Left handed UPs

A forum about Uilleann (Irish) pipes and the surly people who play them.
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CaperMike
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Left handed UPs

Post by CaperMike »

Was having a discussion with a student looking for an UP half set. The left handed set notion came up.
I don't see the point of a left handed set. With a 'normal' handed set the left arm is the bag arm which arguably may be advantageous to be one's dominant arm compared to the bellows. As to which hand is on top and which on the bottom half of the chanter I can't see a difference or advantage based on handedness. I suppose when one gets to reg playing it would make a difference to have the dominant arm involved, but given the complexities of the instrument at that level both sides of the body and both arms and hands are equally involved.

Perhaps I'm missing something? I often am :-)
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Re: Left handed UPs

Post by Steampacket »

Interesting question. I'm left handed, and I play the pipes and flute "right-handed". Have no problems playing a "normal set of pipes. I also play the guitar "right.handed". I do however have to use "left handed" tea/coffe cups, screwdrivers, hammers, pencils etc.
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MichaelLoos
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Re: Left handed UPs

Post by MichaelLoos »

I guess it is more about what feels right - the first time ever I got a tin whistle in my hand and having no clue about how to play it, I put my right hand on top because it just felt right to me - I tried the left hand as well and it felt awkward, so since then I play wind instruments left handed. I've been left handed as a kid, but when I started school I was forced to write (as well as do everything else) with my right hand so I was retrained. However, I play string instruments right handed...
I used to know a pair of brothers, one was left handed but played the pipes right handed, the other was righthanded but played his flute the left handed way - both had started on tin whistle and did basically the same I did - just played it the way it felt right to them.
A friend of mine learned to play violin for something like twenty years, going through music school, conservatory and music academy, so you can imagine she did very well at it, but all the time she had a strange feeling about it - then she switched over to playing left handed and she went off like a rocket, has never played right handed again since then.
I think the natural feeling is much more important than the thought "which hand/arm has to do the more difficult work" - it is definitely not a good idea to force someone into a (to him/her) unnatural playing position. Although I've been writing with my right hand since primary school, nobody except myself can read my handwriting... that's the result of it! :poke:
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Re: Left handed UPs

Post by nwhitmer »

This is a bit off-topic but I have the sense that left-handed players & left-handed pipes were more common about 100 years ago. I've found documentation for about 15 LH pipers active in North America around 1910. And I suspect that most players who are interested in old sets have come across a few LH sets, or old sets that were once LH and later switched to RH.

I recall talking with Barry O'Neill and wondering why this should be. He speculated that back then one adapted to whatever set was available, perhaps did not have the resources to change it to RH. A LH set stayed that way until a later, more prosperous era. Maybe.

Some LH North American players:

Michael Anderson (1865-1947)
Eddie Burke (1877-1967)
Thomas F. Burke
Anna Busby (1916-2012) niece of Michael Carney
Michael Carney (1872-1938)
Michael Cooney
Thomas Coyne (1886-1952)
John Egan (c1840-1893) mentor to Pat Touhey
Peter Gallagher
Paddy Lavin (1908-1975) student of Michael Carney
William F. Maher (1862-1931)
Hugh J. McDougal (1878-1944)
Johnny McGowan (-c1950)
James F. Ryan
James Touhey (c1870-1923)
Pat Touhey (1865-1923)

By the time of Joe Shannon (1916-2004) LH players seemed less common. But then there were fewer players overall.

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Mr.Gumby
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Re: Left handed UPs

Post by Mr.Gumby »

I don't know, Nick, and really don't have a firm opinion on it. I can say at some point I was teaching four local girls, three of them were citeogs and the fourth was right handed but had learned the whistle with the right hand on top so she preferred to play the pipes left handed as well. I don't know what we can take from that but left handed sets are out there.
Last edited by Mr.Gumby on Sat Dec 03, 2022 10:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Left handed UPs

Post by NicoMoreno »

I'm pretty sure the correlation between actual handedness (ie which hand is the strong or main hand) and pipes-handedness is quite low. I'm pretty sure the left-handed pipers I know are all right-handed people, and myself and a couple other people I know who are left-handed play pipes right-handed. Approximately 10% of the population is left-handed, but I believe the percentage of whistle, flute, and pipe players who play the instruments left-handed is quite a bit higher.

On the other hand, I believe the percentage of people who play stringed instruments "backwards" is quite a bit lower than 10%... My guess is that because there isn't really any inherent advantage for the whistle as to which hand goes on top, and the amount of strict formal instruction compared to violin (Suzuki / classical / etc) quite a bit lower, there's a lot less forced adherence to the "right-handed" approach.
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Re: Left handed UPs

Post by ecadre »

Mr.Gumby wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 2:15 pm (snip)
and the fourth was right handed but had learned the whistle with the left hand on top so she preferred to play the pipes left handed as well.
(/snip)
:-?
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Mr.Gumby
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Re: Left handed UPs

Post by Mr.Gumby »

ecadre wrote: Sat Dec 03, 2022 8:15 am
:-?
Corrected.
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