This is something I’ve been curious about. I play the whistle left handed, and out of all of the sessions and festivals I’ve been to, I have never seen another lefty. Is this a fluke or are there really not that many of us out there?
Mike
I don’t think it’s that uncommon. Mary Bergin certainly plays that way. I imagine quite a number of left-handed players do. I do see a lot of left-handed flute players, though - there seem to be tons of them.
Wow! I feel like a bonehead for never noticing Mary’s hands! I guess when playing videos I tend not to focus on whether they are left or right handed. I wonder why there seems to be a plethora of lefty flute players? If they are playing keyed flutes, they would most likely have to be specially made seeing as it’s not the norm, would they not? I know some makers must make them, but I don’t know how common it is.
I am strongly right-handed, but for reasons now lost to me I picked up the whistle left-handed a long time ago. Not sure if the (Irish) person that introduced me to the instrument played that way, or I just picked it up that way and no one told me differently. I played that way for a long time, until I took up the pipes and realized what I had done. At that point having a choice to either learn the pipes left-handed or re-learn the whistle right-handed, I chose the latter. It took a good few months to begin to feel comfortable with it, but now I can’t really remember how to play lefty. And, I think I’m a better whistler right-handed - some ornaments like crans just seem more fluid with my dominant hand. For me personally, I’m glad I made the switch.
Keyed lefty flutes are not so common, but some makers do offer them. Some flutes also have a symmetrical embouchure hole - others may require a special cut to faciliate left-handed playing. Usually, the left-handed player is either playing a keyless flute, or a keyed flute in which they do not use all (or any) of the keys (or some really strange reach-arounds).
Historically there has been a market for “left handed” instruments. From the earliest days, keyed instruments had “swallowtail” keys that facilitated playing the low notes with either left or right hand. These weren’t “left handed” instruments per se, but their symmetricality lent themselves to play in either direction.
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/whistles-by-hoover/238/1
Scroll down a bit to the picture of the three flageolets. There’s an actual “left handed” English flageolet there. On this instrument, the keywork is set up specifically for a “left handed” player.
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/liability-insurance/253/1
Scroll down to the curtal, and you can see the swallowtail key — though I’m not sure how easy it would be to play left handed! (Haven’t tried!)
Note below the curtal the old oboe. Many early oboes continued the practice of the swallowtail C key; and often sported symmetrical left and right handed D# keys. This old Potter marks a break from the old tradition in having only a right handed D# key and a C key with its touch to the right.
An Draighean, it’s funny you say that because that’s essentially my situation. I’m ambidextrous, but because of school and societal norms I do most things right handed (writing, etc.) When I first picked up the whistle, I just grabbed it in the way that seems to be described as lefty. Speaking of pipes, when I first started playing, I visited a festival and a piper saw me playing and told me “you best learn ta play proper or you’ll never play the pipes.” This was the first time that I realized that I played differently from everyone else, and he was right about the pipes!
Whistlecollector, that is really interesting to see the swallowtail key. I’ve never seen one before! Are they a thing of the past now, then? It seems like it would be mighty handy.
he was right about the pipes!
But I would assume it was not because of you playing left handed. I have taught several left handed pipers, true citeogs as well as ones that started with the hands reversed on the whistle. and then you have the likes of Patsy Touhey, Willie Clancy, Seán McKiernan or Mikie Smyth among others.
And how common, look at the mix on these pics.
I was at Hammy and Conal’s flute “Cruinniu” in Ballyvourney a week ago. I think it was the Thursday night, there was a line of 5 young flute players [ by which I mean the oldest was maybe 16 ] backed up along the wall in the smaller session in “The Mills”. Every one of them was playing left handed, and that’s something I’ve never seen before - certainly not 5 in a row.
5 would be a lot in one go Kenny. I like how a left and right handed player can bounce tunes off eachother, flutes sticking out in both directions.
Sorry about the lack of clarity in my statement on the pipes, Mr Gumby. It was meant to be a joke about how I’m pretty terrible at playing the pipes! The few times I’ve tried them, I played them right handed simply because the person who was showing me how to play was right handed. I’d be really curious in having another go left handed, though.
