Klarinet Archive - Posting 000757.txt from 1999/08

From: Gary@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Left-handed Students (Was Advice on student.............)
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 21:18:04 -0400

Actually I think it might be an advantage to be a left-handed clarinet
player. Seems to me the left hand has more work to do.

Wouldn't French Horn be the choice for a left-handed brass player? The
horn is interesting in that it is held (supported) with the right hand
like a woodwind instrument while many of the other brass instruments are
held with the left hand.

Gary
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----- Forwarded by Gary Van Cott on 08/25/99 06:12 PM -----

"Karl Krelove" <kkrelove@-----.com>
08/25/99 07:39 AM
Please respond to klarinet

To: <klarinet@-----.org>
cc:
Subject: [kl] Left-handed Students (Was Advice on student.............)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Bush [mailto:rbushidioglot@-----.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 1999 9:46 AM
>
> Clarinets could be made left handed, but.....
>
> I really don't think there is a need for it. Some of the most
> extraordinarily
> difficult skills that must be mastered to play the clarinet have
> to do with
> crossing the register break, thus placing a disproportionate
> burden on left hand
> skills.[snip]
> And while we're on the subject, can you imagine the chaos it
> would cause if
> several violinists in an orchestra's string section were playing
> on left handed
> violins? It could be down right hazardous.
>
> O'Neile & Fisher wrote:
>
These are exactly the reasons I've always used with both wind and string
beginners to counter the left-handed child (and his/her parent) who want
me
to allow hand reversals (usually because they've become convinced that
left-handers always have to do everything the reverse of righties, not
because they've actually run into a real problem with the conventional
setup). But, I must admit, I've recently begun to feel a little uneasy
about
the whole matter. The statistical probability is that the standard designs
for all (or most of) the instruments we use came from right-handed people
or
people who were forced to learn to play on right-handed instruments
initially. Relative facility of the two hands aside, I'm not sure that the
"naturalness" I feel about right-hand-below-left isn't a
physiologically-based sense of comfort. I really have no way to know if
lefties feel naturally awkward with that hand relationship or have simply
convinced themselves that they're uncomfortable. Nor am I certain that my
left-handed string beginners who want to hold the bow in their left hand
and
the fingerboard with their right aren't coming to their sense of
discomfort
from some right-brain-left-brain source that we don't as yet understand.

The picture of bow hands and violin/viola scrolls crashing into each other
is a strong excuse to maintain the tradition, and left-handed clarinets
(and
other wind instruments) are expensive and difficult to find, but if
someone
can actually demonstrate a clinical need for hand reversals in two-handed
activities for left-handers, we may all have to re-think everything from
instrument manufacture to orchestral seating on the stage.

Just a little whimsy - I obviously have too much time on my hands this
morning.

Karl Krelove

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