leftie vs. rightie

Horace Greeley hgreeley@leland.Stanford.EDU
Tue, 02 Dec 1997 08:47:22 -0800


Jon writes:

>I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

Hmm.  I must go away somewhere and figure
this out.

Actually though, folks, I've tuned with both
arms (it's quite a sight) my whole career.  
Left on uprights.  Right on grands.  For years
I tuned a mixed bag average of 6-8
instruments daily.

For what it's worth to those with back problems,
my chiropracter did not at first believe that
I'd tuned for 30 years.  He's dealt with piano
tuners for years, and "you all have bad backs".
I have none of the torsion and accompanying
pain that many seem to suffer, and attribute
a good deal of that to the (relative) balance
between muscle groups as a result of trading
off which arm I "use" when tuning.

For those who are interested, I'd suggest just
simply picking a piano with which you feel
safe to experiment, and tuning with your
"off" hand/arm.  It may take a few trys to see
if this is a technique which will for you.

Good luck!

Horace


Horace Greeley

Systems Analyst/Engineer
Controller's Office
Stanford University

email: hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu
voice mail: 650.725.9062
fax: 650.725.8014


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