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We often get queries from parents concerned that their left-handed child is not being allowed to play their chosen instrument in the most comfortable way for a left-hander.
One concerned mum contacted us on behalf of her 5 year old daughter Kerri who had started to play the recorder and was progressing extremely well, playing as her left-handed mum did with her right hand at the top of the instrument. Things began to go wrong when Kerri was told by her teacher to use her left hand to play the top notes, which she found very uncomfortable and thus dented her conficence and enthusiasm to play. Why, asks her mum, does it matter?
Playing the recorder, the left hand takes the lead
We asked advice at the Royal College of Music and the Centre for Young Musicians. Adopting the standard hand position for wind instruments is important, it seems, because although the recorder would appear to be pretty ambidextrous, should a child wish to progress to other wind instruments such as the clarinet, oboe or saxophone, the lower holes are positioned for the right-hand fingers. However, both hands need to be equally flexible and are worked just as hard so these instruments could be considered even-handed. It is unfortunate that Kerri’s teacher did not alter her fingering when she first picked up the instrument, as she would have then played her first notes with her left hand, and have become accustomed to holding the instrument this way. Once positioning has been learnt, it is very uncomfortable to reverse it.
Interestingly though, the standard finger position could in fact be considered to be advantageous for left-handed players, as Club Member Vicky who plays the oboe and recorder pointed out. Vicky found that since the first notes you learn are with the left hand, she feels greater co-ordination and control than right-handers would. This point is taken even further for players of the French horn, an instrument which gives left-handers a distinct advantage, as it requires geater dexterity in the left hand than the right.
We will be adding articles on playing other instruments soon, and do add your comments and experiences on playing wind instruments in the box below.
More information on learning to play instruments left-handed is available in Lauren’s Book “Your Left-handed Child” published by Hamlyn and available from our online shop.
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Even though the French Horn APPEARS to be a Left Handed instrument, it’s actually Right Handed!! – Confused?
Let me explain! – Originally, the Horn had no valves, and (my hat goes off to Herr Leutgeb and other early Hornists!!), “chromatic” notes – ie those not appearing naturally in the Harmonic Series – were produced by moving the right hand in and out of the “bell” of the instrument to varying degrees. – This is STILL done to “tune-on-the-fly”!
Interchangeable “Crooks” (pieces of tube of varying lengths) were then introduced to enable different “keys” to be played.
FINALLY, during the 19th century, VALVES were introduced, but the way of holding the Horn wasn’t changed, resulting in a “Left-handed, Right-handed” instrument……………
– I hope that you can follow that!!
Andy Parker (a Left Handed Horn player!!)
IM a left handed horn player too!
I’m left-handed, and I taught myself to play the piano accordion a few years ago, after picking one up in an auction. I only found out a few months ago that I’m playing it upside down
So much easier with the keys on the left.
I play a few wind instruments too, but all right-handedly – I’m strongly lefty in most things, but pipes and horns (including bagpipes) seem natural enough the right way round.
HI” I am looking for rory the guy that play a right handed guitar left handed . I love to talk to him becouse i have been playing that way for over 45 years Hope to here from you . Thank wayne
12.16.2010
I am a neurologist with interest in laterality of motor control.
I am a right hander and I play the violin. I read some of the comments which were made earlier by right and left handed players of different musical instruments. Handedness is primarily an expression as to which of the two hemispheres is in control of action (including that of speaking). Approximately 80 percent of people are left hemispheric in their laterality of motor control and 20 percent are right hemispheric. There is no circuitry for “ambidexterity). Of those who consider themselves right handed, approximately 80 persent are right hemispheric for action (i.e. are wired as left handers). Approximately 50 percent of left handers are wired as right handers (i.e. are left hemispheric for action). Therefore, 1 in five person in society displays (claims) a handedness for which they are wired in the opposite direction (a huge minority that had caused a Babylonian chaos before the discovery of the circuitry underpinning handedness (see above).
