Comments on: Wind instruments http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk Everything you need to know about being left-handed and left-handed products Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:27:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Sarah http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/music/wind-instruments.html#comment-168973 Sarah Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:00:52 +0000 http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/?page_id=1198#comment-168973 IM a left handed horn player too! IM a left handed horn player too!

]]> By: James http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/music/wind-instruments.html#comment-161145 James Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:59:24 +0000 http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/?page_id=1198#comment-161145 I too am a lefty piano player, the only thing that you have to do is PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE, if you really want to play you have to, PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE! I too am a lefty piano player, the only thing that you have to do is PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE, if you really want to play you have to, PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE!

]]> By: Andy P http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/music/wind-instruments.html#comment-152385 Andy P Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:57:49 +0000 http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/?page_id=1198#comment-152385 Even though the French Horn APPEARS to be a Left Handed instrument, it's actually Right Handed!! - Confused? Let me explain! - Originally, the Horn had no valves, and (my hat goes off to Herr Leutgeb and other early Hornists!!), "chromatic" notes - ie those not appearing naturally in the Harmonic Series - were produced by moving the right hand in and out of the "bell" of the instrument to varying degrees. - This is STILL done to "tune-on-the-fly"! Interchangeable "Crooks" (pieces of tube of varying lengths) were then introduced to enable different "keys" to be played. FINALLY, during the 19th century, VALVES were introduced, but the way of holding the Horn wasn't changed, resulting in a "Left-handed, Right-handed" instrument............... - I hope that you can follow that!! Andy Parker (a Left Handed Horn player!!) Even though the French Horn APPEARS to be a Left Handed instrument, it’s actually Right Handed!! – Confused?
Let me explain! – Originally, the Horn had no valves, and (my hat goes off to Herr Leutgeb and other early Hornists!!), “chromatic” notes – ie those not appearing naturally in the Harmonic Series – were produced by moving the right hand in and out of the “bell” of the instrument to varying degrees. – This is STILL done to “tune-on-the-fly”!
Interchangeable “Crooks” (pieces of tube of varying lengths) were then introduced to enable different “keys” to be played.
FINALLY, during the 19th century, VALVES were introduced, but the way of holding the Horn wasn’t changed, resulting in a “Left-handed, Right-handed” instrument……………
– I hope that you can follow that!!
Andy Parker (a Left Handed Horn player!!)

]]> By: Peter http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/music/wind-instruments.html#comment-148655 Peter Sat, 12 Nov 2011 03:40:16 +0000 http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/?page_id=1198#comment-148655 I'm left-handed, and I taught myself to play the piano accordion a few years ago, after picking one up in an auction. I only found out a few months ago that I'm playing it upside down :) So much easier with the keys on the left. I play a few wind instruments too, but all right-handedly - I'm strongly lefty in most things, but pipes and horns (including bagpipes) seem natural enough the right way round. I’m left-handed, and I taught myself to play the piano accordion a few years ago, after picking one up in an auction. I only found out a few months ago that I’m playing it upside down :)
So much easier with the keys on the left.

I play a few wind instruments too, but all right-handedly – I’m strongly lefty in most things, but pipes and horns (including bagpipes) seem natural enough the right way round.

