Klarinet Archive - Posting 000200.txt from 2004/05

From: "Dan Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Violinists arms strength vs clarinet thumb strength
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 15:27:16 -0400

The article below is not unrelated to clarinet players having
strong right thumbs. If there were a "press a nose through the
skull" contest, clarinet players would be pretty good at it,
having dynamite thumgs. Too bad we can't show our real skills.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&sto
ryID=5091620

Violinist Finds Arm-Wrestling Is Also His Forte
Mon May 10, 2004 09:47 AM ET

LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) - A classically trained British
violinist is
preparing to battle a world champion arm-wrestler and says
regular bouts
of the pub sport have sharpened his fiddle-playing.

Liverpool violinist Daniel Axworthy, who took up arm-wrestling
last year
after beating a doorman in a contest for a bet, expects to face
world
bantamweight champion Steve Rogers in the 2004 "Arm Wars" contest
at the
end of May. Axworthy won a bronze medal in the sport in
Switzerland last
month.

Axworthy, a classical session player and violin teacher, told
Reuters
arm-wrestling had made pieces easier to play by strengthening his
grip on
the fingerboard.

"I've found I don't have to worry as much about the little
finger,"
Axworthy said Sunday. "It's intensified the vibrato and trills
are
easier."

"It's always been something I really wanted to do."

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

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