July 10, 2006
Right and Left

Most musical instruments have different roles for your right and left hands to play. Drums are often nearly symmetrical in the use of your hands: ie, you can go Right-Left-Right, and then you can flip the phrase over to Left-Right-Left. But melodic instruments usually have asymmetric roles for your right and left hands. Take the piano for example: while it looks symmetric, the underlying facts that a) the right hand plays the higher notes and b) melody is usually made with higher notes (ie, the right hand) make piano technique rather lopsided.

Now consider the kalimba: the two hands must cooperate to do anything at all. If you want to play a scale or a melody, both hands are usually equally important. Playing the kalimba results in a left-right integration beyond most anything I have done.

And it gets really interesting when you consider the hemispheric brain structure and diversification of the hemispheres. For example, the left hemisphere controls the right side of your body, while the right hemisphere controls the left side of your body. Meanwhile, the left hemisphere is also more analytical and language-based, while the right hemisphere is more rooted in emotional and intuitive understanding.

Of course, music is a magical mixture of mathematical precision, language, emotion, and intuition. Music is a natural blend of the right hemispheric and left hemispheric functionality. I assert that there is magical connection between the right-left integration involved in just playing the kalimba, and the right-left integration of brain function required to make great music.