Klarinet Archive - Posting 001321.txt from 1999/01

From: Christian Budde <emv080@-----.de>
Subj: Re: [kl] Abe's Left-Handed Clarinet
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 06:46:20 -0500

On Mon, 25 Jan 1999, Scott Morrow wrote:

> (Serious question): is there really an advantage to having your
> "preferred hand" work the bottom-joint keys?

When I started playing the recorder as a kid, I was taught how to hold
it. So I never thought about changing hands. In the first lessons you
start with your left hand, because it is more easy to produce this
tones (if I remember correctly, it is almost the same with clarinet).
So being left-handed is after all an advantage :-)
Seriously, I can use my right hand almost as good as my left (eg.
using a screwdriver). I only do not have the same force. Perhaps this
ability in my right hand comes from playing instruments? I don't
think, there is really a need for left-handed clarinets, but I know
people who play a guitar turned around, some even without changing the
order of the strings!

There are many things in allday-life that can remind you that you live
in a right-handed world. The clarinet is not one of them. And until
Mark's posting I never heard about it. What I am curious about is the
question, why have left-handed clarinets been built (was it questioned
by a customer or was it the idea of the manufacturer, perhaps just a
PR-gag)?

Christian

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