Being able to do things one handed is an overused euphemism for something being easy. But one Northern Irish teenager has passed her piano Grade 8 using just her left hand. And as she explains in an article on the BBC website, it was far from easy.
Freya Terris from Lisburn, County Antrim, has become the first known pianist to have achieved this feat. Not out of choice, it should be added. Two years ago, the 17-year-old sustained a long-term injury and had to have surgery on her right hand. But despite her injury, she was determined to power on through and keep playing.
"My left hand could already play but not at all in the way that it now needs to," Freya explained. "I sort of stumbled into it and, without realising, built up that technique."
She contacted the exam board ABRSM to see if it was possible to get the qualification with some modifications to the pieces she would be required to perform. To their credit, ABRSM sent her a list of pieces to choose from, all specifically written for the left hand. "They were so encouraging, they were all up for it and just as excited as I was about it," she said.
Then Freya had to put in the hard work to pass the exam. “In my head, at one point, there was frustration that I was only playing this music because I can't play what I want to or what I used to play. That was hard.” Every so often she’d have to have breaks to rediscover her love of the piano. “I think that was necessary,” she explained. “The analogy we had used was that I was throwing myself at a brick wall.”
Freya passed and her success has had a knock-on effect – from 2027/28 ABRSM are introducing a one-hand repertoire list across Grades 1 to 8 for the first time in the school’s long history. "It's meant a lot, for me, what they have done and it is really exciting that this is something that other people can do," she added.
The teenager is planning to study music at university after she completes her final year at school. As you’d expect, her mum is very proud of her achievement. Of her daughter, Susan Terris said: "She's a very determined young lady who has pushed herself and keeps going. Any set backs that she has, she uses to her benefit to push herself forward and achieve her goals. Nothing will stand in her way."
