How handy are you?

Sophia

Just a fun little topic to alleviate our humdrum lives 😋 I got to thinking... I have been practising a 1960s song, which mostly has the LH play chords while the RH plays the melody. My current blues lesson is the same: LH play chords, RH the licks. But my Mozart piece had both hands work equally hard and it seems the new PIYW piece is the same.

So I was wondering... if you are right handed or left handed, does that make a difference to your playing? Would the piano be mostly a right handed instrument? Is classical music different in some way?

Well, I created a

Poll: are you right or left handed? - link.

I'd love to know what you guys think... and read your thoughts in the comments 😃

Edit: for those who want to see the results - click!

pianoloverus

I think most pianists have a technically better developed right hand simply because the right hand often has a more complex part than the left hand. This applies to any genre of piano music... classical, jazz, pop, etc.

Sophia

Interesting you say that... because my question was partly based on something you said earlier today.

I got to thinking that perhaps there IS a difference between hand preference and piano... so it actually surprised me to hear you say the above.

Funny enough, I always thought that guitar is slightly tougher on the left hand, especially when just strumming chords etc. Even classical guitar doesn't use the little finger of the RH. Afaik, only flamenco guitarists use their pinky. Yet most left handed guitarists actually reverse the strings 😆

navindra

I'm right-handed, but I think it's a disadvantage as a musician, because I would rather be ambidextrous and have equal ease with both hands. It would probably help a lot with rhythm as well.

Sophia

navindra I would rather be ambidextrous and have equal ease with both hands.

Wouldn't we all 🙂 I think most people have a preference for most things though. I only once knew a boy in my class who was truly ambidextrous. He could write, draw, throw a ball, etc equally well with either hand. Very impressive to see how he could switch pens mid sentence or drawing!

thepianoplayer416 LH to press on the strings for different notes & RH to move the bow.

Right! Violin seems to be another example where you'd expect the RH to press the strings, but once again it's the LH that does all the hard lifting. Life doesn't always seem fair 😃

MRC Here's a link to a discussion of two studies

Thanks MRC! Very interesting! I guess with piano, being right handed is for the win, mostly 😃

thepianoplayer416

Right-handed. When playing the violin, I'm like most people using LH to press on the strings for different notes & RH to move the bow. Otherwise the instrument need to be assembled the other way around so that the LH would be moving the bow.

Playing piano not sure if it'd make a difference. We all started playing easy pieces where both hands play equally loud. When we get into playing a minuet and other pieces out of the "Notebook for Anna M" intended for a harpsichord or clavichord we're not concerned about 1 hand being louder than the other. Playing other pieces the RH needs to be louder by default so being right-handed is easier.

MRC

Here's a link to a discussion of two studies which investigated this question for string players and pianists: No disadvantage for left-handed musicians: The relationship between handedness, perceived constraints and performance-related skills in string players and pianists. As you can infer from the title, handedness did not affect skill.

The second study confirmed what pianoloverus wrote above, namely that we have technically better developed right hands because the music we play makes higher demands on the right hand:

In terms of a directional hypothesis, it was predicted that non-right-handers (or pheno-
typical left-handers) perform with a higher precision (temporal evenness) when playing scales
with their dominant left hand and right-handed pianists when playing with their right hand.
However, results gave no support for this prediction: irrespective of handedness, significantly
higher temporal precision was found for the right hands in both groups.

MRC

Sophia Thanks MRC! Very interesting! I guess with piano, being right handed is for the win, mostly

That's not what the studies found. Right away in the title it states "No disadvantage for left-handed musicians". To go into a bit more detail:

In the first study, 23 pianists (11 righties and 12 lefties) and 24 string players (10 righties and 14 lefties) were given a questionnaire where they were asked if they found that their handedness had an effect (positive or negative) on hand problems, general bodily comfort, playing position, expressive skills and sensorimotor skills. There was no significant difference between the lefties and the righties.

In the second study, 19 pianists (10 righties and 9 lefties) had to play scales at a set speed, with each hand separately, as evenly as possible. Once more, there was no significant difference between lefties and righties, and all pianists performed more evenly with the right hand.

This must be due to the bias towards the right hand in our repertoire: we all (whether left- or right-handed) play scales better with the right hand because we've had to practice so much more passagework with the right hand than with the left.

Nightowl Considering that left handed people form a minority of the world's population, we can assume that most composers are/were right handed so it's hardly surprising that many piano pieces involve the RH doing the lion's share of the work.

