Why lefties won’t make top pianists
Comment Of The DayComment of the Day:
I’m a teacher with a specialty in both hypermobile and neurodivergent students.
Since so many of the common-practice composers (Rachmaninoff obviously excepted) were righties, it’s going to be a slight liability in most repertoire if the right hand is not also your dominant hand. Of course, polyphonic Baroque rep and Rachmaninoff do seem to benefit from left-handedness.
But left-handedness also more often (than being a righty) comes alongside the types of neurodivergence that can make piano study really difficult. Just off the top of my head: Dyslexia can make sightreading feel like Sanskrit if you have the type that affects sheet music perception. Dyspraxia can give you such stunted coordination that playing any instrument or sport becomes far more daunting. ADHD may prevent a family from getting solid home practice routines established or prevent the pianist from engaging in much or any focused practice. Autism comes with ADHD up to 80% of the time anyway, so it’s not always as helpful as we might think it is for detail-driven loner pianists.
All the above conditions correlate with higher rates of hypermobility disorders anyway, which means such a pianist will require a specialist teacher who knows how to deal with a hypermobile hand and teach technique accordingly. There are very few of us who actually do.
So what are the chances that a lefty would dodge any of the above potential obstacles to pianistic mastery? Based on these, I believe most lefties are going to face extra challenges in their pianistic journeys, although it’s not specifically because they are lefties.
As a non-musician, I am curious why we have piano works for left hand alone but not for right hand alone. Is it just that Paul Wittgenstein lost his right arm? But that doesn’t explain why Brahms arranged the Bach Chaconne for left hand alone.
Early 20th century works are mostly for Wittgenstein. Brahms’ arrangement of the Bach is, I believe, intended as an exercise to strengthen the left hand, which is often weaker, not just because it’s more likely to be the non-dominant hand, but since so much music is “melody in the right, accompaniment in the left” and so your left hand gets good at patterns but is often considerably less agile.
Someone just needs to commission a composer to write a legitimate concert piece for right hand alone, as Wittgenstein did for left hand. And, commissioning a popular composer like Ravel was at the time and still is doesn’t hurt, either.
Stanislav Ioudenitch, winner of the 2001 Cliburn competition is, I believe, left handed.
You, sir, are an idiot. Being left-handed doesn’t equate to being neurodivergent. I’m a lefty that plays two instruments right-handed.
I too, am a lefty who has played guitar right-handed for decades.
One being viola…and the other the glockenspiel.
“what are the chances that a lefty would dodge any of the above potential obstacles to pianistic mastery?”
Given that probably <1% of people who study the piano, regardless of handedness, ever "master" the instrument (for example, something like 10 million Americans have taken piano lessons, but US labor stats indicate there are only about 60,000 professional musicians playing the piano), the likelihood that handedness is a measurable obstacle seems quite insignificant.
Bill Evans.. classically trained….probably the greatest jazz pianist ever. Left handed.. listen to him playing two pianos at the same time . You don’t know what you’re talking about.. I feel sorry for your potential students if you have such a negative view of lefties.. we have a left hand more dexterous then our right… Ok so the problem is pianos are the wrong way round for us.. .. I wonder what you’d play like on a left handed piano..? ( Not that anyone could afford to buy one!)
Indeed! McCoy Tyner made famous playing piano with John Coltrane was left-handed as well.
One can reconfigure a digital piano or midi sound module to be a right hand only solo instrument by reversing the midi note number’s layout. The physical motion of moving from low to high pitches across the torso is replicated.
Glenn Gould, Vladimir Horowitz,
Lazar Berman, Arthur Rubinstein…….
Being left-handed didn’t hinder them.
Arthur Rubinstein was definitely not left handed. I can’t attest for the others but wonder where and how you found such information.
Not true .My Aunt was a lefty and could play classical..Scott Joplin, and current music popular music..and a great ad libber…I didn’t read the whole article…but just reacting to the premis.
There are some awful generalisations here which frankly make me question the credentials of the author. For instance, while left-handedness is more prevalent among neurodiverse people, the dominant left is still only found in 28% of these, as opposed to 10% of the wider population.
As for suggesting that left-handed people would struggle to make it as concert pianists; I’m sure Gould, Grimaud, Rubinstein, Barenboim, Goode and Horowitz (to name but a few!) would like a word…
The dominant hand naturally may be stronger, but the piano has always been an ambidextrous instrument.
Perhaps it is an issue with the framing of the comment which has left a bitter taste in my mouth, but I have had the great honour of knowing and working with several exceptional neurodivergent musicians who found music to provide the best outlet for clear focus. To in any way imply that a particular instrument is not for them is absurd.
Yeah, but lefties make the best left-hand bass players!
Enormous claim supported by a comment
All of that may be so yet CPE Bach, Mozart , Beethoven, Chopin were also left handed. All “piano” composers! And more recently Grimaud, Barenboim, Fleisher and Arrau are or were lefties. I guess they were able to overcome their challenges. Perhaps better to encourage people regardless of “handicaps”.
Scriabine, a formidable pianist and brilliant composer, was righthanded but he compensated for this handicap by writing the most complex and virtuosic left hands in the piano repertoire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7A7lgKI3x8&list=RDR7A7lgKI3x8&start_radio=1
Absolute load of rubbish, particularly the neuro divergent part. If anything lefties are far more skilful than righties in having to adapt to ‘apparently’ right handed instruments. Although I am left-handed I play piano, violin, accordion, drums and guitar right handed. When I had my first drum lesson my teacher simply informed me that I was going to play right-handed because he didn’t want to dismantle the kit and set it up mirror image each time I came for a lesson. In my opinion it makes no difference… however you start is what you immediately become used to. But this is what lefties have to put up with all their lives and don’t get me started on right handed bloody scissors.
