This is the translation and adaptation of the original article (in italian) ‘Suonare da Mancini o da Destri?!?’ I wrote many years ago on this same blog.
Studying an instrument can begin for various reasons, ranging from spending some spare time, learning four chords to pick up (people), to strumming to compose. This study can continue in a profitable and advantageous way only if supported by passion.
Passion can fade by facing various obstacles that learning to play entails; among them we must mention that of using hands (and sometimes feet) in a position contrary to one’s natural tendency, that is when a person with a tendency to left-handednesson a given instrument is forced to play according to an approach for those who tend to right-handedness on that same instrument and vice versa. Note that I speak of a ‘tendency to left-handedness’ and not of being left-handed, as well as of a ‘tendency to right-handedness’ and not of being right-handed; the same way I refer to the ‘tendency toward a given instrument’ and not to all.
These clarifications are important because – at least from personal experience as a musician and beholder – I have seen left-handed people naturally holding the guitar in a right-handed position and vice versa; the same people maybe approached a trumpet in a position consistent with their dominant hemisphere. This variability can be seen allowing the neophyte – regardless of his chronological and mental age – to manipulate an instrument as a child would and to play with it (in fact in languages like French and German, as in English, the verb that indicates the act of using musical instruments is the same as that of using toys).
What has just been pointed out makes us understand that the unnatural approach, mainly in favor of a right-handed position, favored for numerical and cultural issues in the academic field, is not a problem that concerns only left-handed people and not even all left-handed, but which sometimes generates further and useless anxiety and fatigue to right-handed and ambidextrous students, who instinctively find themselves playing left-handed.
Almost every instrument has a different role for the two hands: one usually deals with the harmony and / or management of chords or rhythms, the other with the melody, playing the most difficult and distinctive parts, and in general conveys the emotion of the song. When music teachers say that both hands have complex and difficult roles, citing this as a reason for using all instruments built for right-handed use, in my opinion they say half the truth, that is, they do not take into account the second part of the matter, that the roles are both complex but the purpose of their complexity is different: one hand must be a solid foundation, the other must express emotions. On a cello, the hand holding the bow is comparable to the hand of the warrior holding the sword or the leg of the martial artist who kicks; the same way the hand that presses on the strings is the one that holds the shield, or the leg that remains firmly on the ground, on which to pivot: this is true – with the due differences – for other instruments also.
Once the theory of ‘equal complexity’ becomes ‘equal complexity with different purposes’, it is no longer an argument in support of the use of only right-handed tools.
At this point, some will object that many musicians tending to left-handedness on a given instrument have been initiated to learn that same instrument in a right-handed version, and that in many cases they have also obtained excellent results, pursuing remarkable careers. To them I reply that also many people tending to left-handedness in writing in the course of history have been forced to write as right-handed and in addition to succeeding in the purpose, some have gone further, writing entire volumes of great importance. This does not indicate that it is better to write right-handed but that the human being is quite adaptable.
This leads me to ask myself the further question of whether it makes sense that in the European Union of the twenty-first century, so projected towards the advanced tertiary sector and the needs of the citizen / consumer as a subject, we should adapt.
Someone will comment that to get along better with the teacher; to find the tools more easily; to have the opportunity to work in an orchestra; because everyone does it (at least the majority) … we all need to have a single approach. To this comment I answer with a question (I know, it is inelegant to answer with questions): “If you were on a bridge and all the people around you threw themselves off – like an italian proverb goes – what would you do, jump with them?”
Having accomplished this reflection – with which I hope I was not too pedantic – in order to expose the humble opinion of one who will never become a famous teacher or a musicologist who teaches in great universities, I would just like to suggest approaching instruments by playing, understanding , trying and talking about it with the teachers, reasoning and explaining with them, since the serious study of music usually makes people rigorous but also very intelligent, enough to be able to change their minds in the face of clear and logical reasoning and the emotional needs of a student.
Finally, I suggest to take a look at this blog or around the net, if you need left-handed instruments or other scientific and non-scientific considerations.
Musica Mancina 