The reason the right-hand parts are usually more complex than the left-hand ones has nothing to do with right-handedness and everything to do with the style of music we play. In the classical/romantic tradition, the melody is most often on top and the accompaniment on the bottom. This doesn't just apply to piano music: in an orchestra, it's usually the violins who will be playing all the interesting and difficult stuff (melodies, fast passagework), while the basses play the accompaniment.

Left-handed composers and pianists include Rachmaninoff, Mozart (probably, or he may have been ambidextrous), C.P.E. Bach, Barenboim, Lupu, Grimaud, Fleischer, Gould, Horowitz...

WieWaldi

I think to be right handed is a huge advantage over both the left handed and the ambidextrous.

Back in time, when people invented the very first keyboards (maybe even without black keys), they could have made another choice with the lower keys on the right side and the higer ones on the left. But they didn't. They decided to have the lower keys at the left hand side, for a good reason. All the fast melodies easier to be performed by the right hand. At least, if you count 90 percent in. Don't know if there were attempts to build left hander pianos with the keys mirrored, but obviously it wasn't practicable to have both versions existing. If they existed, they extinct.

About the ambidextrous, in this case it isn't a no-brainer as compared to the left handed people. But still, I think being right handed is an advantage.
Nature made every living being either right or left handed. (Or footed) To be more specific, for every task, there is a preferred hand. If every hand would be equally good for any task, it would take more resources for the brain. Evolution showed, to specialize one side brings a greater benefit. Either less resources are needed Or using the same amount of resources, specializing to one side brings more advantages.
But what happens, if there is a piece that has equally high demands for both hands? In this case being ambidextrous may be an advantage. But I think, those pieces are not that often than the ones that prefer the right hand.

Sophia

WieWaldi Nature made every living being either right handed.

<tangent> We once had an African Grey Parrot - he was decidedly left pawed 😃 I haven't noticed any preferred paw with any of the four footed friends I have had (canine or feline), but birds: absolutely!

Dandy:

iternabe

I always thought left-handed people are more artistic, right?

Nightowl

I'm right handed, like (an estimated) 90% of the population. Considering that left handed people form a minority of the world's population, we can assume that most composers are/were right handed so it's hardly surprising that many piano pieces involve the RH doing the lion's share of the work. However, composers who were also virtuoso pianists may have been truly ambidextrous in their playing, so maybe that's why some of their pieces seem impossible for 99% of hobbyist pianists.

Here's an interesting biology fact: The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and vice versa. In the womb the left side of the brain develops after the right side, which is why many premature babies end up being left handed (because the LH side of the brain was not fully formed before birth). My father was born at 7 months and was left handed.

A hundred years ago premature babies did not always survive, but since modern healthcare has improved survival rates it may be the case that the percentage of left-handed people has increased.

Sophia

Nightowl A hundred years ago premature babies did not always survive, but since modern healthcare has improved survival rates it may be the case that the percentage of left-handed people has increased.

That's a fascinating theory! I had heard the one iternabe mentioned about left handed people being more creative (which also has to do with the right brain hemisphere), but what you said is new to me.

iternabe I also taught my left foot to operate the brake while driving.

Haha, I always heard that behaviour referred to as "piano playing" 😃 Which is a huge big no no since I grew up in a country where 99% of the cars are stick shift (and it's considered that only little old ladies drive an automatic because they can't drive properly, hey, don't shoot the messenger! I have since learned that I was wrong. I have been driving an automatic for decades now). But anyhow, that means the left foot has enough to do already then. Also, accidentally stomping on the break when you meant to change gears is, well, not exactly best practice! 😃

iternabe

I am right handed. Years ago when I was doing heavy computer work, I taught my left hand to use the mouse, so that I can alternate between both hands to avoid repetitive stress. That wasn't so hard. Took less than a month to get really good.

I also taught my left foot to operate the brake while driving. That took longer, like a couple of years, to be able to brake as smoothly as my right foot without thinking.

Most of the technical exercises I do on piano are designed for either hand, mirroring the pattern on D4 or G#4. My left hand feels slower and more awkward than my right hand, but not overly so, and do not take too much more effort to get on par. Interestingly, after purposely training my left hand to play softer, I later am surprised to find out doing the reverse (right hand softer) is harder, so I had to train my right hand that fell behind in that department.

