Why Do Pianos Go "left2right" Instead of "right2left"?

[snyprrr]

Orient-Occident thing? I would have thought most peoples' right arm would be more powerful, for bass,...



Just curious...

[Brian]

Right handedness may contribute more to dexterity than to raw strength? I would rather play the busier line with my dominant hand...which unfortunately is my left...

[some guy]

Well, it is certainly true that right handedness and dexterity are related....

[Karl Henning]

Id est, dexter is the Latin for right.

[Mahlerian]

Id est, dexter is the Latin for right.

How sinister.

[Mandryka]

Right handedness may contribute more to dexterity than to raw strength? I would rather play the busier line with my dominant hand...which unfortunately is my left...

So is it the case that generally in 16th and 17th century keyboard music the RH has the busier line? I mean I suppose the piano is just inheriting an organ and clavichord and harpsichord convention.

[Gurn Blanston]

There is a left-handed fortepiano...



Not like it can't be done. I've also seen pictures of a mirror-image Blüthner Grand...

[Baron Scarpia]

So is it the case that generally in 16th and 17th century keyboard music the RH has the busier line? I mean I suppose the piano is just inheriting an organ and clavichord and harpsichord convention.

Despite the ideal of polyphony of equal voices, it is easier to perceive complex and rapid figuration in treble registers, so it seems natural to me that music would typically be written requiring greater dexterity from the hand assigned to the treble register.

[snyprrr]

incredible responses, thanks ... "dexter"...

[zamyrabyrd]

Maybe because the heart is on the left, so there might be a feeling of grounding coming from that side?
Just a speculation.

[Christo]

How sinister.

Sinister is all that's left once you skip dexter.

[bwv 1080]

Well a left handed player could always reverse string the instrument, like Jimi Hendrix did with his strat

[TheGSMoeller]

Why Do Pianos Go "left2right" Instead of "right2left"?

?noitseuq taerg a si sihT

[relm1]

Orient-Occident thing? I would have thought most peoples' right arm would be more powerful, for bass,...



Just curious...

Because the melody is in the right hand most of the time so you don't actually want to blast out the powerful bass at the expense of the melodic line.  Additionally, pianists train for equal control of all their fingers so the weak pinky you play more firmly and lighten up on the thumb for example so to get a consistent tone.

[starrynight]

Don't people in the West think more in terms of left to right because that's how the writing script is, music notation also goes left to right, in effect representing time moving forward in left to right movement.  In the case of pitch though we also talking more of a bottom to top vertical idea in our mind too, and other instruments may represent that idea better than a keyboard.

[Capeditiea]

I would be completely confused if i was to suddenly hear my right hand playing bass... and the left playing treble. :O

i mean it would present a fairly interesting shift and would make me curious as to how it would sound.

my left hand is dominant for writing but right hand is more dominant in about everything else. *nods,

[some guy]

So this is a variant of a question I ask myself about most thread starters: why are the premises almost always simply accepted?

For this one, it's "Why do you say that pianos go "left2right"? Could one not equally say that they already go "right2left"? Or, even better, that they "go" neither.

I'd like everyone to watch someone playing piano. Maybe that someone is your own sweet self. Doesn't matter. Just watch.

Did you see that? The hands go back and forth across the keyboard. There's no one direction. The only thing one can say is that either the frequencies go from lower on the left to higher on the right OR they go from higher on the right to lower on the left. Either one is the same. But however the frequencies were arranged, the hands would still go back and forth all over the whole keyboard. That part would be the same, eh?

[Capeditiea]

So this is a variant of a question I ask myself about most thread starters: why are the premises almost always simply accepted?

For this one, it's "Why do you say that pianos go "left2right"? Could one not equally say that they already go "right2left"? Or, even better, that they "go" neither.

I'd like everyone to watch someone playing piano. Maybe that someone is your own sweet self. Doesn't matter. Just watch.

Did you see that? The hands go back and forth across the keyboard. There's no one direction. The only thing one can say is that either the frequencies go from lower on the left to higher on the right OR they go from higher on the right to lower on the left. Either one is the same. But however the frequencies were arranged, the hands would still go back and forth all over the whole keyboard. That part would be the same, eh?

true. though the sound coming out would be really odd. :O (i might compose a two movement sonata based on this factor. it does seem interesting.)

But still, if it is a piece i knew and suddenly the piano were to have the opposite direction, the muscle memory would invoke mistakes left and right. (pun intended)

[Christabel]

So this is a variant of a question I ask myself about most thread starters: why are the premises almost always simply accepted?

For this one, it's "Why do you say that pianos go "left2right"? Could one not equally say that they already go "right2left"? Or, even better, that they "go" neither.

I'd like everyone to watch someone playing piano. Maybe that someone is your own sweet self. Doesn't matter. Just watch.

Did you see that? The hands go back and forth across the keyboard. There's no one direction. The only thing one can say is that either the frequencies go from lower on the left to higher on the right OR they go from higher on the right to lower on the left. Either one is the same. But however the frequencies were arranged, the hands would still go back and forth all over the whole keyboard. That part would be the same, eh?

I think the best part of trivial questions is when people objecting to them provide the most concrete evidence that they really DO take trivia seriously!!

[greg]

Despite the ideal of polyphony of equal voices, it is easier to perceive complex and rapid figuration in treble registers, so it seems natural to me that music would typically be written requiring greater dexterity from the hand assigned to the treble register.

This is the answer which makes the most sense to me. Though whether or not it's the actual reason may or may not be the case.