Stand Up For Your Rights

[JimLucas]

Since a few contributors to the Sinisters Topic have digressed from the question of whether left-handedness makes a difference when playing concertina (uh, which kind of concertina? ) to suggestions that it indicates a natural superiority, I've decided it's only fair to start a Topic for righthanders who may want to display similar vanity.

 

Of course, it's natural for members of a minority to exhibit a certain clannishness and to reassure themselves that they are at least as good as the majority -- isn't that what we're doing here on Concertina.net?, -- but reverse discrimination is hardly a path to world peace. Being in a minority doesn't in itself confer superiority any more than it implies inferiority. (Concertina players are superior, of course, both because playing concertina develops superior abilities and because superior people naturally choose to play a superior instrument, i.e., the concertina! )

 

So, right handers, shall we exhibit our own clannishness? No negative comments about lefthanders, please. It's not their fault that they were born left-handed, much less that they've probably been picked on for it. But positive comments about right-handedness are welcome.

 

Right on!

[PeterT]

[geoffwright]

Being a Righty (or Wrighty), I still have no problems playing tunes on left or right hand as I play in octaves where possible.

We were discussing playing chords at Swaledale and whether playing chords in D was at the "extreme" on C/G as the chords were a bit "bare". I commented that to irish-style players, D seemed in the middle of the instrument and you have to practise playing some of the tune in the left hand and some in the right so it didn't really benefit lefties or righties.

Irish-style players have to be ambisextrous.

[bill_mchale]

So, right handers, shall we exhibit our own clannishness? No negative comments about lefthanders, please. It's not their fault that they were born left-handed, much less that they've probably been picked on for it. But positive comments about right-handedness are welcome.

 

Right on!

 

I agree we should be kind to those who are unfortunate enough to be born with an orientation towards their left hand. Afterall my Mom and Dad always taught me to be kind to the unforunates of the world .

 

--

Bill

[jlfinkels]

I agree we should be kind to those who are unfortunate enough to be born with an orientation towards their left hand. Afterall my Mom and Dad always taught me to be kind to the unforunates of the world .

--

Bill

 

As they say....

 

The left side of the body is controlled by the right side of the brain.

The right side of the body is controlled by the left side of the brain.

Therefore,

Left-handed people are the only ones in their right mind.

 

 

-jeff

[Chris Timson]

You could say the result of a mild stroke was to leave me very right handed. If I had played the English I'd have been swannied; however the G/D anglo played English style means I can play the melody confidently on the right hand while I gradually get my left hand back to something approaching its full ability in the privacy of my own home.

 

Apropos of this we have very recently loaned a small Crane duet to Mick Tems, who had a very much worse stroke affecting his left side a few years ago. He used to play the melodeon, so by the same reasoning you would think he would still be able to play the right hand of that. Unfortunately he has some difficulty distinguishing push from pull (an effect I recognise from the early months after my stroke) which rules out both melodeon and anglo. However we are hoping that the duet will remove that problem and that he should be able to get back to playing a melody instrument again.

 

So there's a lot to be said for instruments with a distinct polarity.

 

Chris

[PeterT]

Apropos of this we have very recently loaned a small Crane duet to Mick Tems, who had a very much worse stroke affecting his left side a few years ago. He used to play the melodeon, so by the same reasoning you would think he would still be able to play the right hand of that. Unfortunately he has some difficulty distinguishing push from pull (an effect I recognise from the early months after my stroke) which rules out both melodeon and anglo. However we are hoping that the duet will remove that problem and that he should be able to get back to playing a melody instrument again.

Hi Chris,

 

I'm glad to hear this. I have fond memories of Mick Tems and Pat Smith playing C/G Anglos in tandem, Pat being as Welsh as they come, and Mick (from London) having picked up a soft Welsh accent.