There is a simple way to find out which way a normal person is wired: simply draw two lines at the same time while holding a pen in each hand. The hand opposite the hemisphere of action draws the longer and the straighter line (or draws a larger box if the object was to draw a box with both hands at the same time). This is because the real dominant hand is directly connected to the opposite (action) hemisphere, whereas the nondominant hand must await the arrival of the command issued in the action hemisphere to reach the other hemisphere (which is the “slave processor” for the action hemisphere through the corpus callosum). This causes a delay in moving the nondominant side of the body equal to the inter-hemispheric transfer time (About 20 milliseconds or more). This is why the bowing is ahead of the fingering in violin playing and why there is a “melody-lead of the right hand’ in piano playing. And why (I suspect) the left hand is held on top of the right in wind instruments (i.e. providing a more even playing field for both hands (as it takes time for the wind to reach the farther end of the tube played by the faster right hand).
Those who are interested in more information can acces my scientific articles online at http://www.mimickingman.com
I. Derakhshan, md, Neurologist
I am left-handed and have a music degree from Durham University. I play the flute and discovered at the age of 16 that I needed grade 6 piano (as well as grade 8 in my own instrument) to get into university. So I went to a piano teacher and told her I needed grade 6 piano. She thought I was mad, given that I had about 18 months, but we did it. It never came into that I was left-handed. What did come into it was that I was hopeless at sight-reading more than one line at a time, as I was a flautist, not a pianist. I could play anything by ear and “got away with it” for ages by simply asking her to just play things through a few times so I could hear what it sounds like, until she twigged that I couldn’t really sight-read at all.
I started out like most children with a recorder at the age of 6 or 7 and didn’t start the flute until I was around 12 or 13. If you are musical you are musical, I do not think it has anything to do with handedness, and wind instruments are no more difficult to play with one hand on the top than on the bottom. You cannot play the flute the other way round because you all need to be sitting in the same direction in the orchestra. It would be chaos if some were pointing one way and some the other.
What was interesting was that, as a bit of fun, a musician made a “left-handed” flute and it was in a well-known flute shop in London when I went in once to have my flute serviced. I was about 15 at the time and probably around grade 5. A professional, right-handed flautist was in the shop at the same time. He picked it up, but could not even get a note out of it, as his brain somehow could not cope with it being round the wrong way. Yet, I played it straight away. Very strange!
I am an 11 out of 12 lefty, I tried to learn to play the piano my teacher finally told me I was wasting my time and money, my right hand just did not do what it was meant to do, if I could have found a left handed piano!! being in the retired age group I grew up in a world where to be left handed was not acceptable, and was always being forced to be right handed, which failed miserably and made me miserable as well. I play percussion, and get comments that I look odd when I play, but of course I play left handed with my right hand doing very little work. I notice that I play in reverse to a right handed player who brings the right stick down first, and above the left one.
My husband and 2 of our 3 children are left handed, but they are each ambidextrous to a degree, they play brass instruments with ease, and our eldest son taught himself to play guitar on a borrowed guitar which of course was right handed.
your teacher’s lying! I’m left handed and I play the piano smoothly ^^ at first I had a hard time with my left-right hand coordination but after practicing a couple of times my left-right hand coordination improved!
see? even left handers can do what right handers can
I too am a lefty piano player, the only thing that you have to do is PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE, if you really want to play you have to, PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE!
I started playing recorder in year 3 and clarinet in year 5 and have never had any problems playing either of them, I think it may be becuase I find it more comfortable with the left hand at the top like its suppossed to be played. The only problems I do have is the keys at the bottom right hand side which often have to be used. I’m in year 9 now and I’ve olny just realised that that is why it seems easier for me. My Dad tried to teach me guitar with the strings reversed but I was rubbish!
I get conflicting advice re playing the recorder. All right-handed professional musicians and music teachers tell me it does not make a difference, but the few left-handed people I know tell me it does make a difference.
I am not sure if this will be different in a few years time, as my parents’ generation was still taught to write with their right hand not matter what to ‘train’ both hands, and because ‘it doesn’t make much of a difference.’ Well, that has been proven wrong, and I wonder if in ten years or so all left-handed children will be taught on lefty instruments…
I have been advised to buy my child a conventional recorder, and am currently trying to decide whether I should just go ahead and by a left-handed one nonetheless!
