Left-Handedness and Musicality: 5 Scientific Facts

August 13, 2024, is International Left-Handers Day, and, despite decades of research on left-handedness, there are still many open questions surrounding this fascinating phenomenon. Recently, a blog reader asked me whether there is any link between left-handedness and musicality. This is an interesting question, so I did a deep dive into the neuroscience of left-handedness and musicality, and here is what I found.

Professional musicians are (slightly) more likely to be left-handed than nonmusicians.

The most obvious question about the link between left-handedness and musicality is whether or not professional musicians are more likely to be left-handed than other people. In a study from 1994, a team of scientists from the United Kingdom investigated handedness in 623 instrumentalists, 331 composers, and 584 choir members (Aggleton and co-workers, 1994). These data were compared to data from a handedness survey of the general population in the United Kingdom. They found that 12.8 percent of male musicians and 11.8 percent of female musicians were left-handed. The rate of left-handedness in musicians was significantly higher than in the control volunteers. In this group, 8.5 percent of males and 7.3 percent of females were left-handed. Thus, being a professional musician is associated with a modest increase in left-handedness.

Left-handers have better pitch memory than right-handers.

Are there any differences in abilities relevant to being a musician between left-handers and right-handers? One study from the 1970s, published in the very prestigious scientific journal Science, reported that left-handers have better pitch memory than right-handers (Deutsch, 1978). As the ability to discriminate the pitch of tones is crucial for being a professional musician, this finding may be relevant for explaining why there is a link between left-handedness and musicality.

A stroke in the right half of the brain can lead to amusia, the inability to perceive music.

Left-handedness is not caused by the hands but is a form of brain asymmetry (left-right differences between the two halves of the brain; Ocklenburg, 2024). In left-handers, the right half of the brain is dominant for writing and other difficult motoric tasks. Thus, to understand why handedness and musicality are linked, it is important to look at the brain. Interestingly, a stroke that damages the right hemisphere can lead to amusia (Sihvonen and co-workers, 2019). Amusia is a neurological condition that can happen after a stroke. Patients with amusia have severe problems in perceiving or creating music. Thus, the right half of the brain, which is dominant for music perception and production is also dominant for motor behavior in left-handers. As playing an instrument is a highly complicated form of motor behavior, this finding makes it possible that there may be a link between left-handedness and musicality.

Listening to music mostly activates the right half of the brain.

There is further evidence for a dominant role of the right half of the brain in the perception of music. A Chinese study used fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to determine activity in the two halves of the brain while volunteers listened to music of speech (Li and co-workers, 2000). They found that language mostly activates networks in the left half of the brain, while music mostly activates networks in the right half of the brain.

Left-handed musicians process language more often in the right half of the brain.

The left side of the brain is dominant for processing speech in about 95 percent of people, so right-hemispheric dominance happens only in about 5 percent of people. A group of scientists from Spain found out that in left-handed musicians, 40 percent of people show a right-hemispheric dominance for speech (Villar-Rodríguez and co-workers, 2020). For left-handed nonmusicians, it was only 5 percent. This further confirms a link between left-handedness, musicality, and the brain.