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Handedness in piano playing biological principles of education

American Music Teacher , June-July, 2006 by Linda Minasian

It is quite amazing that, at least to my knowledge, no studies or research have yet been done regarding the handedness of piano students, a study that can show whether approaches to teaching a left-handed child will be more beneficial to the child`s progress in piano playing.

At one point, I had seven left-handed piano students: ambitious, intelligent and all with a wonderful sense of humor. The remaining 20-some students in my studio consisted of right-handed pupils. Being right-handed myself, I needed to understand the fascinating brain function of my left-handed students to help them achieve the best results in their studies, without imposing the same learning techniques used for the right-handed students. More importantly, I needed to bring out their strengths: their superior memory, their ability to see the whole concept at once, their courage to always take up the most difficult challenges and their sense of perfectionism, among others.

The one similarity that all seven students shared was the difficulty feeling a steady beat and understanding the concept of rhythm. Of course, rhythm is a difficult issue for all students: young and old, beginner or advanced, or in individual or group lessons. However, it took me a few months to make a connection and realize that all seven, who were beginning students at the time, truly struggled through the concept, much more than the others. Keeping a steady beat seemed to be very difficult. Playing or clapping with the metronome was almost impossible. After speaking with their parents, I found that some had quit their dance lessons prior to taking up piano, specifically because they were unable to keep a beat or coordinate the dance moves with the rhythm of the music.

The frustration on their faces initiated my quest for some answers. It was apparent that using the same teaching methods as I did for right-handed students did not provide the same results. My research led to some behavioral studies and then to the causes for handedness, which, in turn, led to the dominance and the specific function of the brain hemispheres. The left hemisphere, dominant in the right-handed person, is strong in logical reasoning and counting; whereas the right hemisphere, dominant in the left-handed person, is strong in creativity and artistry.

Keeping track of time and sequencing one thing after another is left-brain thinking, and not suitable for left-hand-ed students. I learned not to ask students to try to feel the pulse; using the metronome is also not recommended. Not only is the sound painful to the supersensitive ears of left-handed children, but it is meaningless. Instead, have them close their eyes, relax and listen as you play through the piece a few times. Ask students to visualize themselves walking to the beat of the music. Then ask them to literally walk around to the beat as you play. Then, ask them to repeat what they heard on the piano.

I was determined to make rhythm second nature to these left-handed students. Without cutting down on other activities, our main focus and concentration became rhythm. Knowing that patience, more attention and a different approach was required, made the lessons much more enjoyable. Also, the pacing of the lesson time was now predetermined. I knew, for example, that a rhythmic game that usually takes five minutes of lesson time can take up to 20 minutes, if not more, with the left-handed child. I learned, for example, not to use counting. Instead, I improvised with colorful beads, using different shapes and sizes to demonstrate rhythmic values.

The frustration was replaced with fun rhythmic assignments and games, and both my students and I gained a healthy sense of accomplishment. All seven are now lower-advanced students and rhythm "experts." Rhythm and meter have now become second nature to them, as I had planned, and I don`t believe even one remembers the early frustrations with counting.

In Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World, Jeffrey Freed writes, "The best curriculum for the right-brained (left-handed) child includes hands-on and experiential activities." (1) Piano playing is a hands-on activity and requires creativity and imagination, all of which are strong points in left-handed children. Later in the book, it is recommended that music, and more specifically piano playing, can dramatically affect the left-handed child`s spatial-temporal reasoning. Gordon Shaw, at the University of California, Irvine, explains, "When playing the piano, you are seeing how patterns work in space and time." For example, his ongoing research shows that within only a few months, students who take piano lessons score 34 percent above average on reasoning skill tests.

However, we need to apply a different teaching technique for left-handed students to better suit their learning style. Through the years, I have experimented with several approaches and the following methods have led to positive results.

* One way to expand the student`s interpretive expression is by having her write a story about the piece, starting with a title (if it`s not program music), then sentences for each phrase, sometimes even words for each note or chord. I tried the same with my left-handed students, nothing happened. Although they all possess vivid imaginations, they responded with a surprised, "What do you mean?" or "I can`t think of a story." Instead, ask them to draw a picture or simple sketches and they will gladly comply. Their greatest virtue is drawing and creating, not writing and talking, according to Linda Silverman, the pioneer of the Visual Spatial Learner concept. Remember that they may be naturals at art, music or problem solving, but not in story telling. Coloring is also extremely effective when teaching musical phrases and expression. Not only does it make the written music beautiful and fun to look at, but is immensely beneficial for both right- and left-handed students.