As for left-handed musicians having an advantage over right-handed musicians when it comes to strings…I know for a fact that that’s not true, since I am a musician myself (violin). Also, if that was actually the case, why are instruments not built in a way that favors the (right-handed) majority of musicians – in a world where everything else is geared toward right-handed people? This argument does not follow, IMO.
Anyone who is interested:
There is a company in Ireland that sells wooden Irish flutes and can make them right or left handed. It is called Hamilton Flutes. You can find links to it by doing a Google search (or another search engine) under Hamilton Flutes. They offer keyed and unkeyed versions of the instrument. I
was not sure if this should have been in the “other instruments” category because it is not a conventional flute so I put a comment about it in that section also.
Edward
But don’t any of you oboists make your own reeds? I had to learn to make them when I was an oboe major in college; not knowing that there were such things as “right” handed and “left” handed knives, I purchased one for righties. My oboe teacher at first was going to have me return and switch it, then decided that I should try learning to use it right handed. I did, and made reeds all through school and beyond – right handed. I couldn’t begin to do it the other way around now!
Also learned to knit right handed when the Girl Scout leaders couldn’t figure a way to teach me to do it the opposite way. I can use the mouse either hand, but the really important things like eating and writing are left-only.
I am a leftie and play recorder and clarinet in the conventional way. I also teach Primary School children to play the recorder and in my experience, it is the RIGHT HANDERS who always want to put their right hand at the top, which feels more natural to them. At the start of every beginners class, I get all the kids to hold up their recorder in the air with their left hand at the top and go round making corrections. As others have stated, it is important if students go on to learn other instruments and also to avoid confusion when teaching in a group. I wonder if anyone has any fun tips to help kids get it right, especially when practising at home?
Hello Sarah.
I’m teaching also, here in Portugal, some children how to play the recorder. To the righties, I usually say that the right hand is in the bottom because it has four holes, and the left hand has only three (no counting with the thumb). Well, to the lefties, i say that they have to use the thumb, and so the left hand is in the top of the record!
I’m a director of a wind band. I had a directing teacher who used the baton in the left hand. When he was showing how to do, i did like a mirror, because i was tough by other teacher to use the right hand. But, if i want to show how to do to my pupils, i use the left hand and they use the right one, like a mirror.
I played the clarinet from 5th grade through the end of 8th grade. I never had any problems adjusting to it. My left hand on top and right on bottom. The hardest part was the keys requiring my right pinky. The hardest part had nothing to do with the keys. It was actually making the correct note sound and not a squeak. I don’t know if my ease was due to my left handedness or if it is because of what little right handed things I do. I am way more left handed than right but I sometimes wonder about what I naturally do right handed.
I play alto sax, which actually seems more left-handed than right handed. There are a few more keys for the left hand for the right, including a thumb (octave) key, and two extra pinky-finger keys. However, the right hand needs slightly more flexibility than the left, as more keys are pressed by the palm, rather than the fingers on the right hand than the left.
I play the flute and trombone, and have had very little problem with either. I did get funny looks all the time when I first started playing trombone, because I flipped it so the slide was on the left so I could use my left hand in high school. But when I got into college, they made me “conform” and play it the “normal” way. But even then I was able to play just fine, though it doesn’t really feel as comfortable. With the flute, there’s no real way to change it, so I guess I could say it got easier over time because that was the only way I ever played it.
I play all recorders and have taken up the clarinet. I don’t find any problem being a leftie. My problem is my hand span is a bit small so I keep doing stretching exercises.
My son has been playing the saxophone for 5 years and has had no difficulty being left- handed. He also plays Guitar Hero on the PS2 left-handed. He would love to play a real guitar but I don’t know anyone who can teach him to play left handed. I on the other hand played violin when I was in elementary school and had a terrible time trying to play right-handed. It just didn’t work for me.
Hey! I saw your comment about your child learning guitar. I play left-handed and took lessons from a right handed player. In some ways it was actually more advantagous than if it were a right hander teaching a right hander. During lessons, I sat across from my teacher, and we were a mirror image sitting across from one another, so it was actually easier to mimic his movements.
