Brain crossover

[Magpie]

Just to clarify: music doesn't use both hemispheres of the brain just because it's using both hands. Singing also uses both hemispheres. The reason music is considered an holistic mental activity is because you need to simultaneously access pitch, tone, melody and rhythm from different parts of the brain as well as using recall, dexterity (vocal dexterity counts, you still need to make your mouth and diaphragm work precisely) and in some cases, read music. Just using two hands does not count as a rich brain activity -- it's only a single task really. Writing by hand activates thousands more synapses than typing, which is pretty much straight recall.

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On drawing on the right side of the brain, this was one of the first activities I remember from high school art class -- really valuable stuff. It involved not just using your other hand, but also drawing profiles the opposite way to your preference, drawing mirror images, creating pictures out of null space rather than lines, lots of things. It's terrific fun and excellent for the discipline.

I agree that its not a straight forward issue of hands and brain hemispheres. I'm a big believer in rhythm being a whole body experience that is felt as a whole and not just concentrated on one part of the body such as a tapping foot or hand.
There is an old joke about how you know when there is a singer at your front door and something about never having the right key and not knowing when to come in. But it's not appropriate for this thread so I'll say no more.
AR