Advantage in Being Left-Handed

[jhon]

Since most are normally right-handed, is there any special advantage in being a left-handed pianist? Or is it more of a disadvantage? IMHO, it's something more advantageous. Just like the majority, I believe that most composers are right-handed too and thus, most of their compositions intentionally post more difficulty and challenge in developing and strengthening the left hand. In fact, there's such a thing - a modern piano art - called "Piano Music for Left Hand Alone" and I believe that such has been created because of the fact that left-hand passages in virtually most pieces are harder to execute. I know most of you have already heard some of the famous examples such as Ravel's Piano Concerto and Scriabin's Nocturne (Op.9/2) both for left hand alone. For more information go to this website:

https://hjem.get2net.dk/Brofeldt

BTW, who are left-handed here? Maybe you're more in the position to discuss this topic...and please share all great LH pieces you know...

[Triton LE 76]

Hi!

I am left handed. Altough i am my right hand really beates up my left hand in technique. I hate that. I had troubles with chopin 10.4 at speed 160, but it works fine now.
But as an advantage for being left-handed is that we get stronger and get more endurance than the right-handed. I have a lot more troubles with stamina in my right hand than my left in that piece.

Joern

[chozart]

Technically speaking, I'm right handed but there's a lot of stuff I can't do with my right hand if my life depended on it (like throwing or hitting or stearing). I don't write too poorly with my left, and I draw pretty decently with it, but I wouldn't say I'm fully ambidextrous.. just like sort of, haha. Actually I think I was probably a lefty, but tought to be a righty.

Anyway, my left hand I think is a lot better in many ways. It has much much greater ease in fast passages, octaves, and chords.
However, along with that comes a very weird way that I position it. Um, very "claw-like," heh.
It actually works to my advantage with chords and especially octaves, but I have trouble holding it down in runs, etc.
Also, my left proves much more fluent in long arpeggios and other long passages (like in Rachmaninov's G minor Prelude Op.23/5, where the "un poco meno mosso" begins).
Somehow connecting is much easier with it..

[jhon]

Chozart, what does "ambidextrous" mean?

[Nana_Ama]

Chozart, what does "ambidextrous" mean?

it means being able to use both hand well.  Literally, it means both right hands because in Latin Dexter is the right hand (which most people write with).

[solange]

Now, it alwayz seemed to me dat a LOT of pianiztz were LEFT-handed

let me tell u my reasoning: if you are right-brained, then you are usually very creative. and most right-brained people are left-handed.

simple az dat

[thalbergmad]

Now, it alwayz seemed to me dat a LOT of pianiztz were LEFT-handed

let me tell u my reasoning: if you are right-brained, then you are usually very creative. and most right-brained people are left-handed.

simple az dat

I have read that somewhere.

Someone will come along and expand.

I wonder if there are any statistics to prove or disprove.

[kaziel illian]

I'm left handed.


!LL

[minimozart007]

im a left handed music geek.

im geekier than the music geeks.

 

[jhon]

Now, it alwayz seemed to me dat a LOT of pianiztz were LEFT-handed

let me tell u my reasoning: if you are right-brained, then you are usually very creative. and most right-brained people are left-handed.

simple az dat

What is thing thing about the brain?  I've heard the left is for technical fields like sciences while right is for arts.  Is this correct?

[shasta]

I'll try to explain it in brief:

The brain has different regions used for different purposes. The brain is NOT symmetrical in how it divides up these different purposes.  For example, in most human brains, the regions that control speech (Broca's area, which controls the ability to produce speech, and Wernicke's areas, which controls the ability to understand speech) tend to be found on the left half of the brain (the left hemisphere). 

The way the brain-body connection is "wired", the signals controlling the body are crossed: the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body while the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body.  Therefore, in the majority of humans, right-handed people are powered by their left hemisphere.  As you'd expect, left-handed people in general are powered by their right hemisphere (although this gets pretty complicated and there are many exceptions). 

Now, because of the above, and because the 2 hemispheres each have their own specializations, it is possible and perhaps probable that if a right-handed person is therefore powered by their left hemisphere, and language is located in the left hemisphere, then right-handed people have a better felicity for language-based things, simply because their left hemisphere is more dominant (as manifest by handedness).  Other specialities found in the left hemisphere include areas for speech structure, mania, and rationalization.

Similarly, left-handed people are mostly powered by their right hemisphere.  It turns out, the right hemisphere seems to contain the brain regions dedicated to spatial comprehension, timing, sequencing, geometry, picture-storage, and music-based sensory.  <-- One can guess that because many of these right hemisphere traits are associated with art/music, then perhaps many artists/musicians are left-handed.

How do scientists figure out which hemisphere controls what?  Well, there is a part of the brain called the Corpus Callosum, which connects the left and right hemispheres so that they can communicate with each other (this is why the image we see through our eyes is not 2 separate "windows" but rather one unified picture - - - because the hemispheres are able to communicate with each other to create a single "window"). 