Phyllis,
If you can find a half decent, right handed guitar teacher, it really shouldn’t be too much of a problem for your son to learn from her/him. They would just simply sit opposite each other, in stead of side by side. Also, if the teacher has to show your son a certain grip and can’t figure out how to do it left-handed, I’m sure your son will have no problem at all observing the teacher doing it right-handed and then switching around to left-handed himself. After all, as lefties, we have to deal with this ALL the time and our brains are used to this kind of problem-solving …!
I played classical guitar as a child/teen, and found no dificulty playing in the “standard” way. In fact I found it easy to use my left hand for the notes as that was a more difficult thing to learn than the picking/strumming initially. I think that Guitars, in fact most instruments, are AMBIDEXTROUS rather than being right or left, as most require both hands to be used equally if differently. I quit guitar because my teacher was boring and it wasn’t challenging or interesting enough, wish I’d kept going.
I played the oboe way back in secondary school and didn’t even think of my left handedness- it was natural to have my left hand at the top, probably because you begin leaning notes with the left. Last year I started teaching myself the flute and have progressed really quickly (probably to about grade 5) again, the standard way around. This year I’ve started teaching myself guitar and have bought a left handed model. I find this more comfortable as the left hand does the fiddly movements and the right holds the strings steady. I did consider the violin, but they don’t seem to make a left handed version and I don’t think I could get on with it “back to front”. I also wanted to lean the piano, but the right hand tends to do the melody while the right does chords, so I don’t think I’ll make much progress on that!
I learned to play both the clarinet and the accordian when I was young. Had no problem with the clarinet, the left hand being at the top seemed the most natural. But the accordian was a little different story. While I took lessons for something like five years, and got fairly decent, in looking back, I think I would have done much better had I had a left-handed accordian. I never was as proficient as I would have liked with the bass “buttons” on the left, and while I was more proficient with the keys on the right side, it was never a comfortable feeling. I would love to try a left-handed accordian- if such a thing exists- to see how it feels fit/comfort-wise by comparison. I suspect once I got used to it it would feel much more comfortable and fluid. And
btw, since I am a total lefty- do nothing right-handed, grew up wondering why I even had a right arm, except for balance- I have never found it easy to adapt in a right-handed world, whether instruments, tools, sports, whatever.
Hey guys, I saw one comment saying that there was a “lefty flip” on Guitar Hero. It works for me on the Nintendo DS but on the TV one, it doesn’t work. To tell you the truth, I only like it on the DS. Anyway, like the Guitar Hero, I’m worse on the left hand than on the right on piano.
they do have left-handed mode on guitar hero, all you have to do is flip the guitar and put it on left mode
OMG!!! That’s awesome! Now I just have to go get the game! LOL!
If only the makers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band would make left handed guitars for their games; then we lefties would have it made. I’ve always played air guitar left handed and I suppose that if I had ever taken guitar lessons, I would’ve had to have a left handed guitar. I also never had a problem playing the recorder in elementary school. It never occured to me to put my left hand at the bottom. The problem I had was getting my right pinky down onto the very bottom hole. That was difficult in itself. And what little piano I have played, I’ve never had a problem with either. I seem to be a bit ambi when it comes to anything with keys. Pianos, computer keyboards, cash registers.
I started on the oboe and within 2 months I was ready to join the beginner group (which was about to have a concert in 2 weeks). In my school there were only 3 oboe players, the band director, a clarinet/sax that decided to switch, and me. The other oboe student had been playing for nearly a year but her half hole just wouldn’t come out right. (on the oboe there is a note that is played with your index finger on the left hand, it sometimes requires that you move back and forth quickly, covering and uncovering the whole). Because she did not have much control over her left hand and I did, it was much easier for me. Within a couple months I was moved to the English Horn ( a common second instrument for oboist because of the similar fingerings). On the English Horn, the B note (the one with the half hole) is split into 2 keys very close together. It is necessary to move your finger a greater distance than on the oboe. Again, I had greater success. My band director had never had a left handed oboist before and commented on how quickly I was able to grasp the half hole concept.