]]> By: Leslie http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/music/wind-instruments.html#comment-142120 Leslie Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:49:02 +0000 http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/?page_id=1198#comment-142120 (Hi, this is a long entry, so I put this here to refer you to the bottom of the entry where I summed up all the below text if you don't want to read a lot of stuff- I tried to be as brief as I can, but it's a point close to my heart. Go to the summary at the bottom if you want, but I'd rather prefer you read the whole thing.) Left-handed Trombone? No such practical thing! I myself am cross-dominant (lefty writer and eater but throw, shoot, use scissors righthanded (though that is not direct definition of cross-dominant)) and play trombone. While I can understand the usefulness of lefthanded accordian and maybe trumpet, clarinet, and oboe, most other instuments us lefties need to conform to the righties. I say this becuase of the dinner-table example: no-one wants to sit with a lefty because our elbows bump their elbows, making for spilled soup. Consequently, a violinist would not want the head of the violin knocking into the lefty's vioin head. The same goes for flutes; much consternation would be raised about possible damage to the end of the flute due to an awkward grasp. It also looks wrong when placed in a group of righties. The same goes for a trombone: I would hate anyone whose bell kept bumping into the bell of my Bach 42 BO. I mean, it's a really nice 'Bone (I even gave it a name, it's so cool: Mr. Trombone, Mr T. for short, but that's not my point. This is what I've been building up to: a really nice bass trombone and some tenors have one or more valves: keys played with the fingers of the hand gripping the main bulk of the bone (not the slide). Correct trombone grip has the left arm holding the bone (and consequently playing the valves) and the right arm operating the slide. If you're gonna play the trombone "left-handed-ly" you'd better hope to high heaven you're awesome at it; thus you are first chair and thus get placed at the far right of the row, which would necessitate the trombones occupy the right side of the stage (the left to the audience). Both of these situations rarely ever happen. Otherwise, you'll be placed at the end of the row, reserved for either the bass bone (which has a valve and is thus held and valved with the left hand) or most likely the last chair, the player with the least skill. For this reason you never find a trombone with a valve designed to be played "left-handedly." But doesn't it make sense to have your left arm, the bulkier one (assuming you're left-handed, which I assume pretty much everyone on this site is) holding the bulk of the trombone? True, writing notes on my music with my left hand is awkward, but it's for the greater good of the group to endure a little discomfort rather to cause discomfort to other. Accordianists can have the sides switched and be fine, it's a perfectly ambidextrous instrumen; oboes could have it swapped also, none of the elbows jut out, ame with clarinet, but isn't the mark of a really good musician versatility in genre AND instrument? Trumpet could be played and built ambidextrously, but Maynard Ferguson and Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, both stellar musicians, play both trumpet and trombone. Clarinet players find it realatively easy to switch to saxophone, as the fingerings are very similair; the same goes for flute and oboe. But if one were to switch from left-handed clarinet to left-handed tenor or baritone saxophone, one would find that their unique stance would cause much bumping around with the instrument, causing the need for the pads to be realigned at great expense. Finding a "left-handed" instrument is very costly regardless of what instrument you choose to play. I think it all boils down to this- being a lefty is fun- making someone spill soup is really fun, provided you're not in a formal dinner- and it definitely has advantages- lefties are scientifically proven to be smarter, make more money, and be better musicians and gamers. But in the universal language of music, I think it best for a universal standard be adopted for holding and playing the golden notes. Besides, I play piano also and find that being left-handed has advantage on a "right-handed" piano- supporting the right hand's melody with the bass chords of the left hand is easier because the lefthander is inclined to play louder with the left than the right. Playing a lefty guitar I find difficult, as my more agile left hand fingers are reduced to strumming the strings rather than fretwork. Finally, if one of us lefties is so awesome as to be called to demonstrate our instrument(s) to a group of aspiring musicians who may or may not have had experience playing our instrument and we, being the benevolent and generous people that we are, give our "left-handed" instrument to a right-handed kid, we just crippled that poor child's future by associating the instrument with a left-handed position. Inevitably their teacher will call on them and their parents to buy a regular instrument to conform with the band. Money is wasted on both sides- our possession was wasted on someone who had no use for it, and they had to buy a regular instrument to learn to play on. Old habits die hard, and the poor child now has to kick the old habit to learn the new (corrent) one. Thus we as a minority group have people of the majority wanting to highfive us- in the face. Oh what a shame. I do not mean to offend anyone here- I just mean to say we have a chance to put aside the rather degrading position of having to conform to a right-handed world by having a universal model in a universal language- music! Isn't world peace a good thing? We are able to be as equals with our fellow people! Besides, in music, noone really cares if you're doing something right-handed or left-handed- we's just a-playin' our song- that's all that matters. P.S. (Sorry for taking up so much space, but my personal view is that left-handed instruments are merely a novelty- not a serious option for a career. I'd love to play a left-handed trombone, but that wouldn't be very practical for anything besides show. I'd have to learn to play in tune all over again- very difficult to learn on a 'bone.) (Hi, this is a long entry, so I put this here to refer you to the bottom of the entry where I summed up all the below text if you don’t want to read a lot of stuff- I tried to be as brief as I can, but it’s a point close to my heart. Go to the summary at the bottom if you want, but I’d rather prefer you read the whole thing.)
Left-handed Trombone? No such practical thing! I myself am cross-dominant (lefty writer and eater but throw, shoot, use scissors righthanded (though that is not direct definition of cross-dominant)) and play trombone. While I can understand the usefulness of lefthanded accordian and maybe trumpet, clarinet, and oboe, most other instuments us lefties need to conform to the righties. I say this becuase of the dinner-table example: no-one wants to sit with a lefty because our elbows bump their elbows, making for spilled soup. Consequently, a violinist would not want the head of the violin knocking into the lefty’s vioin head. The same goes for flutes; much consternation would be raised about possible damage to the end of the flute due to an awkward grasp. It also looks wrong when placed in a group of righties. The same goes for a trombone: I would hate anyone whose bell kept bumping into the bell of my Bach 42 BO. I mean, it’s a really nice ‘Bone (I even gave it a name, it’s so cool: Mr. Trombone, Mr T. for short, but that’s not my point.
This is what I’ve been building up to: a really nice bass trombone and some tenors have one or more valves: keys played with the fingers of the hand gripping the main bulk of the bone (not the slide). Correct trombone grip has the left arm holding the bone (and consequently playing the valves) and the right arm operating the slide. If you’re gonna play the trombone “left-handed-ly” you’d better hope to high heaven you’re awesome at it; thus you are first chair and thus get placed at the far right of the row, which would necessitate the trombones occupy the right side of the stage (the left to the audience). Both of these situations rarely ever happen. Otherwise, you’ll be placed at the end of the row, reserved for either the bass bone (which has a valve and is thus held and valved with the left hand) or most likely the last chair, the player with the least skill. For this reason you never find a trombone with a valve designed to be played “left-handedly.”
But doesn’t it make sense to have your left arm, the bulkier one (assuming you’re left-handed, which I assume pretty much everyone on this site is) holding the bulk of the trombone? True, writing notes on my music with my left hand is awkward, but it’s for the greater good of the group to endure a little discomfort rather to cause discomfort to other.
Accordianists can have the sides switched and be fine, it’s a perfectly ambidextrous instrumen; oboes could have it swapped also, none of the elbows jut out, ame with clarinet, but isn’t the mark of a really good musician versatility in genre AND instrument? Trumpet could be played and built ambidextrously, but Maynard Ferguson and Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, both stellar musicians, play both trumpet and trombone. Clarinet players find it realatively easy to switch to saxophone, as the fingerings are very similair; the same goes for flute and oboe. But if one were to switch from left-handed clarinet to left-handed tenor or baritone saxophone, one would find that their unique stance would cause much bumping around with the instrument, causing the need for the pads to be realigned at great expense. Finding a “left-handed” instrument is very costly regardless of what instrument you choose to play.
I think it all boils down to this- being a lefty is fun- making someone spill soup is really fun, provided you’re not in a formal dinner- and it definitely has advantages- lefties are scientifically proven to be smarter, make more money, and be better musicians and gamers. But in the universal language of music, I think it best for a universal standard be adopted for holding and playing the golden notes. Besides, I play piano also and find that being left-handed has advantage on a “right-handed” piano- supporting the right hand’s melody with the bass chords of the left hand is easier because the lefthander is inclined to play louder with the left than the right. Playing a lefty guitar I find difficult, as my more agile left hand fingers are reduced to strumming the strings rather than fretwork.
Finally, if one of us lefties is so awesome as to be called to demonstrate our instrument(s) to a group of aspiring musicians who may or may not have had experience playing our instrument and we, being the benevolent and generous people that we are, give our “left-handed” instrument to a right-handed kid, we just crippled that poor child’s future by associating the instrument with a left-handed position. Inevitably their teacher will call on them and their parents to buy a regular instrument to conform with the band. Money is wasted on both sides- our possession was wasted on someone who had no use for it, and they had to buy a regular instrument to learn to play on. Old habits die hard, and the poor child now has to kick the old habit to learn the new (corrent) one. Thus we as a minority group have people of the majority wanting to highfive us- in the face. Oh what a shame.
I do not mean to offend anyone here- I just mean to say we have a chance to put aside the rather degrading position of having to conform to a right-handed world by having a universal model in a universal language- music! Isn’t world peace a good thing? We are able to be as equals with our fellow people! Besides, in music, noone really cares if you’re doing something right-handed or left-handed- we’s just a-playin’ our song- that’s all that matters.
P.S. (Sorry for taking up so much space, but my personal view is that left-handed instruments are merely a novelty- not a serious option for a career. I’d love to play a left-handed trombone, but that wouldn’t be very practical for anything besides show. I’d have to learn to play in tune all over again- very difficult to learn on a ‘bone.)