Even on an acoustic drum set one can flip the snare and hihat configuration but most drummers still prefer playing mainly in a crossed arm configuration. What I think is left out of this discussion is a culture’s preference for left to right motion (reading for instance). We seem to hear from low to high -fundamental in the left hand lower territory of a piano and filigree up high in the right hand. The middle section works best for melody since it confers with the human voice. Lower Upper not just left right play an important part in musical expression.
Horowitz, Rubinstein, Rachmaninoff, Gould, Grimaud, Barenboim, Arrau, Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven Tatum, Monk, Evans.
As for Brahms’s LH layout of Bach’s D minor violin Chaconne, I have always found the fact that it is the thumb which lands on so many important melody notes a real strength in the interpretation.
Who wrote this article? I’m a leftie who played piano from the age of 4 or 5, played piano in a jazz band at school and later in my early 20s migrated to organ after being invited to join a rock band while in the army.
Later I played in pubs and clubs in the north west of England virtually EVERY weekend until finally retiring at 65 in 2006….
Who says lefties can’t play? Certainly didn’t hold me back and I seem to recall most singers I backed gave me plaudits rather than brickbats!!!
Mark T.
Unlikely premise. How is it that violinists develop such dexterity in their left hands when the majority are right handed?
This kind of generalized talk is just stupid. It depends so much on the individual makeup of the child, the “kind” of left-handedness (some of us are more one-handed than others), and, I would say, how early the music study began. I started piano at age 2 (my mom was a teacher), I’m a leftie, and I was quite good from the start at playing. I know and feel that my brain developed differently than it might have done without early piano. I have several lefties in my studio now (all young) and don’t see the problem.
‘Neurodivergent’, ‘ADHD’…how many more pseudo-scientific BS terms do we need to excuse underachievement or mediocrity? As for that ‘autism’ chestnut…Not everyone is a genius; deal with it.
Dumb and insulting article, for the reasons stated by previous comments. I’m left-handed and have been playing piano and composing professionally for over 50 years. I’ve always been so thankful to be left-handed.
‘Hypermobile’. Another fashionable ‘syndrome’ looking for takers.
It’s not fashionable, it’s genetics and a real thing for some people. Look it up, and also maybe start being a bit more cheerful to the world.
I am cheerful, I just can’t stand this hiding behind invented terms to imply a handicap. Full disclosure: I’m a lefty professional pianist who conducts right-handed and plays cricket and golf right-handed, too. It makes more sense considering it’s the left hand that governs the shot. As for conducting, it’s easier for the musicians if you hold the baton in your right hand. Pace, Sir Donald.
POPPYCOCK! Pianists may be left-handed in some areas of life, such as writing, but they MUST be ambidextrous to play well.
Well, Glenn Gould was a lefty, I believe !…..
I think that’s correct. I’m also pretty sure he’d have been placed on the autism spectrum nowadays. Made him quirky but certainly didn’t impair his dexterity.
In a word, no. I am profoundly left-handed by natural inclination, though increasingly ambidextrous with age. I survived three degrees in piano performance at a major music school, am in my fifth decade of collegiate teaching, and continue to perform at a reasonably high level. If handedness was an issue as I began piano study, it wasn’t for long. (Left-handedness didn’t seem to be an asset when I battled with the Ravel and Prokofiev concerti.). In all my years of teaching, I’ve never had reason to correlate the handedness of my students with their level of accomplishment; it has certainly never been a predictor of neurodivergence. It seems to me that the author of the above comment confuses hand dominance with facility; they are two different things.
Why did the left hand get mad at the right hand?
Because it was never right!
Why are you giving this person a platform? Autism does not come with ADHD up to 80%. ADHD comes with autism up to 80%, according to certain studies. The fact that this commenter cannot even distinguish this difference speaks volumes. There have been many great left-handed pianists: Horowitz, Gould, Barenboim, Helene Grimaud…I really don’t understand the point of this ridiculous post
Interesting in theory, but not in practical life experience. Vladimir Horowitz, Daniel Barenboim, Radu Lupu, Glenn Gould, Arthur Rubinstein, Gary Graffman, Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans are (were) left handers.
Sergei Rachmaninov was left handed. Can you explain that?
Okay, but Bill Evans was a leftie and a phenomenal player
One has to realise that such comments are made by people who want to make a name for themselves and which usually have little or no grasp of reality.
Horowitz and Rachmananof were left-handed.
I think Richard Strauss was, too.
Seems to me this person is referring to the general population of lefthanders who are just starting lessons.
Most of the commenters seem to think he is referring to lefthanders who have already persevered, been found to have talent, and started careers.
Those are two different groups. Therefore, it’s going to be a different discussion if you assume the latter case and only evaluating people who have already achieved professional success.
I’ve found that lefthanders, like my spouse, tend to fall into the extremes of intellect, either possessing a very high IQ or struggling academically. My spouse is the former and has a stellar academic record. She did not study piano, but could have. Her brother, also lefthanded, has struggled with dyslexia and ADHD. He is not what one would call book-smart but can fix anything on your car.