Also, in Venezuela, my grandfather was a leading musician of his day (about 50′s-90′s). He wrote many left handed method books. I do not know if these books can be bought anywhere other than the family store. Also, he made left handed instruments for himself. In countries such as Venezuela, it is not uncommon for musicians to make their own instruments. He spent a lot of time studying each instrument so that he could make left handed versions for himself and other musicians.
I’ve also found that a greater percentage of musicians are left handed, as compared with the general population.
I’ve played a cornet, tenor horn, baritone and euphonium at different points in my life – all are right handed instruments, and on the whole I’ve done reasonably well. I still feel though that I don’t have as much control over my right hand as a right handed player though (or maybe it’s just lack or practice
)
I know when I was a kid *someone told me* you could buy left handed versions of these instruments, but you normally needed to add about £1000 to the price (which seems a bit excessive now), but would have been right the 25 years ago I’m thinking of.
I in my youth played Cornet and Tenor Horn without any difficulty using my Right hand to manipulate the valves, later in life I graduated to the french Horn, and played this in the traditional manner. At a later stage I made and played a five string Banjo, and laterva Mandolin, playing both of these in hte standard way i.e Plectrum in right hand, fingering of strings with left hand.
Co incidently I now write with either hadn, and play Lawn bowls using either hand depending in which direction I wiish to aim the bowl.
you can buy most instruments leftie now and trombone can be put together “backwards” so you can use the slide with your left hand!!
(Hi, this is a long entry, so I put this here to refer you to the bottom of the entry where I summed up all the below text if you don’t want to read a lot of stuff- I tried to be as brief as I can, but it’s a point close to my heart. Go to the summary at the bottom if you want, but I’d rather prefer you read the whole thing.)
Left-handed Trombone? No such practical thing! I myself am cross-dominant (lefty writer and eater but throw, shoot, use scissors righthanded (though that is not direct definition of cross-dominant)) and play trombone. While I can understand the usefulness of lefthanded accordian and maybe trumpet, clarinet, and oboe, most other instuments us lefties need to conform to the righties. I say this becuase of the dinner-table example: no-one wants to sit with a lefty because our elbows bump their elbows, making for spilled soup. Consequently, a violinist would not want the head of the violin knocking into the lefty’s vioin head. The same goes for flutes; much consternation would be raised about possible damage to the end of the flute due to an awkward grasp. It also looks wrong when placed in a group of righties. The same goes for a trombone: I would hate anyone whose bell kept bumping into the bell of my Bach 42 BO. I mean, it’s a really nice ‘Bone (I even gave it a name, it’s so cool: Mr. Trombone, Mr T. for short, but that’s not my point.
This is what I’ve been building up to: a really nice bass trombone and some tenors have one or more valves: keys played with the fingers of the hand gripping the main bulk of the bone (not the slide). Correct trombone grip has the left arm holding the bone (and consequently playing the valves) and the right arm operating the slide. If you’re gonna play the trombone “left-handed-ly” you’d better hope to high heaven you’re awesome at it; thus you are first chair and thus get placed at the far right of the row, which would necessitate the trombones occupy the right side of the stage (the left to the audience). Both of these situations rarely ever happen. Otherwise, you’ll be placed at the end of the row, reserved for either the bass bone (which has a valve and is thus held and valved with the left hand) or most likely the last chair, the player with the least skill. For this reason you never find a trombone with a valve designed to be played “left-handedly.”
But doesn’t it make sense to have your left arm, the bulkier one (assuming you’re left-handed, which I assume pretty much everyone on this site is) holding the bulk of the trombone? True, writing notes on my music with my left hand is awkward, but it’s for the greater good of the group to endure a little discomfort rather to cause discomfort to other.
Accordianists can have the sides switched and be fine, it’s a perfectly ambidextrous instrumen; oboes could have it swapped also, none of the elbows jut out, ame with clarinet, but isn’t the mark of a really good musician versatility in genre AND instrument? Trumpet could be played and built ambidextrously, but Maynard Ferguson and Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, both stellar musicians, play both trumpet and trombone. Clarinet players find it realatively easy to switch to saxophone, as the fingerings are very similair; the same goes for flute and oboe. But if one were to switch from left-handed clarinet to left-handed tenor or baritone saxophone, one would find that their unique stance would cause much bumping around with the instrument, causing the need for the pads to be realigned at great expense. Finding a “left-handed” instrument is very costly regardless of what instrument you choose to play.