Now, in some patients with severe seizure disorders, the only treatment for them is to cut the Corpus Callosum so that they can still function but their seizures won't be able to cross over to the opposite hemisphere and screw up those functions.  In these patients, whose Corpus Callosum has now been cut, their left and right hemispheres cannot communicate with each other.  These patients can still get on with life (since most daily tasks don't really require both hemispheres teaming up together anyway), but scientists are able to do all sorts of visual, musical, and lingustical tests while they visualize the brain on PET/MRI scans to see which areas light up during certain tasks.  Pretty cool stuff!

[jhon]

I'm right-handed and the problem with my RH is that it's too string that I cannot almost control it - sometimes, it just have its own way.  So everyday, I practice LH etudes such as Revolutionary and Un Sospiro.   

[i_m_robot]

perhaps your right hand is not too strong but ill managed

play slowly and use all your body to try to get it to do what you want

[Eusebius_dk]

Like a few others in here I'm left-handed too, but unfortunately my left hand is not better than the left hands of my right-handed colleagues. Physically I don't really see any difference, because when you practise for many years (with emphasis on the more difficult right-hand parts), the right hand quickly becomes the one in control.

I find the science on how the brain works very interesting, and it seems that right handers' and left handers' brains works quite differently. Also, check out this list of famous left-handed people:

https://www.indiana.edu/~primate/left.html

Just like the majority, I believe that most composers are right-handed too

I think it's a bit hasty conclusion to end up with, since it is pretty hard to tell, whether a historical person was left-handed or not. The simplest and probably the best proof of determining left-handedness is found in the hand writing. Until not so terribly many years ago, left-handed kids were forced at school to use their right hand when writing (thereby I would assume that the great composers of the past used their right hand to write out scores!). My grandmother is a good example in this context: She is just as left-handed a I am, but in her youth she was forced to write with her right hand. She can't write with her left hand at all! But that doesn't make her less left-handed. It's all about how the brain works.

For more information go to this website:

https://hjem.get2net.dk/Brofeldt

Think it's the first time I've ever seen a link from my native country in this forum... 

[llamaman]

I did some research on this a little while ago, when I found out that things came easier to my left hand while playing pieces, than my right hand. Apparently the hand you write with, is the weaker hand at the piano, which explains my left hand's better ability at playing.

[Eusebius_dk]

I did some research on this a little while ago, when I found out that things came easier to my left hand while playing pieces, than my right hand. Apparently the hand you write with, is the weaker hand at the piano, which explains my left hand's better ability at playing.

I think it is very possible, since the your prefered hand for daily tasks might get more tense, because you always focus on it mentally. As I mentioned before I'm left-handed, and the arm that easiest gets tense, is without any doubt, my left one.

[DK2]

i´m also lefthanded !!! 

[Etude]

I'm Left-handed and my right hand is still stronger than my left in playing.

[llamaman]

I did some research on this a little while ago, when I found out that things came easier to my left hand while playing pieces, than my right hand. Apparently the hand you write with, is the weaker hand at the piano, which explains my left hand's better ability at playing.

I'm Left-handed and my right hand is still stronger than my left in playing.

The above quote explains this. If you are left-handed, then you're right hand will be stronger.

[greenphase]

I'm lefty, but the unusual thing is I think my right hand has more dexterity considering my old piano teacher drilled me with little czerny pieces. So I have no apparant advantages being left handed, except maybe I can play chords and octaves stronger than my right hand.

[Daevren]

Does anyone actually play a left handed piano?

I have seen this discussion often on guitar fora and a lot of people seem to have trouble understanding why I suggest they should just buy a right hand guitar.

[thorn]

i'm left handed and find runs in the left hand accompaniement of some pieces easier than right handed people i know. apart from that i wouldnt say i have any advantage at all really- just a little more strength in the left hand than right handed players.

[newguy357]

Now, it alwayz seemed to me dat a LOT of pianiztz were LEFT-handed

let me tell u my reasoning: if you are right-brained, then you are usually very creative. and most right-brained people are left-handed.

simple az dat

Except it's not true.

According to physiologists and neuroscientists, if they're to be trusted.

[newguy357]

What is thing thing about the brain?  I've heard the left is for technical fields like sciences while right is for arts.  Is this correct?

No, it's a myth.  Studying psychology and neuroscience you learn that very technical people (i.e., those who are supposedly "left-brained") are often very musically inclined (despite that supposedly being a "right-brained" trait).  In fact, families that produce many physicians are correlated somewhat strongly with families that produce classical musicians.  Such findings are used to suggest that very skilled scientists AND musicians are the way they are because of a natural tendency for abstract thought combined with years of hard work.  I.e., they have good brains.

[xvimbi]

In fact, families that produce many physicians are correlated somewhat strongly with families that produce classical musicians.  Such findings are used to suggest that very skilled scientists AND musicians are the way they are because of a natural tendency for abstract thought combined with years of hard work.  I.e., they have good brains.

You probably meant physicists, not physicians. Doctors are no scientists

[emmylo471]

I'm a lefty, and when playing difficult pieces, i find that my right hand tires out more easily than my left hand...maybe because I write and do things with my left hand? I dont know lol. I play golf and the violin right handed though...I'm just wierd like that lol

[newguy357]

You probably meant physicists, not physicians. Doctors are no scientists

Haha, yea, that's generally true.  As a physicist who will hopefully be going to medical school next year to become a physician, I find there are a few exceptions.