 

Funniest thing that I remember about Mick and Pat was one year at W.C.C.P. Halsway Manor (prior to current venue of Kilve Court), when they were booked to teach Anglo. In a bar session, I started a tune in D, at which point they both dropped their C/G boxes and simultaneously grabbed their one G/D box . I can't remember who "won", but I guess that Pat would have finished up with the G/D!

 

Regards,

Peter.

[John Wild]

People who are very adroit at what they do are sometimes described as dexterous. I find that quite sinister!

[JimLucas]

People who are very adroit at what they do are sometimes described as dexterous. I find that quite sinister!

Isn't "adroit" French for "on the right" or "to the right"?

 

Well, those who coined such terms were undoubtedly feeling righteous.

 

I wonder if they're the same ones who equated playing-card "decks" with "sin".

[Robin Madge]

Definately a connection with sin, don't forget that a "bend sinster" on a coat of arms denotes an illegitimate birth.

 

Robin Madge

[geoffwright]

they both dropped their C/G boxes and simultaneously grabbed their one G/D box

I hope that was because they were playing 20 key boxes, not because they couldn't be bothered to use the c#.

 

;->

[PeterT]

they both dropped their C/G boxes and simultaneously grabbed their one G/D box

I hope that was because they were playing 20 key boxes, not because they couldn't be bothered to use the c#.

 

;->

No, at least 30 keys on each one. Sitting opposite, I just loved that look of panic!

[lildogturpy]

Being a righty I have noticed that there are some things that are easier with the right but for some weird reason some are easier on the left side if the concertina. One example I've noticed recently is the first two bars of the B part of Batchelders (in F so B means B flat). First occilating A2cAcAcA then B2dBdBdB I find the first is regular and right on the beat but sometimes the second bar is not as crisp, the notes are not always evenly spaced or on the rhythm.

[John Wild]

Isn't "adroit" French for "on the right" or "to the right"?

 

Quite right. I forgot to mention that 'Gauche', another word which has particular connotations in English, is the French word for left. For those without any "classical" education, I should mention that 'dexter' and 'sinister' are the Latin words for right and left.

(smileys omitted as I am unsure which one is appropriate!!)

 

- John Wild

[greenferry]

I suspect that handedness is largely constructed by culture, and has a lot to do with curious prehistoric toilet taboos, being the reason the left hand is called "sinister." Although most of us are personally unfamiliar with such exotic practices, we have nevertheless inherited the legacy of our pre-toilet paper forefathers in preferring to conduct polite business (e.g. shaking hands) with the right hand, along with sacred rituals such as writing. Musicians, however, being in a liminal creative category akin to shamans, are permitted and indeed encouraged to use both hands at the same time to create their magic and, for the most part, seem to do so without a lot of fuss. What would be the sound of just one wooden end resonating?

[stella24]

"ambisextrous". huh. well, Freudian slip aside, it really is a little more difficult to play an anglo in the left with the longer reeds that respond more slowly as you descend. just starting out now to explore an english lachenal, and i really don't find any difference between right and left hand from the righty point of view. as you may be well aware: "right is might."

[scott fineran]

I am a righty in everything I do, except play the button accordion. I started on the button box that belonged to my grandfather and as I play them up-side down I gravitated to the concertina. As far as I can see it makes no difference, by using both hands I am able to make twice as many mistakes though.

[JimLucas]

I suspect that handedness is largely constructed by culture, and has a lot to do with curious prehistoric toilet taboos, being the reason the left hand is called "sinister."

Just the opposite. Handedness is natural and physiological and has been associated with differences in the brain. At least some other primates (apes , monkeys, etc.) also display preferential handedness, though for some species left-handedness is most common.

 

What some human cultures have done is use xenophobia to assign social value to handedness via the following "logic":

... Left-handedness is uncommon.

... Uncommon is "different".

... Different is bad.

... Therefore, left-handedness is bad.

 

Some cultures then restrict the use of the left hand to tasks which are themselves viewed as "bad", "dirty", or "evil". (So why aren't people required to play bodhran and banjo with their left hands? )