It’s funny seeing that picture of the two flute players playing mirrored of each other. When I first joined my school band when I was 10, I wanted to play the flute, but they wouldn’t allow you to play left handed because I would have been “in the way” of the other players playing right handed. I guess it’s understandable, but I decided to play percussion and stand up bass in orchestra as it didn’t matter to the director which way I played.
Sorry about the lack of clarity in my statement on the pipes, Mr Gumby.
I knew what you meant, I used the opportunity to get a few lefties in.
A bit silly to worry about looks, isn’t it. Not all bands mind though.
I’ve always been so impressed how Seamus Egan plays whistle right hand top but flute left hand top! 
Pretty much a thing of the past!
You can, of course, still find them on modern reproductions of ancient instruments. Many makers of baroque oboes, shawms and renaissance recorders use swallowtail keys. Modern zampognas also carry on with that kind of clapper key, though either a straight key or a half-swallowtail key.
I’ve always been impressed how Seamus Egan plays (period)
Best wishes.
Steve
No doubt there Steve! I’m a huge fan of Seamus Egan! No one quite like him in my opinion. He is gifted with an incredible musical mind! Prolly why it doesn’t matter which hand is top when playing flute or whistle…not to mention, Bango, guitar, mandolin and pipes…I’ll have to find some videos of his pipe playing…I’m curious what hand he has on top. I’ve tried to play both ways, for a laff, it is very difficult to wrap my head around howhe can do that so effortlessly!
We really should knock this “playing left handed” phrase on the head.
I’m very left-handed and play the whistle the “conventional” way around with the left hand at the top. I can’t for the life of me see it making a blind bit of difference, in terms of playing whistles, which hand is at the top.
It’s convention, not a handedness thing.
PS. it may make a difference with other woodwind instruments, but that is simply how they’ve been designed for the conventional order of the hands.
I agree wholly with Andrew(although there does seem to be a need for naming conventions with such things). “Left-handed” et all is very misleading. I call BS on most of it - industry or marketing terms are prescriptive rather than descriptive. If money and convenience is a big consideration, then do whatever the norm is. But otherwise, do what feels right. Plenty of good players in all genres use “bad” posture and technique on a lot of instruments and do just fine. I’ve yet to be convinced that left-handed person should start on a left-hand instrument. Humans are remarkably adaptive, and even your non-dominant hand will learn the control needed on something like a fiddle bow. When shops and teachers shoehorn players into these categories, it creates biases and myths that are incredibly annoying.
So what if somebody starts lefty on tin whistle, and then switches to righty pipes or flute? It takes way way way longer to learn the difficulties of a new instrument than to overcome previous (minor) habits. It doesn’t take that long to adjust…as I said before, humans are remarkably adaptive.
I think you’ve over-interpreted my comments rather.
I was referring to tin whistles, and only tin whistles. In this case I think that the terms are misleading.
Being left-handed is not due to “marketing BS” (quite the opposite in fact), and I would strongly recommend that left-handed people should be given the opportunity to start on left-handed instruments.
The best way to put off a left-handed child or adult from wanting to continue to play most instruments is to tell them to “do whatever the norm is”. The very thought that you tell a left-handed child that what they are not “normal” is abhorrent; though, sadly, it seems that attitude hasn’t died out yet.
Giving a left-handed child a left-handed instrument is not trying to shoehorn them into a category. Are you honestly saying that left-handed children are caused by teachers? That left-handed people are simply badly taught right-handers?
We really should knock this “playing left handed” phrase on the head.
It’s shorthand, in a whistling context we know it to mean ‘playing with the right hand on top’.
In the photo I posted earlier:
there are several players who are not citeogs playing ‘lefthanded’ while there is at least one citeog playing ‘righthanded’. It doesn’t matter although it can become an issue when moving on to another instrument. One of the girls in the pic, playing ‘lefthanded’ but with a dominant right hand, moved on to the pipes and we had discussions about going with a left handed set or a standard one. She went with a left handed set but never got to playing regulators so it wasn’t a problem in the end.