Hi Val,
When I was up in Scotland as a student in 1964 I was the proud owner of an old Austin 10. I was driving down to Devon to visit an uncle when the car broke down and needed to be left at a garage for two days for repair. Now it just so happens that the place the car broke down was Blackpool (how convenient!) so I ended up at the Tower Ballroom and heard Reginald Dixon playing the Wurlitzer.
Some interesting facts about Reginald Dixon from Wikipedia.
In March 1930, Dixon was invited to audition for the position of organist at Blackpool's Tower Ballroom, which, at the time, contained a 2/10 Wurlitzer. Previous to this audition, there had been two other organists, Max Bruce and James Hodgetts FRCO. The Wurlitzer's job had been to provide music for dancing, however, and neither organist could tackle the difficult task of keeping a strict tempo. After auditioning, Dixon was given a trial, with the ultimatum that, if he did not make a success of playing the Wurlitzer for dancing, both he and the Wurlitzer would go. Once he had mastered playing in strict tempo, Dixon further developed his playing style, with a strong bass line, and both hands providing accompaniment and melody. Dixon was mainly left handed and he often played the accompaniment rhythm with his left hand as well as the melody using second touch. This left his right hand free to supplement the music. This became Dixon's trade mark instantly recognisable style.
Being left handed or right handed is something that had never occurred to me, but I suppose this must make a difference to how one plays a musical instrument like an organ or a piano. And I do know of one other similar feature that makes a difference, certainly to the way I play. And that is the direction in which you automatically 'drum' your fingers on a table top. When I do it with my right hand, I run from thumb to little finger. My father, and most people I know automatically drum from pinkie to thumb. Now this means I can play things like "In The Mood", where the melody runs from left to right. But trying to play "12th Street Rag"? Well, that runs from right to left and is a no, no for me.
I wonder how many of us are left handed? And which direction we drum the fingers of the right hand?
Hugh