Are you limited to one hand? Perhaps you only have one hand or perhaps only one hand is fully functional? Or maybe like me, you’re currently not supposed to be using one of your hands. Has that kept you from learning an instrument or music? We hope not! You can learn an instrument! You can play music!
Being that I fractured my right arm and hand about 6 weeks ago, I’ve been thinking a lot about some really important concerns as a musician. As a trumpet player, I’ve been concerned more about something that trumpet players should always be conscious about, which is efficiency. I wrote about that here, and that’s a really important consideration which is important for every instrument.
Musicians should always be concerned to learn to play with the least amount of physical effort necessary.
But also being that I’ve been extremely limited with what I’m supposed to do with my right hand, I’ve also been wrestling more with what you can do musically with various different instruments, with only one hand. For example, are there instruments that are easier to play with only one hand? Are there instruments that generally speaking require or use two hands, however can be played well and effectively using only one hand? There are, I think. And these are a really important questions to ask because let’s be real, different folks have different situations. And certainly if there’s people out there that are limited to only the use of one hand, the last thing we want is to limit their ability to make music! If they can make great music with the one hand that they can use, let’s get him doing it!
Obviously, if you’re older like me, there’s a good chance you may recall the drummer from Def Leppard, Rick Allen, who tragically lost an arm and yet was still able to play the drums phenomenally and still does to this day, with the usage of some special equipment that allows him to essentially operate one of his feet in the place of his other hand. That’s obviously a unique situation with some very specialized and certainly costly equipment. At the same time, the drums certainly can be played as a one-handed instrument. There’s certainly some things that won’t work the way two-handed drums do, such as a traditional drum roll, for example. But the reality is that if we’re talking about the drum set as a foundational part of a rock and roll band, pop music, country music, even at jazz group, a lot of what the drums need to do could be done efficiently and well with one hand and the use of your feet.
Generally speaking, most drummers when they are keeping time, use primarily a cymbal like the ride cymbal or the hi-hat as the primary pulse, with the bass drum punching specific points in time to emphasize important beats, and maybe, the other (second) hand is often used for some carefully placed hits on the snare drum, and of course, sometimes both hands used for a fill or something like that. But those hits on the snare drum can certainly be done with the same hand that’s knocking out the pulse on the cymbals with some careful planning and maybe an omission or two of a simple pulse beat, or played on the bass drum instead, but not the end of the world either way. If one hand is what you’ve got to work with and you want to play the drums, learn to play the drums! A great teacher like Eli will be happy to help you work that out!
I’ve been playing the piano seriously for at least the last 29 years. I first started playing it probably over 40 years ago. Again, obviously the piano is an instrument that in most cases is played with two hands or at least that’s what people would assume. And there are certainly many applications of piano that do require two hands. However, it’s important to think about this, the bulk of what piano players do that play in a jazz environment, the play and a pop, music, environment, country, rock and roll, church or worship music, even a lot of blues, could effectively be played again, similar to the drummer situation, with one hand. While it may be limited in some ways because obviously you cannot play 7-10 notes at a time, the reality is that a lot of times piano players in those situations aren’t doing that.
For the better part of the last 6 weeks, I’ve been playing a good bit of piano, but also being very careful to minimalize the use of my right hand for healing purposes. A lot of what I’m doing with my left hand, is standard work, stride piano, chord comping, and even some little melodic devices here and there. You can certainly accomplish a lot and still play significant, beautiful, and fitting piano in terms of accompanying situations. Of course solo piano can be done as well, similar to the drum situation, it is all in how you arrange your piano playing and the choices you make. Certainly it will not always be possible to play traditionally written two-hand piano music, although a lot of it could be adapted, but again, there’s still plenty of music that can be made in a way that I think nobody would even really feel like they’re missing anything if done well. And if you do some searching, you will find piano curriculum, concertos, and beautiful piano works written specifically for one handed piano! If your desire is to play piano, and you only have one hand to work with, let’s do it!
They do make one handed saxophones and flutes, a unique and beautiful invention, they do work quite differently. As a trumpet player of course, I would suggest that playing the trumpet one handed is quite natural.
Being limited by one hand does NOT mean you are limited from playing music!