Question about bass and treble

[guitarwolf]

I have noticed in a few peices that they dont really stick to the bass and treble cleff for your right and left hands, or maybe they do but just make it way more difficult. Pieces such as Chopin minute waltz for example. Starting in the 9th measure, if you look at the notes for your left hand (bass cleff) it seems that the notes continue onto the treble. Are you supposed to hit those notes on the treble with your right making an easy entry difficult to play? I am asking because I am self taught and dont know all the rules, but it seems it would be much easier to just use common sense with things like this but this is what confuses me. If you look at the 23rd measure it has you hit a Gb in the chord, which is the same note in the previous measure. The difference only being that you use only your left hand for this chord? So basically my question is does the bass always mean left and treble right? Sorry for the long post and thnx for any help on this.

[glamfolk]

A good rule of thumb (hah!) for reading is that the top staff is for right (regardless of the clef) and the bottom staff is for left (regardless of the clef).  That's the only reason that there are two staves--one for each hand.  

When both hands are playing high notes, you'll get two treble clefs, and when both hands are playing low notes, you'll get two bass clefs.  Normally, the right hand plays high notes and the left plays low notes, so you'll get a treble clef for the right hand (top staff) and a bass for the left hand (bottom staff).

Occasionally, when the left hand needs to jump up for a moment to grab a high note, the publisher simply will put that note on the top staff, but expect you, the player, to just figure it out.  Nice of them to let you know, huh?  One way to tell is to see if there's a beam (on eighth-notes) connecting the note in question to other bottom-staff notes.  This is usually up to whomever printed the book, and other books might show it differently.  Sometimes they'll actually let you know that it's the left hand by saying "left hand" or  an abbreviation of "left hand"  near the notes.  

The best rule is just as you mentioned.  If it's easier to use your right hand, then use it.  if you get some picky teacher or judge who makes a big deal out of it, change it later!  Always remember that the clef signs don't have anything to do with your hands, only the notes.