 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Joel Clifton
Date: 2005-04-29 23:08
A few weeks ago, when having a clarinet sectional for the MU symphony band, we found out that 5 or 6 out of the 12 players (including me) are left handed. I have heard that on average, 1 in 9 people are left handed, but this was about 1 in 2.
I wonder if there is a higher percentage of left-handers in the instrumental community than the general public. After a little research just now I learned there is not a great coorelation between being left-handed and right-brained, but there is some coorelation, and the right brain is the creative and emotional side (which we certainly use when playing music).
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"You have to play just right to make dissonant music sound wrong in the right way"
Post Edited (2005-04-30 14:05)
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Author: John Stackpole
Date: 2005-04-30 01:03
You can mark me down for lefthanded, although I am hardly a member of the "instrumental comminuty", just a (re)starter.
Remember, only us lefties are in their right minds.
JDS
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Author: GBK
Date: 2005-04-30 02:30
About 10% of the human population is left handed, although some estimates show a range as wide as between 2% to 30%.
More interesting though is that in gorillas and chimpanzees, 35 percent are left handed...GBK (left handed and right brained)
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Author: dummer musiker
Date: 2005-04-30 02:54
Another left handed/right brain one and proud. :-)
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."
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Author: ron b
Date: 2005-04-30 04:01
Well, that explains a big part of my problem... right handed, brain left (as in, long ago 'departed')
![[frown]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie2.gif)
- r![[cool]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/cool.gif) n b -
Post Edited (2005-04-30 04:05)
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Author: GoatTnder
Date: 2005-04-30 07:32
Left handed!
Although, I think mostly left handed people are drawn to this topic. We see left handed in type, and it becomes automatically important to us. Right handed people probably don't think about it as much. To get better results, we may have to change the topic name.
Andres Cabrera
South Bay Wind Ensemble
sbwe@sbmusic.org
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Author: rc_clarinetlady
Date: 2005-04-30 07:39
I WAS a leftie until kindergarten when my evil teacher switched me to a rightie. How cruel is that?? Actually I do everything left handed except write and eat. I couldn't figure out why, at the ripe old age of 18, I couldn't peel an orange so my mom piped up and said, "maybe it's because you used to be a leftie". I switched to my left hand and not only could I peel oranges but I could shuffle cards and hit a baseball too...finally.
Never, never, never switch a child from their dominant hand. When people ask me if I'm right or left handed I say " I DON'T KNOW!!!! My brain is left handed but my arm writes with the right one. I'm SOO confused. I'll get over it one of these days. Messed up I tell ya. This is messed up. See, you asked a simple question and I can't even give you a straight answer. Ha! The good news is that I am pretty much ambedextrous. How that relates to being an instrumentalist I don't know.
Rebecca
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Author: Aussiegirl
Date: 2005-04-30 09:40
Im right-handed...but funnily enough, a lot of my musicican friends are left-handed, and so is my brother..
Another thing ive noticed is that at least one of a set of twins can often be musical? Has anybody else come accross this?
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-04-30 12:20
I've heard that in some cultures they only use the left hand for one purpose.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-04-30 12:38
Rite , but consider myself ambidexterous, since for many things my left is the "leader". My wife is even more ambi. than I, L H dealing of bridge cards is one of her specialities. I really doubt there are any great diffs. except for writing. My sister and our eldest child are lefties. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: 3dogmom
Date: 2005-04-30 13:49
I'm a lefty, but I wanted to share that I teach recorder in school the year before band starts. For the kids who are left handed, the recorder is easier to start. The others all want to hold the recorder in their right hand, and it's really tough for some of them to get the left-hand on top concept, although certainly different factors come into play. I can't remember having a left-handed child who had a difficult time with the recorder. Interesting question you raised.
Sue Tansey
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Author: bradbunnin
Date: 2005-05-01 02:19
Left, and so is my best friend, whose right brain got both of us into the clarinet. Go figure.
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Author: pewd
Date: 2005-05-01 04:04
just for grins, those of us who are music teachers could poll our students. i'll ask mine, will take a week or more to hear back, some only check email sporadically.
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: msloss
Date: 2005-05-01 05:29
Lefty.
The right-brain dominance is key. Numerous aspects of musical involvement relating to creativity, abstraction, spacial relationships, non-linear thinking, etc. are naturals for the rb-dominant folks.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-05-01 13:13
TKS, MS Loss, your comments are of interest to me. I worked for quite a few years in the "patenting business" for petroleum/chemical innovation, in contact with many inventors actual and "would be", where "novelty" is the pre-requisite. I really can't recall any numbers of LH vs RH, but among the most prolific,, I BELIEVE few were lefties. A first cousin of mine [a "near brother"], LH'd, was taught [school etc] to convert [writing] to the RH, and ?as a result? developed a "stammer" [stuttering a great deal.] which certainly didn't help in school or in cl playing ! His cl was a Pedler !! Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Bigno16
Date: 2005-05-01 14:43
I am right-handed.