Rhythm and snooze

Spectator, The , Mar 15, 2003 by Judd, Alan

Motoring

We all know the feeling: eyelids weighted with lead, a sense of remoteness, a pleasing sinking as the waters of Lethe lap comfortingly, irresistibly over your head.

Except that you`re not being talked at in a lecture, in an office meeting or at a late dinner party; you`re driving. You shift in your seat but can`t shift far (it`s better with cruise control). You turn on the radio or music, chew something, open the window, turn up the air-conditioning, tense and relax your upper-body muscles, recite poetry, sing, take a more active interest in your driving, varying angle of entry to corners, seeing what you can achieve with gears and throttle before touching the brakes.

But then your head snaps upright, and you realise that, for a second or two - or less, you`ve no idea - you must have nodded. The choice is plain now: either you drift unknowingly into the Land of Nod at a moment of Nod`s choosing, or you stop the car and go voluntarily. There are no compromises.

Actually, there are, albeit temporary: 200 milligrams of caffeine, equivalent of two to three coffees, can keep you alert for another two hours, unless you had no sleep at all the night before, in which case it`s effective for about 30 minutes. Ditto socalled `energy` drinks. The best combination is caffeine and napping, ideally drinking your coffee before you nap because caffeine needs 15 to 30 minutes to take effect. Frequent resource to this can keep healthy young adults functioning at near normal levels for 24 hours before wipe-out.

For me, I fear, wipe-out would come regardless, when it always does: early to mid afternoon. After years of guilt and subterfuge, I was delighted to discover that what those around me regarded as a moral failing is not only normal but inevitable. It`s due to something called circadian rhythm, according to which our energy ebbs during the early hours of morning and afternoon. In a properly ordered society we`d be positively encouraged to nap in the office after lunch instead of having to search for an empty room in which to snatch a furtive 40 winks on the floor.

There`s plenty more on this, with thought-provoking evidence of the effects of sleeplessness on driving, in a fascinating new paperback, Counting Sheep, by Cambridge scientist Paul Martin (Flamingo, 7.99). Martin approves of sleep, arguing that we don`t get enough in modern life. Electric light, noise, caffeine, working practices and social attitudes mitigate against our being blissfully unconscious for the third of our lives that nature ordained. So does having children.

His message on sleeplessness and driving is that, if you feel tired, stop and have a nap. In terms of driving skills, sleepless people perform like drunk people and, like drunk people, they don`t realise how far their performance has degraded. Twentyone hours without sleep degrades performance as much as a blood alcohol level of 0.08 per cent (the legal limit). It`s the same with chronic sleep deprivation; if you get two hours less than you need each night for a week, your performance of driving skills equals that of someone on the alcohol limit. And drinking when tired affects you more, reinforcing the circadian rhythm. Regular sufferers of sleep apnoea (periods of apparent death punctuated by the `resuscitative snort`, or Great Snore, as blocked airways are cleared) are always drowsy and have three times the normal accident rate. Tired people take more risks, and their assessment of risks is worse.

Yet many people boast of driving when tired (as some used to of driving when drunk), especially those who hurtle overnight to their charming little place in Provence, apparently at Concorde speeds, with `the kids` in the back. Or what of aircrew flying back to Heathrow at dawn, then batting down the M4 for home? Or junior doctors and nurses who drive after working successive shifts? Or new mothers, whose sleep deprivation is routinely severe and chronic? Presumably the Health and Safety Executive would, if they dared, like to rule that none of these people should be on the road.

For me, the only answer to tiredness when driving is a halt, with seat reclined, head back, eyes closed and Practical Classics over the face. I go into a trancelike state, in which, although I still hear all the sounds of the motorway service station, some part of the brain is closed down. After 20 minutes I take a stroll and am then good for another four hours.

And if you`re 60, says Paul Martin, and pestered by twentysomethings, make them go 36 hours without sleep. Their performance in psychological and neurological tests will then equate to yours, so they`ll know what it feels like to be you. Trouble is, they`ll wake up better.

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