I think it all boils down to this- being a lefty is fun- making someone spill soup is really fun, provided you’re not in a formal dinner- and it definitely has advantages- lefties are scientifically proven to be smarter, make more money, and be better musicians and gamers. But in the universal language of music, I think it best for a universal standard be adopted for holding and playing the golden notes. Besides, I play piano also and find that being left-handed has advantage on a “right-handed” piano- supporting the right hand’s melody with the bass chords of the left hand is easier because the lefthander is inclined to play louder with the left than the right. Playing a lefty guitar I find difficult, as my more agile left hand fingers are reduced to strumming the strings rather than fretwork.
Finally, if one of us lefties is so awesome as to be called to demonstrate our instrument(s) to a group of aspiring musicians who may or may not have had experience playing our instrument and we, being the benevolent and generous people that we are, give our “left-handed” instrument to a right-handed kid, we just crippled that poor child’s future by associating the instrument with a left-handed position. Inevitably their teacher will call on them and their parents to buy a regular instrument to conform with the band. Money is wasted on both sides- our possession was wasted on someone who had no use for it, and they had to buy a regular instrument to learn to play on. Old habits die hard, and the poor child now has to kick the old habit to learn the new (corrent) one. Thus we as a minority group have people of the majority wanting to highfive us- in the face. Oh what a shame.
I do not mean to offend anyone here- I just mean to say we have a chance to put aside the rather degrading position of having to conform to a right-handed world by having a universal model in a universal language- music! Isn’t world peace a good thing? We are able to be as equals with our fellow people! Besides, in music, noone really cares if you’re doing something right-handed or left-handed- we’s just a-playin’ our song- that’s all that matters.
P.S. (Sorry for taking up so much space, but my personal view is that left-handed instruments are merely a novelty- not a serious option for a career. I’d love to play a left-handed trombone, but that wouldn’t be very practical for anything besides show. I’d have to learn to play in tune all over again- very difficult to learn on a ‘bone.)
I play trombone in my school’s concert band, and I’ve always liked having my music stand on the left-side. But now I am having problems, because my teacher wants me to hold it up higher, making the bell block my view of my music.
The most important keys are on the left hand for many of the instruments mentioned above. (I play clar, sax, trumpet.) A good horn for ‘lefties’ also is the french horn – you use your left hand for the notes unlike a trumpet where you traditionally use your right….
I am a leftie and I taught myself the recorder when I was a child. I did start off with the wrong hand at the top. When this was pointed out to me by a teacher later, I had to go through re-learning the fingerings with the correct hands, but it really wasn’t that much of an issue and I went on to play clarinet with no problem.
It was required at my elementary school to play recorder in 4th and 5th grade. When the teacher told us how to hold it, I had no problem, instead, a couple righties had trouble. I went on to play sax in 7th grade and still had no problem. It seems to me, like other people said, that I use my left hand more often, not nesecarily for high notes, but for low notes as well.
I too learnt the recorder first then progressed to the flute. I never had problems. I think i was comfortable with the way i handled the instruments and never questioned a possible problem because of left handedness.
I play the saxaphone and I find it an advantage to be left-handed. The fingering for your left hand is more complex and used more often than the lower notes of the right hand. However, the best way to discourage “bad” habits is at the beginning so somebody who started playing with their hands in the opposite position would have a lot harder time switching than someone starting out with the correct position
I started on the recorder at about 6 and clarinet at 7 and saxophone at 14. It never felt awkward being a left hander, if anything it was useful as many of the first notes I learnt were with my left hand and not my right.
I’m still playing my clarinet and saxophone to my class of special needs children and they appreciate my playing.