Allow me to quote my boss--the famous baseball instructor and successor of Ted Williams (who was left-handed): Steve Ferroli.
"Lefties screw up the world."-Steve Ferroli
(referring to baseball obviously, but that's besides the point...:))
There was actually a clarinet invented for the left-handers but I don't believe it's ever really used or popular at all. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-05-01 15:22
Believe y're rite B 16, when there are two [or more] ways of doing something, both [or many] will be tried. I have a copy of a ?record cover, mag. ad? of Pete Fountain playing his Leblanc backwards, a reversed negative, I'm sure !! Sure shows his ingenuity, I guess. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-05-01 19:28
I've heard that Left Handed are often found with Astronauts and the mentally handicapped.
I'd think that it applies to the musically creative also. (I write, and throw a ball and bat left handed, but do most everything else right handed).
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Author: pewd
Date: 2005-05-03 04:23
so far, 25% of my students report being left handed. not a large enough sample to be statistically valid however (N=12).
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: clarinets1
Date: 2005-05-03 18:10
there may be more right handers in the world for the same reason as given by a previous poster: a teacher or other authorative figure early on switched them when learning to write. i think my mom went through this. i agree that one should probably not try to switch a child's dominant hand. when making conjectures about left- vs. right-handedness in creativity, let's remember that correlation does NOT mean causation. for the record, i am a right-handed gal.
~~JK
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Author: Joel Clifton
Date: 2005-05-03 18:31
No one is claiming causation, just correlation. From the research I did, there is some connection (though apparently not a really strong one) between right-brain thinking and being left-hand dominant. If I remember correctly, each side of the brain controls the opposite side of the body. Of course, being right or left handed does not necessarily mean that the one side is stronger than the other. But there's apparently some connection. And it does seem as if a large percentage of members here are left-handed.
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"You have to play just right to make dissonant music sound wrong in the right way"
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Author: GBK
Date: 2005-05-03 19:00
Mozart was left handed.
So were:
Beethoven
Prokofiev
Britten
CPE Bach
Ravel
Schumann
Rachmaninoff
Paganini
Casals
Britney Spears? Right handed
...GBK
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-05-03 19:14
I once taught a Clarinet Group lesson which had 4 kids in it - all were left handed including myself.
We didn't know it for a few lessons and then when somebody noticed that I was writting with my left remarked that she was a lefty too - then all spoke up.
That was strange!!!!!
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Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2005-05-03 19:18
I'm right-handed. I took 2 quizzes about which side of the brain I am most dominant in and both came out that I am equal on both sides. Weird eh? I'm actually very creative and very smart so it makes sense I guess. I call myself middle brained.
I have an interesting question: Is there a certain jump or fingering that includes both hands that is hard for you to play?
For me, I have trouble playing a low Bb up to a low D (also the octave up-same level of difficulty). Cordinating both hands on a single move is hard for me and also my left hand is subdominant to my right and so it is harder for me to lift my left ring finger.
Hope the question made sense!
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Author: GBK
Date: 2005-05-03 19:32
I almost forget - the bad news:
The average life-expectancy of left-handers, according to one particular 1991 study, is nine years less than that of right-handers...GBK
/thinking of converting to right handedness
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Author: clarinetwife
Date: 2005-05-03 20:38
*sigh *sniff
I never had any question which hand to write with, but the trauma of trying to figure out how to use scissors when I was four must have taken at least two years off my life span! I couldn't cut for beans with LH scissors and finally learned to use RH scissors with some difficulty.
Oh, and then there was trying to throw a ball 72 feet or whatever the requirement was when I was 8, when I had no idea which hand to throw the ball with. There went a couple more years.
There -- I feel better but don't send me a counseling bill, please, because I don't think any of you are licensed.
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Author: Sue G
Date: 2005-05-03 20:49
Well I reckon that we lefties are very fortunate - living in a right handed world we are forced to use our less dominant hand (ie right one) much more than a right handed person would have to use their left.
So I reckon that when it comes to playing an instrument such as the clarinet when both handes are required equally it is indeed and advantage to be left handed ...................
Just out of curiosity .... how many of you lefties are using your pc mouse with your right hands then ??? Quite a few of you is my guess - I rest my case !
Sue
:)
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Author: Shorthand
Date: 2005-05-03 21:09
I'm mixed dominance. Write & eat with my left hand, use knives and throw balls with my right. My right is stronger and my left has more fine control.
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Author: MSK
Date: 2005-05-06 00:53
right handed, but more creative than my left-handed spouse
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Author: contragirl
Date: 2005-05-06 00:57
Yup, my best friend is left handed as well, and he is an awesome clarinetist. Also my boss, who is a percussionist, is left handed. Interesting...
-CG
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