Hand dominance =/= natural dexterity advantage at keys

[wnlqxod]

Truth be told, I am right-handed. Yet, for some strange reason, I tend to have worse aim with my right hand than with my left. I feel "left-handed" at the piano. Many of my favourite pieces tend to be heavy in the left hand department. Anyone else experience this phenomenon where it's your non-dominant hand that's actually "better" on the piano?

[j_menz]

Each of my hands has their own set of skills, so my LH is better than my RH at some things, and with others the position is reversed.  I don't think it has much to do with my handedness (right handed, btw) but more with the figures that are more common in each.

[indianajo]

Many pieces make me wish I was right handed.  I'm severely left handed, and piano training helped me gain control of the previously useless dextral appendage starting age eight.  Emphasize the top note, that is the melody, etc etc.  However, on the rare pieces where trills occur in the left hand, I'm much faster with less effort with the left, still.  Octave jumping requires much less practice with the left hand than the right, although the right can learn its part if I practice long enough.  

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Many pieces make me wish I was right handed.  I'm severely left handed, and piano training helped me gain control of the previously useless dextral appendage starting age eight.  Emphasize the top note, that is the melody, etc etc.  However, on the rare pieces where trills occur in the left hand, I'm much faster with less effort with the left, still.  Octave jumping requires much less practice with the left hand than the right, although the right can learn its part if I practice long enough.  

Over 2,500 left handed people die every year from using right handed products.

[lloyd_cdb]

I'm a lefty and my right hand is my dominant hand at the piano. I stare at my left hand the entire time I practice or play, even if it's just a repetitive motion. I was just playing around with Andante Spianato and was staring at my left hand even though it's the same 5 bars over and over without any jumps. I'm not sure if you play any other instruments, but I also play guitar (a left handed one). I picked up guitar 10 years after piano, and it accelerated my hand imbalance. Lots of stuff factors into it, not just which hand you write with (see rant below).

Over 2,500 left handed people die every year from using right handed products.

As a lefty, my life expectancy is 10 years less than a righty. There are a lot of interesting aspects of left-handedness. Strong correlations with premature birth and poor health at birth. Most of the blame goes to hypoxia (low oxygen). That is why I have epilepsy and most likely am a lefty. Of babies in the bottom 10% of birth weight, more than half ended up as lefties at age 4 from a study in '88. The human body is a strange beast.

"right handed products" that are deadly are things like chainsaws. The actual saw comes out on the right side of the tool, allowing a righty to stand away from it as you saw in case it kicks back, so you don't take your head off. As a lefty, anytime I use it I either have to hold it righty and therefore stand awkwardly, or hold it lefty with my neck sitting above the blade.

Why do I mention that? It's because "left-handed" is a terrible term in regards to issues like that. People that write with their left hand are left handed. What is the difference between playing soccer lefty/throwing a ball/snowboarding/using a chainsaw vs. writing left handed? Balance. 95% of things that take a left vs. right decision process happen while you are standing, and it's about your natural tendency to balance.

Why the rant? a) I wanted to get a left-handed chainsaw for my woodworking stuff, and got lectured about how I should "just do it right-handed". Screw you guy that wants me to chop my leg or head off. b) There are very few people that do everything in life as a lefty and then write as a righty. Conversely, many people that write left-handed do things in life as a righty. It just drives me insane when I get told by fake lefties "I can do it, you can too".

/rant

[indianajo]

I was two weeks late as an infant, so my left hand dominance would probably have been observable with ultrasound. 
Everybody at work had a near miss story when I mentioned buying a chainsaw, so I bought an ax. I'd probably break my hands off at the wrist the first time it kicked back, before I ever cut my leg open.   I spent last summer trying to develop the skill with an ax Abraham Lincoln had when he was ten. I've got 23 acres of cedar and maple saplings, and there are a lot of places I can't get with the mower.   Pity, piano is so much more fun. 
Piano is not nearly a right handed an instrument as some others. I kind of enjoyed the guitar, since most of the action was in the left hand on the frets. Pity I can't grow calluses, there is no point playing nylon strings in public. 
My challenge last week was trying to operate the knife attachment as a can opener right handed. I'd misplaced my cherished 1980 Swing-Away opener, and you are no longer permitted to buy a can opener from anywhere but the land of imitation steel.  That country only had one news story last week about killing sixty three people in a stupid industrial accident. 
I think the scariest thing is countries that drive on the left.  I refuse to rent a car in the UK; the wife almost got us killed in Ilford just trying to cross the street. (Gant Hill traffic circle). A re-enactment of Winston Churchhill's accident with a cari in NYC, with the negative reversed. 

[drexo]

I'm right handed too, though my left hand is stronger in many aspects regarding playing the piano. I play the guitar too, maybe it has something to do with it.

[timothy42b]

If you find a left handed can opener let me know.  My strongly left handed daughter was complaining just this week after trying to open a can of tuna. 

[lloyd_cdb]

If you find a left handed can opener let me know.  My strongly left handed daughter was complaining just this week after trying to open a can of tuna.  

I ended up getting this:

https://www.amazon.com/One-Touch-OB-603-OneTouch-Opener/dp/B005FSRF6E/ref=sr_1_19?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1365044707&sr=1-19

It operates on its own, you just push the button for a second or two and then it goes around on it's own and turns off when it's done. Magnetic so it stays on and holds the top when it's done. When I got a dog, I just couldn't handle dealing with the standard one and had to get something like that. It's really great for a mixed hand household and... it's "As seen on TV!".

[lloyd_cdb]

I play the guitar too, maybe it has something to do with it.

I'm fairly confident this is one of the major contributing factors. I've had this discussion many times with guitar/pianists as well as violinist/pianist. It seems to be a strongly correlated trend.