Like most people I started playing the recorder when I was 7. We were told left hand at the top and right hand at the bottom. Being left-handed never came into it. To me it was natural. I then played the piano and violin for a short time but left them to play the flute. I then went on to play the saxophone and clarinet and finally went on to teach woodwind in schools. Some children when playing the recorder with there right hand at the top when questioned why, they answered ‘I’m left handed’. I then went on to tell them that if they wanted to go on to learn another woodwind instrument they would have to change there hands round. It doesn’t matter whether you are left or right handed it’s the instrument you are learning.
my son plays trumpet..has for six yrs…is awsome trumpet player….his mmusic teacher had him teachin freinds…i dont think anyone realizes he is left handed..
I am learning to play the fiddle. I have found it very easy to use my left hand for fingering the strings and the right for the bow. When my instructor discovered that I was left handed, she said that I should be playing the other way around! But that would seem odd to me. The fine motor skills are easier with the left hand – the right just moves back and forth!
I am a professional (left handed) musician, oboe and piano. My husband and daughter are both professional violinists and teachers. Believe me, we left hander have an advantage over those righties on the string instruments, and on wind instruments it makes absolutely no difference—-you use both hands equally. On string instruments, the fine movements are in the fingers of the left hand, and the large motor skills are in the right hand. I would think that playing the piano is a bigger concern as you have to move the right hand a lot more than the left. However, I actually find that I can do more with my right hand on the piano than my left. It really is how you train yourself for a particuliar job. In my 50 years of teaching oboe to people from age 6 to 72, I have never found an instance where hand preference made a bit of difference. A further observation is that I’ve found in musical social settings (dinners out etc) the majority of the musicians will be left handed, none of whom worry about playing the instrument as it was designed.
Dayna, I couldn’t agree more with your comments. As a fellow oboist, both hands are equally needed. One needs to work on getting those pinky’s strong on both hands to play well. I am proud of being a lefty, but we can’t use it as an excuse (not that you are, but some do) to not practice or to give up too soon.
I am currently learning to play keyboard/piano and find that I also find it easier to play the tune with my right hand rather than left. However, in tunes with a melody in both hands ,like sticks and stones, I have found it easier to play the piece than other “class mates”. Whether this has anything to do with my being left handed I have apsolutly no idea.
I play the Flute. (I learnt the Recorder when I was in Primary School too.) I’ve never had any trouble with my “handedness” on these instraments because I played them “right handed” from day one. I find that if I’m learning a new task, then whichever way I lean to do it is the way that I will continue to do that task.
Same here:-)
i play the trombone. i dont think there are any left-handed trombones, but i felt comfortable playing it. i think its because i’m not completely left-handed i guess. i write and eat with my left hand, but play sports (baseball, tennis, etc.) with my right.
I’ve been playing clarinet since the 5th grade. from the first moment that I picked it up until now I have always fund ease in playing. I’ve been playing for 9 years and I love every moment of it!!
I had a violin for 2 months when I was 7-no room for being a left-hander either, we were removed from each other for the sake of world peace!! Confidence badly dented thinking I was so useless. I learnt to play the guitar as a teenager but found it very hard to find a left handed intrument so adapted a right handed one (bridge and all). I then found co-ordinating my hands difficult, each doing something different (strum/pick and cords) – so gave up after a while, also it was difficult to play with anyone else in a band unless there was a lot of space. I picked up the Sax when I was 30 and haven’t looked back. Both my hands are playing one thing!! I never needed to be ‘lefthanded’ with the key positions either, it feels much more natural than an instrument that requires a ‘split’ brain. And I CAN play music after all.
I play recorders, and whistles, and have played violin and clarinet, all right handed. For the recorders, it’s an advantage, as the really difficult higher notes are formed using the left thumb. I played violin in a school orchestra. It would be impossible to sit next to another violinist and use the bow left handed. Think about the arms hitting one another! Anyway, the really difficult bit for me was getting the fingers on the strings in the right place to form the note, and that’s done with the left hand.
Me too – I played the clarinet all through high school and felt very comfortable, didn’t even give it a second thought.
Like Vicky, I played both the recorder and the oboe, and had no difficulty placing my hands in the same positions as a right-hander. It never felt awkward or unnatural. However, if someone handed me a stringed instrument, such as a violin, I would find my instinct would fight hard with my received knowledge of how it should be done and I would be at a complete loss to know which hand to bow with and which to finger with.