Anyone else switched their playing hands?

waltcamp45 · Post by **waltcamp45** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:49 pm

For years I've clung proudly and stubbornly to my left-handed whistle-wielding ways. Even when I took up the Irish flute, I played it left handed (and accepted that this would prevent me from playing standard keyed flutes).

But lately I've been thinking about taking up some sort of pipes one day, and they're expensive enough without having to get a set custom made for left-handed playing.

So I'm now switching from a left-handed to a right-handed playing style on the whistle (and flute), and I was wondering whether anyone else out there has made the switch (or who switched from right handed to left handed).

(I searched the archives but couldn't turn anything up.)

What was your experience like? How long did it take you to reach your previous proficiency? Ever think about giving up?

Interested to hear other folks' experiences.

Day 3 and counting,

Walt

PS: A disclaimer: as with my last post, I'm fishing for material for an upcoming TinPenny WhistleCast episode!

Rod Sprague · Post by **Rod Sprague** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 10:23 pm

I’m what I like to call “ambidyslexic”, I am both dyslexic and ambidextrous, so I “switch hit” on any number of tasks, without realizing it. Sometimes, when I start a task, I will do something left or right handed depending on my situation, without realizing I am doing that in till someone else comes along and tries to do what I was doing and finds things set up “wrong”. My computer is to the right of my bed, so I placed my mouse on the bed. A friend of mine sat at my computer and complained he couldn’t use the mouse left-handed. I didn’t realize the mouse was “supposed to be” on the right side. I found it more convenient, as it freed up my right hand to do all those things that our silly culture set up to do with the right hand, like cut paper. My mom is as hopelessly left handed as many people are hopelessly right handed, so she had left handed scissors where the blades even meshed in the opposite direction, so she could see what she was doing as she cut things. I accidentally switched my dad’s right handed scissors with my mom’s left handed scissors and couldn’t figure out why they got upset, or what the difference was between the two pairs, in till my mom carefully showed me!

I picked up a friend’s Koran and started to look through it in the correct direction, making my friend think some sort of miracle happened. I was just following the natural flow of the Koran’s overall design, as it is clearly designed to be read from the right cover to the left with the pages flipped from the left to the right.

I would drive down the correct side of the street in Britton, as long as the car is set up to work in the correct direction, but would quite likely drive a mail truck down the wrong side of the street, due to the reversal of the placement of the steering wheel.

Rod

waltcamp45 · Post by **waltcamp45** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 11:58 pm

Rod,

And I thought I had problems! You make some great points. I, too, often use a left-handed mouse, thinking (as you do) that it frees me right hand for other things--that's also why I tend to place my phone at work to the left side of my desk (phone in my left hand, scribbling away with my right hand).

A genuine multi-tasking blunder ... er, wonder,

Walt

King Friday · Post by **King Friday** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 11:16 am

I couldn't do it. I came from years and years of clarinet, my old teachers would have beat me up if I ever played right handed.

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 2:31 pm

dear king friday:

i know next to nothing about orchestra and band instruments. are you saying that with the clarinet the right hand goes on top and it's similar to playing a whistle left handed?

AR · Post by AR » Sat Aug 19, 2006 2:48 pm

I have always played the clarinet with the left hand on top, and looking at the keywork I think this is the only way to play a standard clarinet.

I started playing the whistle recently and naturally also played this way. I think learning this way is sometimes better in the long run, as then you can more easily move onto other instruments.

King Friday · Post by **King Friday** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 4:08 pm

Oh no, I'm saying left hand on top with clarinet. Is that what you guys meant by left handed?

Romulo · Post by **Romulo** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 8:28 pm

King Friday wrote:Oh no, I'm saying left hand on top with clarinet. Is that what you guys meant by left handed?

No Your Majesty!
A right handed person would imply a posture where the left hand is on top and vice-versa. That's why Mutepoint didn't get what you were saying

StewySmoot · Post by **StewySmoot** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 8:33 pm

As a lefty who plays righty, I tried switching once. Surreal. Gave up after a few days. I figure if I learn a new instrument, I will just deal with it.

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 10:28 pm

Hariprasad Chaurasia switches hands

Already a trained and highly paid bansuri player in Mumbai, HC switches hands to prove his dedication so that he would be accepted as a student of Anna-purna Devi, a reclusive prima donna of the surbahar (bass sitaar). Having mastered bansuri technique, he had approached her to deepen his raaga articulation.

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 10:21 am

i accidently taught myself how to play left-handed (right hand on top.) i only found this out when i was given a silver flute. i gave switching hands a half-hearted attempt. it didn't work for me. the next major illness with major time off from work, i'll learn how to play the silver flute but i'll have to treat it as a completely different instrument.

PallasAthena · Post by **PallasAthena** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 1:22 pm

I didn't realize that there was a "left-handed" and "right-handed" way to play the whistle, as dexterity is required in both hands. Then again, I come to whistle from concert flute and sax where the left hand is always on top and am ambidextrious, so I really don't think about that sort of thing. (except for when I eat lefty and elbow the person next to me

)

Craig Stuntz · Post by **Craig Stuntz** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:33 am

I noticed that Séamus Egan plays whistle with the right hand on top but flute with the left hand on top. I wonder if anyone has asked him about it?

-Craig

Wormdiet · Post by **Wormdiet** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:40 am

mutepointe wrote:i accidently taught myself how to play left-handed (right hand on top.) i only found this out when i was given a silver flute. i gave switching hands a half-hearted attempt. it didn't work for me. the next major illness with major time off from work, i'll learn how to play the silver flute but i'll have to treat it as a completely different instrument.

Same thing hapened to me, but with GHB. I started off on a practice chanter and we never noticed - until months had gone by - that I was *mirroring* the teacher. By then it was too late. So now, everything I play is "lefty" - pipes, whistles, flute. Except for recorder, which is "righty." But the playing style is sooo different from anything else I play that it doesn't matter.

Key_of_D · Post by **Key_of_D** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 3:30 pm

Heh.. this subject has been on my mind for about a year or so... I started the whistle in Jan. of '04... When I picked it up, I guess I just felt more comfortable with the right hand on top. Didn't know I'd be wanting to learn the uilleann pipes untill about a year later, so I didn't have a care in the world. I just wanted to play music you know? Well now... I'm starting to think I wished I had learned the whistle with the left hand on top. For the sake of the pipes... I realize they can be made for "left handed" players, (which is odd, because I'm totally right handed, and I play "left handed" on the whistle... imagine that?...) but not only am I worried about learning the pipes, I can't play the low D whistle as good, as my hands are small to begin with, and because I'm right handed, the fingers on that hand are thicker - they can cover the big holes easier than my left hand, which as I learned the whistle, goes on the bottom 3 holes... So...

However a couple years ago I was very interested in learning the Highland pipes, and I even bought a Gibson practice chanter... When I held that... I instinctively placed my left hand on top, right hand on bottom... It just felt more comfortable that way... I guess because of the reach for the low G hole that the pinky gets used for... I learned the scales and some grace notes, but then after discovering the uilleann pipes, and that I could play more Irish music on them than the highlands, I dropped the learning of the highland pipes... My point in that whole deal is that even though I learned the scales on the highland chanter with my left hand on top, I didn't have any troubles going back to the whistle, where my left hand goes on bottom. Yes, the highland scales (let alone the instrument is totally different compared to the whistle etc...) is different than the whistle, but I didn't have any trouble with switching... I just hope the Uilleann pipes, though a different scale system than the highland pipes, are as forgiving with me...