Teaching Kids

[JD01]

haha, you've really got a bee in your bonnet about that.

Trust me, I don't.

I've never boxed - slamming my hands repeatedly into hard surfaces like someone else's face never seemed like a good choice for a guitar player. Long skinny hands and fingers and arms ... not really built for it either.

Long arms are a good thing in boxing.
Providing you wrap you hands to protect the bones and don't try and train through an injury you shouldn't do yourself much harm.
I've probably spent thousands of hours hitting punchbags and my hands are fine. The main thing you tend to damage isn't fingers... its metacarples.

I found climbing fairly hard on the hands - I popped tendon pulleys a few times.

@Armistice I'm pretty sure violins/violas etc come in lefty versions. I don't think brass does though. That being said, the level of conformity in classical training... you rarely see leftys sitting in orchestras.

I think the logistics of arranging those folks with bows makes sitting lefty players in an orchestra pretty tricky

The actual dexterity required for brass is pretty minimal (3 valves), and i suspect it's pretty symmetrical for woodwinds; so handedness isn't a huge deal for those instruments

I've actually done a bit of research on this now. Its mainly to do with the formality of playing classical music in orchestras and people bowing in time. There are never lefty players.
There's a few in folk music though.

[rayc]

I found this from a supposed orchestra manager regarding those who play left handed:
"Your bow will always be going in the wrong direction, with the potential to clash with your stand partner. You will also 'look' very strange in the middle of a section. Also, your instrument will be facing the opposite way to everyone else's, leading to balance problems. There is no 'stigma' against left-handed players in music. There is a higher proportion of left-handed people in the music profession than almost any other strand of society. However, they were not as unlucky as you in being 'allowed' to play a string instrument back-to-front."
Most of this strikes me as twaddle...particularly the "balance" issue...in an orchestra, in a concert hall one instrument pointing at 90degrees? The bowing clash is easily managed by seating arrangements. It seems orchestra this manager is more concerned with visuals. Employing more lefties would create more symmetry.

[Armistice]

Let's just add lefties into the alphabet and be done with it.... LLGBTQI++ - a little confusing initially, sure, but if we park them in between the lesbians and the gays - who don't really like each other all that much - the collective will become simultaneously calmer, and more effective.

Anything else I can solve for you?

[vomitHatSteve]

Let's just add lefties into the alphabet and be done with it.... LLGBTQI++ - a little confusing initially, sure, but if we park them in between the lesbians and the gays - who don't really like each other all that much - the collective will become simultaneously calmer, and more effective.

Anything else I can solve for you?

I suspect you are vastly underestimating how gay the art kids who end upin orchestra are

[Greg_L]

Do lesbians and gays not like each other?

[vomitHatSteve]

Do lesbians and gays not like each other?

There's a lot of drama in lgbtq circles. Chapelle was right about that at least. At this point gay men, especiallly white ones, often have a "i got mine" attitude about everyone else. Nobody likes bisexuals. Nobody knows ace/aro folks exist. Everyone has seen the conflict about trans folk

[Armistice]

I could posit that the main reason L and G are in the grouping at all, is that, after years and years and years of their own struggle, they finally got - legally at least - pretty much everything they wanted, and, facing relevance deprivation syndrome, needed to find a new battle or fade into the limelight where we white middle aged male hetero honkies all live...

So let's all band together...

I don't know if it's true, but I like it as an unsubstantiated theory.

[Greg_L]

I could posit that the main reason L and G are in the grouping at all, is that, after years and years and years of their own struggle, they finally got - legally at least - pretty much everything they wanted, and, facing relevance deprivation syndrome, needed to find a new battle or fade into the limelight where we white middle aged male hetero honkies all live...

So let's all band together...

I don't know if it's true, but I like it as an unsubstantiated theory.

So what you're saying is...without something to gripe about, they've turned on each other?

[Armistice]

I could posit that the main reason L and G are in the grouping at all, is that, after years and years and years of their own struggle, they finally got - legally at least - pretty much everything they wanted, and, facing relevance deprivation syndrome, needed to find a new battle or fade into the limelight where we white middle aged male hetero honkies all live...

So let's all band together...

I don't know if it's true, but I like it as an unsubstantiated theory.

So what you're saying is...without something to gripe about, they've turned on each other?

Not quite - I've heard it referred to as "St. George In Retirement syndrome" - after you've charged around like a hero and slayed the dragon and saved the world - what do you do next? Sit and home and take up a hobby? No - you have a taste for the fight now, so you find new dragons to slay, and make them up if they don't actually exist.

