I spotted an interesting article by Faye Flam in the Philadelphia Inquirer about research into left-handedness. I confess that I do not know really what to make of it, but it is an interesting survey of some research in the area, with several surprising facts. Thought I’d pass it on to you. The article is here.
Thoughts welcome.
-cvj
“University of Toledo psychologist Stephen Christman was trying to connect handedness with preference for types of musical instruments when he made an unexpected finding: people who were very strongly right- or lefthanded preferred keyboards and drums, while those who were more ambidextrous gravitated toward strings.”
So that’s why I quit piano to focus more on violin when I was fourteen! 😀 I’m left-handed, the first person in my family to be left-handed so far as anyone can recall, and my mom tried very, very hard to switch me over up until first grade (she’s Hungarian, and when she was growing up it was thought that southpaws would be severely disadvantaged later in life). So I was always resentful because my twin brother only had to practice his handwriting half as much as I did, because I had to do it with both hands… then in first grade my teacher was left-handed, so that was the end of the attempts to switch me over. 🙂 My mom still chastises me for eating with my left hand though (moms are weird), and she won a mild victory in that my right arm is stronger than my left so I play sports right-handed.
One interesting thing I’ve read that wasn’t mentioned in the article was how much being a twin can influence handedness, and how people think this relates to development in the womb. Apparently it’s much more common to have one right-handed and one left-handed twin in a set- probably how I came into a family of righties- and there’s research suggesting that which side you kiss someone on (ie do you veer towards the right or the left to avoid the other person’s nose? most people go right) is also something developed in utero.
I am still completely amazed at Hendrix. It’s almost sad to contemplate what he might have produced musically had he lived beyond 27.
e.