Posted on 03/30/2025 5:29:28 PM PDT by kawhill
This is an interesting question, so I did a deep dive into the neuroscience of left-handedness and musicality, and here is what I found.
(Excerpt) Read more at psychologytoday.com ...
how about a hint?
I just wondered about something different.
Well, I’m both left-handed and musically talented.
I can play some mean radio.
Watch out for left-handed swordsmen.
*** They found that 12.8 percent of male musicians and 11.8 percent of female musicians were left-handed. The rate of left-handedness in musicians was significantly higher than in the control volunteers. In this group, 8.5 percent of males and 7.3 percent of females were left-handed. Thus, being a professional musician is associated with a modest increase in left-handedness.***
From the article.
I’m left handed. My one Grandfather used to say to me: “There are right handed people and wrong handed people”.
I’ve played a guitar my whole life and never noticed more than the the average of lefties playing. Never been a professional, but played with many, many people through the years. Not dissing anyone, I have 4 south paws in my immediate family.
I have about the same musical ability and I could never read a note.
I love those kind of stories! Brings a smile to my face about my “Gramps”.
So here’s something that ties in.
My two sisters and I each have left-handed husbands. They are ALL very interested in music, and really enjoy going to live shows.
My husband has a pretty large vinyl collection, at least for these days. 400-500 albums, and still collecting. Yes, we still play them. Every day!
Mostly rock n roll. Some jazz. Anything new our kids want us to listen to. Some pop from the 50’s and 60’s. A little bit of classical. Once in a while country. But almost all is rock and roll.
Getting back to the left-handed husbands, this is something they all love and how they relate to each other when we see each other. Who did you last see perform? What are you listening to lately? They try to outdo each other in some fashion or another.
Music is a big part of each of them. However, none of them plays an instrument.
A few well knowns with the Left Handed trait: Quality may vary.
Jimi Hendrix.. B.B. King.. Paul Simon.. Phil Collins.. David Bowie.. Mozart.. Paul McCartney.. Johnny Winter.. Justin Bieber.
A tiny difference. So how big was their sample? How did they define musician? Male or female? Age of those sampled?
In other words not a valid scientific conclusion.
As a professional musician and music instructor with over 50 years of experience, here is my 2 cents:
Lefties are really ambidextrous people who just haven’t developed their right-sided ability.
If a person comes in for lessons and wants to learn left-handed playing, there is a greater chance that person will stop playing. I try to convince them to play right-handed and have better success with them.
I’m left handed. I’m an engineer but have always had a love of music. I write my own stuff. Here are a couple of songs on Ytube( among a whole lof of others).
Xmas song:https://youtu.be/FKdrey1FQGQ?si=yWsO7pxiP9vQoLeq
Yobo: https://youtu.be/Ki7KtjxtkZc?si=sf0Ato2_q-s848cg
Never mind. I thought it said masculinity.
Not only Paul McCartney, but also Ringo Starr is left-handed.
Now.... what about left-handed shooters?
I’m left-handed but play the guitar right-handed.
It was just easier to do the chords. I didn’t try reversing the strings.
Most left-handed people can use their right hand pretty well, due to the righthand nature of civilization. But in my experience most right-handed people are useless with their left hand.
I am left handed and my 5th grade music teacher would not let me sing in the 5th grade Christmas program.
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