Another interesting observation is my right hand's extra dexterity can be a problem at times, too. After slow practice, when I try to increase tempo, my right hand has a higher tendency to run away - i.e. fingers moving faster then brain tells it to and even a bit out of control and be uneven with timing and dynamics - something I must listen to closely and rein in. My left hand does not do that.

iternabe

Sophia iternabe I also taught my left foot to operate the brake while driving.

Haha, I always heard that behaviour referred to as "piano playing" 😃 Which is a huge big no no since I grew up in a country where 99% of the cars are stick shift

My car collection is 50-50 split between automatic and manual transmissions. For the stick shift, I taught my right foot to operate brake and throttle pedals simultaneously during downshift - a.k.a heel-toe downshift. It has happened occasionally I forgot which transmission I am driving and my foot went for the wrong pedal. Fortunately not to disastrous consequences, whew!

Sophia

Ok, since we're off on a tangent from a tangent 😃 I can relate. Once when I visited my parents I took my mom's car. After a minute or so I was shocked how noisy it had become, and it didn't seem to want to go any faster. Until I realized I was so used to automatics by now, that I completely forgot to change gears 😂

pianoloverus

MRC The reason the right-hand parts are usually more complex than the left-hand ones has nothing to do with right-handedness and everything to do with the style of music we play. In the classical/romantic tradition, the melody is most often on top and the accompaniment on the bottom. This doesn't just apply to piano music: in an orchestra, it's usually the violins who will be playing all the interesting and difficult stuff (melodies, fast passagework), while the basses play the accompaniment.

Yes, of course.

WieWaldi

MRC The reason the right-hand parts are usually more complex than the left-hand ones has nothing to do with right-handedness and everything to do with the style of music we play. In the classical/romantic tradition, the melody is most often on top and the accompaniment on the bottom.

This was the reason, why our ancestors decided to to have the bass notes on the left side of the keyboard. I mean, they could have mirrored the entire thing.

candela

MRC there was no significant difference between lefties and righties, and all pianists performed more evenly with the right hand.

This must be due to the bias towards the right hand in our repertoire: we all (whether left- or right-handed) play scales better with the right hand because we've had to practice so much more passagework with the right hand than with the left.

Yes, as humans we get better at things we practice. I find it interesting that the effect is so strong that they have found visible differences in the brains of string players compared to a control group when they scan the sensory areas for the left hand fingers.

lilypad

MRC In the second study, 19 pianists (10 righties and 9 lefties) had to play scales at a set speed, with each hand separately, as evenly as possible. Once more, there was no significant difference between lefties and righties, and all pianists performed more evenly with the right hand.

I'm left handed and that's my experience also.

The right brain hemisphere creativity thing also makes me feel as if being left handed is an advantage when it comes to music.

Curiously, when I play from memory, I look at my left hand and not my right hand. My right hand seems to know what to play, probably because of it being the more familiar melody as opposed to left hand harmony. Also when I occasionally experiment with eyes closed playing my right hand is pretty accurate and not so much for the left hand. That could be because of left hand leaps.

Nightowl

WieWaldi Exactly. The treble keys are on the right side because most classical/modern music involves melodies using the treble notes and most people are right handed. If classical music had developed differently, in a style where the bass notes were predominantly used for the melody, maybe the bass notes would have been placed on the right side.

MRC

Nightowl The treble keys are on the right side because most classical/modern music involves melodies using the treble notes and most people are right handed.

That sounds plausible, until you realise that the left to right organisation of the keyboard existed many centuries before music developed to have melodies in the treble and accompaniments in the bass.

The first keyboard instrument was the hydraulis, a water-powered pipe organ invented in Greece in the 3rd century BC. Ancient Greek music was essentially monophonic: there was no harmony in the modern sense. It was possible that two notes might be sounded together, but it seems that nearly all music was just melody, without any form of accompaniment. Thus there was no particular reason to place the higher notes to the right: the whole keyboard was used for playing the melody. The keys of the instrument were usually wider than those of a modern piano, sometimes so wide that you would have played one key with the whole hand.

In the following centuries, pipe organs were developed in other countries, mostly for the purpose of supporting the music sung in church. The people all sung the same melody, and the organist probably played only that tune, without any supporting harmony. When music started becoming polyphonic, there was at first no division into melody and accompaniment: the different voices were of equal importance.

At the time when music began to take on its now familiar form of melody and accompaniment, the keyboard layout with the treble keys on the right was already well established, so there must have been another reason for it to have evolved this way round and not the other way.