’s difficult for most people, but can be mastered with a little practice. Then try it with both hands. Then try it with one hand starting on 1,4 while the other starts with 2,3. Then do 2 aginst 3 rhythmically, left hand against right. Again, it’s really difficult at first, and then, with some practice and a feel for it, bingo.
[slight hijack]
Do you ever come over to the Great Ongoing Guitar Thread? The other guitarists in this thread visit, but I haven’t seen you and am delving into hybrid/fingersyle…
[/slight hijack]
As for the OP, as a guitarist, I can say that muscle memory is a funny thing - after investing countless hours going over specific fingerings, I think that any routine, sequenced motion can be “burned in” over time. Why do most folks adopt the pinky-to-index sequence first? No doubt some combo of nature and nurture - but it doesn’t appear to be special beyond typically being learned early…
So there I was, sitting there reading a thread on some other part of the SDMB, and idly drumming my fingers on the tabletop. And I noticed that I was going back and forth: first index to pinky, then vice versa. And I said to myself, hey, didn’t I just see a thread title about that? So, after a little looking around, here I am, to provide some anecdotal evidence that, for me anyway, it’s easy and natural to go either direction.
FWIW I spent several years of my youth taking piano lessons. You’re kinda limited in what you can play if your fingers will only go one way.
Isn’t there some sort of connection between the little finger and the ring finger? They share a tendon or something? Hence it being more difficult to move your little finger downward without your ring finger following it than it is to move the other fingers independently (though it doesn’t happen the other way).
Wouldn’t that affect how easy it is to drum your fingers in whatever direction? If your ring finger naturally follows your little finger, then drumming from little to index would be easier than the other way round.
Aha! this seems to back me up.
Finger drumming by The New Yorker literary critic James Wood here.
I haven’t but I’ll check it out - it’s a lot to dive into! - FWIW I’m mostly into country blues alternating bass styles, if it’s something you’re interested in feel free to PM.
Whoa, that guy is serious!
Ok, I’m fess up as another gimp who finds it nigh impossible to do index-to-pinky, either hand. The other way is perfectly fine.