National Left Hand Day

 I guess there is a day for everything. But since I am left handed (mostly) it has more importance. I say 'mostly' because I write with my left hand and eat with my left hand (using a fork or spoon even though I was raised by wolves) but I throw with my right hand. I think this contradiction comes from my brother who is a real lefty, he taught me to write before I started school and I just copied him when we ate our meals. The point being is this has affected me all of my life not only as a daily occurrence but as a bicycle mechanic and a percussionist.

Sinistral, Sinistro, Sinister, these are all words associated with the left hand. They also imply something dark, mean, evil, wrong. As a bike mechanic I had to endure the insult when I installed some pedals on bikes, many European pedals were marked with a 'D' destra meaning right or 'S' sinistro meaning left. Both of these words are Italian with their roots in Latin, Right means good, Left means bad! 'Clockwise', 'Counter clockwise' (counter=wrong?), 'Right' means correct, does that mean 'Wrong' means left?  

*I have on occasion met drummers who say they are 'Left-handed drummers'. If they use 'Traditional grip' they hold the right hand stick in the traditional manner. 

Left-handed drummer?

Right-handed drummer?

                      

The reason for traditional grip is to allow the arms and elbows to remain in a relaxed position when the drum is slung over the right shoulder which causes the drum to tilt to the right. The drummer on the left is not only using a reversed traditional grip but his drum is slung over the right shoulder which means he is defeating the purpose of the traditional grip (this photo may be reversed which was common in some old photographs but even so the relationship of the drum and arms would remain the same). His left fore arm is extended in an awkward position and his right stick would never be able to rebound properly after stricking the drum. So why not just sling the drum over the left shoulder? During the Civil War drums were somewhere between 15 and 28 inches deep, they were even deeper during the American Revolutionary War. If the drums were carried to accommodate the 'handedness' of each drummer the bottoms of the drums would smack into each other as they marched. It would also breakup the visual symmetry of the drum line (Generals don't like that). 

I guess I should talk about Grip in a later post.

*I realize I stated that I don't want to cause controversy in my first post so I apologize for any anger that this may create.😱