Faced with normal boring lives like the rest of us, having won all the legal rights they've been fighting for for decades (they have here, anyway), what do your activist-orientated gay and lesbian types do? Find another battle - and join in with everyone else who is marginalised and form this ever growing collective of LGBTQI++ folks (and whatever other letters get added) who don't really have that much in common with each other, apart from the fight for understanding and various legal rights.

It's a can of worms, and I'm only half serious, but I reckon there's a bit of that in there somewhere. The gays and lesbians don't like each other thing was just a throwaway comment - I heard somewhere - not sure if it's true. I reckon the movement itself could slough off the Gs and Ls and probably better direct their energies, but the Gs and the Ls are where the numbers are.

And I'm mainly referring to those with an activism bent. I work for a bank, which is an employer of choice for the entire community and there are so many L and G people around and largely they're all just completely normal folk who'd rather the focus was on their work, not their sexuality - and in big corporates like banks, it is. If they're activists for the LGBTQI++ cause, I'm not aware of it.

I had a team of 5 and one of them, I still don't know whether he's gay or not. You don't ask, and as we've been working from home for 2 years, actually rubbing shoulders with actual people is rare, and I'm still not convinced he's straight, despite his chucking "girlfriend" into the conversation every now and then - but only with me - never mentions it in team meetings as we shoot the shit about our lives ... he's certainly not dated anyone that he's mentioned, of either gender, in the year or so that I've known him. And it doesn't matter. Just human curiousity.

[Armistice]

Let's just add lefties into the alphabet and be done with it.... LLGBTQI++ - a little confusing initially, sure, but if we park them in between the lesbians and the gays - who don't really like each other all that much - the collective will become simultaneously calmer, and more effective.

Anything else I can solve for you?

I suspect you are vastly underestimating how gay the art kids who end upin orchestra are

That wasn't where I was going with it... I doubt they're any more gay than the rest of society in percentage terms. Dance, however...

[WhiskeyJack]

This thread certainly took a left turn.

[vomitHatSteve]

This thread certainly took a left turn.

I see what you did there

[musicturtle]

@JD01

I teach ukulele to 8-11 year olds. I teach them all right handed. If they insist and their parents send them with a uke that is set up for a lefty then they can play it that way. I think of it more like a piano. You have to be able to coordinate both hands in order to play well. If start out one way, it will probably stick and be easier/more comfortable that way going forward, not exactly easier or better.

As someone stated above, choices for instruments will be much broader is you play right handed. And probably less expensive.

In another example, Phil Mickelson(one of the best golfers in the world) plays golf left handed only because he mirrored his father's swing as a child. In every other way he is right handed. I found that very interesting.

[JD01]

Cheers Tony. I'll start off trying right hand instruments.

[Armistice]

Cheers Tony. I'll start off trying right hand instruments.

Get one for the kid as well...

[muttley]

@Armistice I'm pretty sure violins/violas etc come in lefty versions. I don't think brass does though. That being said, the level of conformity in classical training... you rarely see leftys sitting in orchestras.

It's been pretty obvious since Bran was 1, he's 3 now (and wanting to play guitar) that he's very left hand dominant

Violins rarely are setup left handed. The bass bar and sound post are set up traditionally under the bridge feet that way. String players are about the most anal of all those out there about setup and tradition.

I would always advocate going the traditional route from the start for the reasons gerg stated. It saves a lot of issues down the line. My eldest l;ad is left handed and a lot of stuff is awkward for him. He bats right handed, bowls left handed throws left catches right but when it came to guitar I made sure he went traditional. Don't look at it as interfering but more as helping.

[JD01]

@Armistice I'm pretty sure violins/violas etc come in lefty versions. I don't think brass does though. That being said, the level of conformity in classical training... you rarely see leftys sitting in orchestras.

It's been pretty obvious since Bran was 1, he's 3 now (and wanting to play guitar) that he's very left hand dominant

Violins rarely are setup left handed. The bass bar and sound post are set up traditionally under the bridge feet that way. String players are about the most anal of all those out there about setup and tradition.

I would always advocate going the traditional route from the start for the reasons gerg stated. It saves a lot of issues down the line. My eldest l;ad is left handed and a lot of stuff is awkward for him. He bats right handed, bowls left handed throws left catches right but when it came to guitar I made sure he went traditional. Don't look at it as interfering but more as helping.

Cheers