Learning an instrument? With the left hand!

The dominant hand is stronger, more skillful, faster and more persistent than the other. The non-dominant hand holds the nail, the dominant hand drives it in with a hammer. Left-handers are influenced by an environment designed for right-handers and often perform activities contrary to their predisposition. The retraining of left-handers to write with the right can have serious cognitive and psychological consequences and has been considered a physical injury since 2002.

Instruments for left-handers are built in a mirror image of conventional instruments. On woodwind instruments, the dominant left hand grips the bottom (recorder, clarinet) or the outside (flute), which makes it easier to hold, allows the breath to flow more freely and strengthens the perception of the whole instrument. With brass instruments for left-handers the valves of trumpets are pressed on the left and the slide of trombones is pushed with the left hand. With stringed instruments, the left hand plucks or strokes and expressively shapes the sound. The right hand prepares the notes on the fingerboard.

On the piano, the left hand plays the powerful melody in the high keys and the right hand plays the accompaniment. On percussion instruments, the left hand applies its strength to the accentuation and thus ensures rhythmic precision.

Life topic

It was in a music psychology course in my bachelor's degree when I learned that there are instruments for left-handers and that some learn to play them from the start – mirroring right-handers. It hit me like a bolt of lightning! Had I overslept something?

As a clear left-hander from an early age, I was allowed to do everything with my dominant hand: Painting, writing, cutting ... It was only in music that I adapted without questioning it. I started with the cello at the age of just seven, followed by the recorder, piano, violin, sitar, viola, flute ... and I always struggled with my weak right hand. For example, I was barely aware of the bow and could only consciously stroke it with difficulty, was cramped and occasionally dropped it. My left hand had too much vibrato and percussive fingerings. On the piano, the bass was always too strong and the melody not fast and precise enough. The plucking hand when playing the sitar was cramped and too slow. And all music-making, although I loved it for life, was always strenuous and exhausting. I immediately ordered the book Musizieren mit links by Walter Mengler and shortly afterwards a left-handed cello. The topic of my bachelor's thesis was thus decided and over the next six months I practiced eagerly on my new instrument.  I started with children's songs, followed by Bach suites and then concert pieces, and all this alongside my studies in the traditional way of playing. With string instruments, both hands have such different tasks that I had to completely relearn the movements. But there were also leaps and bounds in my development, as I was suddenly able to play all four neck positions.

Observations

In a string class internship, I experienced what it means for left-handed children to be forced to stroke with their right hand. A second-grader kept automatically taking the bow in his left hand, became increasingly aggressive and hit the teacher with it to defend himself. Despite achieving top marks in all other subjects, he was extremely clumsy when stroking and gripping and never learned to play the right note. One girl was more adaptable and tried very hard. She was able to keep up with the right-handers, but kept complaining about pain in her right arm and hand. She was quickly exhausted and needed longer breaks. Unfortunately, the lead teacher was not open to simply teaching her in reverse. She put uniformity and her own habits above the physical and mental well-being of the children. A little later, I completed an internship in a cello class in the Jedem Kind ein Instrument (An Instrument for Every Child) program. There, I was surprised to discover three left-handers playing mirrored in the middle of right-handers. Everyone took it for granted, no one was irritated. Since the 1990s, instructor Mechthild van der Linde has been teaching all left-handers according to their predisposition and has thus found a way to teach them how to shape the notes with the bow directly, without pain, despair or excessive demands: «The biggest advantage is this feeling! If a left-hander is forced to stroke with the right hand, they always have problems feeling what I want to achieve in the lesson», says van der Linde.

Orchestra

This key experience motivated me to play inverted in a university orchestra. After all, many teachers argued that you couldn't play in an orchestra like that. At the first voice rehearsal, we cellists were all irritated. After that, it quickly became normal and nobody was bothered when I played on the first desk at the concert. You perceive the downstroke and upstroke as two different dynamics. So we were still energetically in sync. Nobody in the audience noticed. Since then, I have retrained several of my instruments and got to know many musicians who play inverted via the Linksgespielt.de website.

Waldorf School instruments

Accordingly, I compared the pentatonic flutes from Choroi, both left- and right-handed, in construction and playing style. The flutes are constructed from a single piece and have the fingering holes for each hand positioned slightly to the side, making them easy for small children's hands to grasp. Choroi builds left-handed flutes in all variations. Mollenhauer also makes all recorders in the Waldorf Edition for left-handers upon request. There are no children's harps for left-handers. They simply hold them with their right hand and pluck the strings in reverse order with their left hand. But Choroi's soprano lyre is available in both versions. It has all twelve semitones of an octave, like the piano. The strings are strung staggered, so that you play most of the notes with your dominant hand and only a few with your non-dominant hand. My left fingers easily find the right strings and are able to play the notes consciously and sensitively. The right hand complements individual notes from behind.

Pedagogy

Left-handed players can simply mirror the teacher's fingering and movements. As teachers, we should be aware of our students' handedness and ensure that all left-handed players receive mirrored instruments. It's not a question of whether or not they can play conventional instruments, but rather of efficiently and healthily utilizing the performance differences of both hands. This allows body, mind, and spirit to work in harmony, enabling natural, joyful music-making.

Further information on left-handed music making: Linksgespielt.de