(After I wrote the following article I began
collecting information for my book: Playing
Violin and Fiddle Left Handed, which is a compendium of info
on left handed playing from the experiences of over 100 other
lefty players.)
Letter from a Leftie
I suggest equal time for lefties. I've heard every theory that
purports to explain why violinists shouldn't play left-handed,
including the idea that the orchestra looks better when everyone
is bowing in the same direction. I'm not so sure. . . . The unusual
nature of an entirely left-handed orchestra might enable it to
collect higher performance fees. For even greater visual enjoyment,
imagine an orchestra where the first violinists bow left-handed,
and the seconds bow right-handed!
The only theory that really makes any sense rests on the scarcity
of left-handed violins. Unfortunately for me, I'm a right-handed
person with no choice in my playing style, since a medical disability
forced me to switch from right to left in order to keep playing
at all.
In earlier days, before my physical troubles began, I won the
Northeast Regional Award at the National Fiddle Contest in Weiser,
Idaho, and I was honored to receive my trophy on stage along with
Mark O'Connor, who had won the Northwestern Award in the same
competition.
I later became a full-time musician, toured with a hot Nashville
country-rock band, and delighted in a life of performing, teaching,
and publishing books about fiddling and music through Captain
Fiddle Publications. All this changed after my disability took
full effect-but I was determined to relearn the violin. After
nearly four years of futile efforts to retrain my defective right
shoulder to bow, it occurred to me to try left-handed playing.
Now, observers often ask me why I play left-handed. (Know-it-all
types don't start with a question; they merely inform me in an
annoying way that I'm playing violin "wrong.") To those
who ask politely, I explain that a disability prevents my playing
right-handed.
Subsequent questions are often about the nature of my disability:
tendinitis, carpal tunnel, or traumatic injury? If someone indicates
a sincere interest, I will tell the whole story about an inherited
neurological disease called focal dystonia. Otherwise, I may nod
vaguely at the mention of a typical overuse injury. This often
causes proponents of non-Western medicine to lecture me until
I explain patiently that before I was properly diagnosed, I spent
several years trying acupuncture, pressure-point therapy, Rolfing,
chiropractic work, and Eastern healing techniques, as well as
standard Western-style physical therapy, orthopedic analysis,
and expensive testing (and I didn't have health insurance at the
time).
People then ask how long it took to become "good" again,
once I'd decided to become a leftie. It's been a gradual process,
and I've found it interesting to see which playing techniques
have transferred from right to left. I was one of those who, when
drawing the bow right-handed across the strings for the first
time, made a pleasing sound. No such luck when playing left-handed!
My first few days produced torrents of scratches and squawks worse
than anything that came from my beginning fiddle students. It
didn't seem to matter that I diligently applied techniques based
upon years of experience as a player and teacher.
In fact, after 20 years of playing right-handed, my entire body
resisted retraining. My brain ordered my left hand to control
vibrato, but unfortunately my left hand was now holding the bow.
My right arm wanted to bend at the elbow and make bowing motions,
but it was now supposed to be supporting the neck of the violin.
An unexpected difficulty was my need to relearn sight-reading
on violin. Since the strings on my left-handed violin were reversed,
I would read notes to be played on the A string and play them
on the D string, and vice versa. I would similarly head for the
G string to play notes written for the E string. I understood
the problem intellectually, but it took time to get my body to
cooperate.
My natural ability to improvise was the hardest thing to recapture.
I had to control my bowing and fingering very closely. If I relaxed
and began playing instinctively, my limbs became confused and
my playing ground to a halt. Beside the physical work of having
to relearn from scratch, I also experienced depression from feeling
so distant from my former playing abilities. It was emotionally
devastating to have lost the ability to express myself through
my violin. I craved the pleasure of making good music and tried
to compensate by improving my piano skills and learning to play
the accordion.
Even now, my left arm isn't particularly coordinated. I've compensated
with extra bow practice. Achieving control over right-hand fingering
and intonation has also been harder than I expected. (My experience
contrasts with the traditional view that fingering should be easier
with the dominant hand, an argument often used to convince lefties
to play right-handed). My right hand is slightly larger than my
left, though, which makes stretching for intervals easier.
My disability is confined to the back muscles that ordinarily
stabilize the shoulder to enable precise bowing. Because my right
hand and forearm work normally, I can easily play mandolin, banjo,
flute, guitar, accordion, and piano in standard fashion. I have
two dilemmas to deal with, however. First, any tune or technique
that I formerly played on right-handed violin must be completely
relearned for left-handed violin playing. Second, I formerly found
it easy to transfer a fiddle tune to mandolin, since both instruments
have the same configuration.
Pieces that I learn on the left-handed violin now need to be relearned
to play on a right-handed mandolin because of the reversed string
order. Sometimes I'll forget whether I've learned the right-handed
mandolin version of a tune first learned on left-handed fiddle,
and I don't find out until I actually try to play it. (I've had
poor results playing a left-handed mandolin because of the difficulty
of controlling a pick with my left hand.)
With lots of practice however, I am becoming more efficient at
making right-to-left and left-to-right conversions. Left-handed
playing has also greatly improved my teaching skills. Having had
to learn to play violin twice has clarified my memories of what
it was like to be a beginner. And a surprising discovery is that
students can easily learn techniques by watching me, since my
left-handed playing matches what they see when they play in front
of a mirror.
Hard work has prevailed, and I'm finally playing folk fiddle at
an advanced level again. My passion is playing dances, including
Irish ceilis, contra and square dances, Cajun, and swing dances.
I've also taken up a couple of weekly chamber-music sessions.
(My chamber-music coach loves the fact that I play left-handed,
because it's much easier to orient all members of our quartet
toward the audience when we're performing.)
I'm excited to be playing the violin again, and I strongly encourage
other disabled players to seek alternative ways of making music.
I've learned a lot in the process, and I'd be happy to share my
thoughts and experiences. Come visit me at my Web site, at captainfiddle.com,
and send me your e-mail.
Ryan Thomson