I must have a brain clot or something, because I can never remember which hand these markings refer to. I have to stop playing and look it up every time. Except the two dictionaries by my piano don't have the definitions, so then I have to go to the computer and look it up. Takes up precious time!

Does anyone have a clever way of remembering?

If you tell me which is which I might be able to come up with something.

Attach a post-it® with the definitions on your piano's case. Or, you could think of the Rive Gauche which is the Left Bank (remember the Piano Shop?) and you'd know at once what the 'g' stands for.

Oh, yes - the Left Bank - that's good and will help me to remember. And also I used to wear Rive Gauche perfume when I was a lot younger. Thanks, Alfonso.

@Theresa - LOL!

To remember which hand is the left and which is the right, I find this useful:

The right hand is the one that has the thumb on the left.
The left hand is the one that has the thumb on the right.

HTH....

You just confused me again.

HTH ??

Hands Together Helps (because you can compare them immediately).

ok.....hmm


that's ok - I've come up with another way for me to remember. M.d. comes first in the alphabet and I am right-handed. Also, the bass staff is usually for the LH and treble staff for the RH so I picture my RH on top of my LH and again md comes before (on top) of mg - that means md is my RH, so that's how I can remember. (may not make sense to everybody )

HAHA, no really, it's technical forum jargon, it means 'hope this helps'.



Now it's me that is confused!

M.D. (20/20) is a cheap wine.

M.G.(D.) is "Miller Genuine Draft"

Place the M.D. (20/20) on the right side of the piano and the M.G.(D.) on the left and take a drink of one or the other as the music requires.

Scott

Ok, I'll try that. The Chopin mazurka I am currently working on has about four or five times when this m.d./m.g. occurs. I expect I'll be feeling pretty good after a couple times through the piece.




I am blonde - therefore I am.

From the internet dictionary:

Gauche = lacking social experience or grace;

also: not tactful : crude "it would be gauche to mention the subject" b : crudely made or done

Maybe you could remember it by thinking of how awkward and wrong/fumbly things feels when done in life with the left hand.

I prefer the m.s. mano sinistra Italian term for left hand, as apparently people who were left-handed were once considered to be sinister.

I hate hand-crossing with a passion, so I can't even bring anything to mind that has these markings in it. I know I have seen them before, but I can't recall where. Perhaps the Chopin mazurka Monica is talking about, though that might be an editorial marking.

Yeah - watch out for lefties! But that's a good tip, Nicole. Thanks.

In some of my Granados books there are m.d. and 'm.i'. Maybe you can see why I can't remember all these things. Plus, there is no definition for m.i. anywhere. Finally, my teacher told me the Spanish terms of 'derecha' for right, and 'izquierda' for left. That's probably where the 'i' came from in m.i.



I mean when the LH is to take a couple notes that are written in the treble staff - usually just the LH thumb (or vice-versa). But I know what you mean about not liking playing with hands crossed. I'm getting a little better at it but it's still hard. In the last Kabalevsky piece I recorded, almost the whole last page has to be played cross-handed and boy did it drive me nuts for awhile. I had my LH crossed way over my right, and I would look at my LH to sort of direct it to do its thing, but my RH would play instead. I felt very uncoordinated!

Since usually the right hand is more agile than the left one, you could remember with m.d. being the merry dancer right hand, while the other would be the mis-guided left hand.

If you can recall m.d. stands for main droite, than you can remember droite means right because they both have an i (that's what I do with foreign languages usually).