The Hand Trap –

Aren’t we fortunate to play with two hands?  When you look at them dispassionately, they are pretty cool – mechanical artwork that also bring joy (by which I mean they bring cookies to your mouth…oh, and they help you play too!).  But for good or bad, there is also a hand trap.

That trap exists in the roles we assign to each hand as we play.  You know the thinking – the right hand takes the melody while the left hand provides the “color commentary” of harmony.  But that thinking can be really limiting.  And it creates a box (read: trap) that can be hard to get out of. 

The box is complicated and has at least three faces (it’s a metaphorical box!) which are interrelated – musical, physical, and mental.  If the hands get trapped in one (or more) that will curb the potential to do amazing things. 

What are the sides of the trap?  Musical, Physical, and Mental.  What are those limits?  How about:

Musical – using only one hand for melody may artificially bound what you play.  And the same could be true for the harmony you generate as well.  In addition, each hand has its strengths and weaknesses and keeping each role confined to each hand closes off options for the other.  The other impact of sticking to specific roles is that you may not make use of the whole harp.

Physical – We can start by going back to those individual strengths and weaknesses.  These will impact your control, power, and balance of each hand as well as your speed accuracy, and confidence.  As above, keeping the hands assigned to roles makes it more difficult to use the entire range of the instrument.

Mental – holding the music separately in your hands will impact how you think about it and potentially change how you might think about it.  This self-limitation may prevent you from identifying and using elements of your creativity.

It would be a shame to allow a rigid adherence to “handedness” limit your musicality and trap you into playing everything pretty much the same way.  Changing things up can help you expand musically, physically, and mentally by helping you develop more strengths and become more flexible.  It’s worth a try!

Like every change, if you decide to try to make a move, give yourself time to work through the kinks.  The first time you try something new it might go well – or it might run off the tracks so fast it makes your head spin!  So go slowly, carefully, thoughtfully, and gently.  An easy way to start is to play a simple tune you already know with your left hand.  Don’t worry about harmonies or tempo – or anything really.  You just want to muddle through the tune until it becomes easier (aka practice!).  Once you’re comfortable, then you can try playing the melody in both hands together.  After the melody is solid, you could then transition to putting the harmony in the right hand (after all, the left hand’s got this).   And just like that, you’ll have pulled a switcheroo!  All the while, you’ll probably learn more about the tune, how you think about it, and how you present it (which might change how you approach it…and you can see a whole iteration starting just by switching hands!). 

Make it easy on yourself.  You could start with something like Frere Jacques or Katie Bairdie.  Once you’ve done it once, each subsequent trial will be easier. 

What do you think – are you willing to give it a try?  I’d love to hear what you get up to – what tune did you try?  How’d it go at first? Are you going to keep at it?  Let me know in the comments!