wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] RLewis from The Bowery January 14, 2009 - 02:07PM

  From day-one Lefties have to find another way to get any job done. Creativity is forced on us by a right-handed world. My dad was a big sports nut, so I play baseball, basketball and football righthanded, but later sports - frisbee, tennis, etc. I do lefthanded. I write and eat lefthanded, so now I'm a director and playwright. Lefties are always the most creative.

  
  
• [2] Robots Need 2 Party from Brooklyn January 14, 2009 - 02:14PM

  Drummers have to learn how to use both their opposite hand and foot. Is there any info on drummers?

  
  
• [3] Phil from Manhattan, NY January 14, 2009 - 02:14PM

  I don't play any instruments, however, when I play air guitar when joking around with friends or alone in the mirror, I've always naturally used my left hand. (And not on purpose because I'm trying to be like Hendrix.) Does left-handedness mean anything for "pretend musicians" too?

  
  
• [4] Dennis Gilbert from New York city January 14, 2009 - 02:17PM

  Why have I never seen a string instrument (violin, viola, cello, bass) bowed with the left hand?

  
  
• [5] Richard Williams from Larchmont, NY January 14, 2009 - 02:17PM

  I am a professional trombone player who is left-handed. My being left-handed is due to the fine motor skills in my right side did not fully develop at birth. So, the trombone was the natural choice for me. I also hold the conductor's baton in my left hand.

  
  
• [6] JT from Long Island January 14, 2009 - 02:19PM

  Regarding brain structure, has anyone looked into whether someone that has learned handedness is affected the same way? I know of a few people that were forced to write with their right hands even though they were really left-handed.

  
  
• [7] Graham from New York January 14, 2009 - 02:21PM

  John:

  You've mentioned that 1-2% of the population is left-handed. It's more like 10% of the population.

  
  
• [8] Jesse Greenberger from manhattan January 14, 2009 - 02:21PM

  I am naturally a lefty, using my left hand for anything I do intuitively or that requires dexterity. Growing up in a world of right handed people, almost anything I was taught to do I do right handed. When I chose to play guitar, I chose to play right handed b/c I had previously had trouble playing lefty and learning from right handed teachers. Did I make a mistake in choosing to go righty and missing out on my own potential? Is the uniqueness of left handed musicians due to the activity in the brain or more about the mechanics and kinesiology of playing left handed?

  
  
• [9] MK January 14, 2009 - 02:25PM

  Handedness, or rather footedness, is also a factor in skateboarding. While most people learn early to travel in both directions (either left or right foot forward), you retain a dominant preference and that is the direction in which you first learn a trick, then transfer the method to the other side.

  What's interesting about this is that the normal "footedness" of a right-handed person is left foot forward, right foot back, but there is a phenomenon called "riding goofy", in which your dominant form is the reverse of the norm. Many (but not most) right-handed people, such as myself, "ride goofy" which is to say our dominant foot is the opposite of the norm.

  The first time I stood on a skateboard, it seemed inconceivable to me that I would ride with my left foot forward, and yet for most right-handed people the opposite is true.

  My mom is left-handed, and my sister is actually competently ambidextrous (altho I believe she favours her left).

  Of course, I play guitar right-handed ;)

  
  
• [10] anonymous from nyc January 14, 2009 - 02:25PM

  Ever heard of Reinhard Goebel? Musica Antiqua Koln--plays violin left handed due to an injury. Weirdes thing but brilliant

  
  
• [11] Jeremy Rice from Westchester County January 14, 2009 - 02:36PM

  There is a very young 7-year-old zydeco musician in La. named Guyland Ledet who plays with the left hand playing the melody and the right playing the rhythm. For accordion, you can flip it over 180 degrees to reverse the setup that righties prefer.

  There is nice clip here-

  http://clipzy.com/vidkuCrPSwkEF0-tagAccordian-ttGuyland-Ledet---Part-1-of-2

  
  
• [12] kevin from park slope January 14, 2009 - 02:42PM

  I am a left handed artist (painter). I fnd that the number of leftie artists is not proportional with the number of left handed people- I have always heard the the percentage is 7%. Soem of the famous left handed artist are Leonardo daVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Holbein and possibly Rembrant. It is commonly believed that left handed people have much better perceptual skills. for instance I never had to be taught perpective- I just naturally understood it. It is said that left handers draw from the right side of the brain which is the perceptual side (as suggested in the book Drawing From the Right Side of the Brain). And one last note- every left hander I have ever met has the ability to do mirror writing whether they were aware of it or not. (Ihave often demonstrated it to them and they could do it). Leonardo was known to have written his diaries with mirror writing supposedly to keep them secret.

  
  
• [13] virginia January 14, 2009 - 02:47PM

  i have always had a dominant left eye, and dominant right hand.

  i've found many accountants, artists and math teachers to be left-handed. i follow identical twins via their separate blogs, and by content, i guessed their dominant hand.

  learned handedness yields puzzling results in stroke victims, until the examining physician is advised of that fact.

  
  
• [14] George Aronson from Morristown, New Jersey January 14, 2009 - 03:07PM

  Organists use their feet in far more complex ways than pianists playing the pedals. So "footedness" may be relevant in this case. Since organists are often playing with both hands and both feet at the same time, there could be fascinating--and very complex--interactions of handedness and footedness.

  
  
• [15] sheryl greenberg from boca raton, florida February 01, 2009 - 04:37PM

  As a child, it was difficult to diminish the dominance of my left hasnd, but I was able to overcome that and in the long run both hands are used with precision. However, I'm also a practicing artist, and I can attest to the fact that virtually all tools are made for righties, and it is always an anoyance that artistic and craft tools aren't adapted for us lefties.

  
  
• [16] Марианна Мак-Махон October 20, 2009 - 12:27PM

  А про Пола Мак-Картни и Ринго Старра забыли?