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Last Word is Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s long-running series in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions, ranging from the minutiae of everyday life to absurd astronomical hypotheticals. To answer a question or ask a new one, email lastword@newscientist.com
Does left-handedness or right-handedness make for a better pianist?
John Elliott
Bramhall, Stockport, UK
I am a pianist of unimpressive amateur ability and have always found that published music at my level is much more demanding on my right hand than on my left.
Being right-handed myself, this is OK. It might appear that composers naturally assume that the pianist is right-handed; but there is also the important factor that, for purely acoustical reasons, most of the detail in piano music is in the upper registers. That is probably the reason that the keyboard has evolved to rise in pitch from left to right.
However, I am constantly amazed at the achievements of top-rank pianists who are professionally trained and can do remarkable things with their left hand as easily as with their right. In every case, you will find that the pianist had mastered piano technique at an early age, maybe 10, but certainly below 15. At that age, the brain is plastic and malleable, and can be readily trained to override its inherent tendency towards left- or right- handedness. Studies have shown that connections between the two sides of the brain are increased, and the motor cortex is enlarged.
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Below the age of 15, the brain can be readily trained to override its inherent tendency towards left- or right-handedness
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The real question I would like to ask is: Are these brilliant pianists also ambidexterous in other activities?
David Kroop
West Friendship, Maryland, US
I started playing the piano at the age of about 8 and have always been a “lefty”. My father was left-handed and my mother started that way, but was corrected early on. Both were trained classical musicians. So I have been a pianist for about 70 years and have played in bands off and on during that time.
I like to sit down at the piano and compose tunes every day for about an hour, trying odd combinations of melody lines and notes. My style for the left hand tends to be intricate, typically creating an intertwining sound to support and emphasise the right hand. In piano playing, the right hand typically carries the melody and the left the accompaniment. So being trained that way, it comes naturally.
I would say that when I play for myself, I tend to be more creative, always looking for unusual progressions and note combinations. So my conclusion is that the saying that “lefties” are more creative musically and artistically seems to hold true for playing a piano. That is, playing isn’t so much mechanical as it is being creative in the performance part of the music.
In that sense, when it comes to original music I excel at playing it, but when it comes to the performance of established melodies or compositions, the “righties” have it.
Tony Budd
Wickford, Essex, UK
I don’t know whether it applies to pianists, but left-handed actors represent a higher proportion of the acting fraternity than the average 10 per cent of left-handers in the general population.
This may be because writing from left to right is more difficult for left-handers, and so any career with little need for writing (like acting or piano playing) is more attractive to left-handers.
But if left-handed pianists were “superior”, it might be because in childhood they had to work on making their right hand good enough for writing and other skills. That means they have two skilled hands, rather than the excellent right hand (but less-skilled left hand) of right-handed pianists.
My brother, who is a left-handed orchestral viola player, tends to agree.
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