Klarinet Archive - Posting 000923.txt from 2003/06

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Left, Right or mixed handed?/Stephanie
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 18:50:52 -0400

On Wed, 25 Jun 2003 17:30:13 -0400, patricia@-----.net said:

> Stephanie Cox wrote:
>
> > Question. I had a professor tell me that it was wrong to conduct
> > with my left hand (told us to conduct, and i just naturally started
> > with my left arm). Is this wrong? I didn't think it was......but
> > according to her...
>
> Stephanie, left handed conducting is normally discouraged by
> instructors in music education and other programs. The reason I was
> given by a teacher whose name I now forget, is that the players are
> used to seeing people doing it right handed, and having the entire
> beat pattern reversed, or beat with the left hand, is confusing to
> them.

That it isn't confusing is easily verified by watching yourself conduct
in a mirror -- or if you find doing that difficult, by watching a
conductor pal conduct in a mirror.

There's a whole history of bad teachers interfering unnecessarily with
people who want to do things left-handed. Of course, you can see why
you want to discourage someone from playing the violin left-handed,
because of the difficulties of fitting into an orchestra, but some
people have done it.

A famous British string quartet, the Allegri, had for a time a
left-handed second violin -- who incidentally used to sit opposite the
first violin, so that both instruments were 'favoured' equally from the
audience's point of view.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Show me a sane man. I'll cure him for you.

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