]]> By: wayne http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/music/wind-instruments.html#comment-34161 wayne Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:03:43 +0000 http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/?page_id=1198#comment-34161 HI" I am looking for rory the guy that play a right handed guitar left handed . I love to talk to him becouse i have been playing that way for over 45 years Hope to here from you . Thank wayne HI” I am looking for rory the guy that play a right handed guitar left handed . I love to talk to him becouse i have been playing that way for over 45 years Hope to here from you . Thank wayne

]]> By: iraj derakhshan, md, neurologist http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/music/wind-instruments.html#comment-26647 iraj derakhshan, md, neurologist Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:07:43 +0000 http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/?page_id=1198#comment-26647 12.16.2010 I am a neurologist with interest in laterality of motor control. I am a right hander and I play the violin. I read some of the comments which were made earlier by right and left handed players of different musical instruments. Handedness is primarily an expression as to which of the two hemispheres is in control of action (including that of speaking). Approximately 80 percent of people are left hemispheric in their laterality of motor control and 20 percent are right hemispheric. There is no circuitry for "ambidexterity). Of those who consider themselves right handed, approximately 80 persent are right hemispheric for action (i.e. are wired as left handers). Approximately 50 percent of left handers are wired as right handers (i.e. are left hemispheric for action). Therefore, 1 in five person in society displays (claims) a handedness for which they are wired in the opposite direction (a huge minority that had caused a Babylonian chaos before the discovery of the circuitry underpinning handedness (see above). There is a simple way to find out which way a normal person is wired: simply draw two lines at the same time while holding a pen in each hand. The hand opposite the hemisphere of action draws the longer and the straighter line (or draws a larger box if the object was to draw a box with both hands at the same time). This is because the real dominant hand is directly connected to the opposite (action) hemisphere, whereas the nondominant hand must await the arrival of the command issued in the action hemisphere to reach the other hemisphere (which is the "slave processor" for the action hemisphere through the corpus callosum). This causes a delay in moving the nondominant side of the body equal to the inter-hemispheric transfer time (About 20 milliseconds or more). This is why the bowing is ahead of the fingering in violin playing and why there is a "melody-lead of the right hand' in piano playing. And why (I suspect) the left hand is held on top of the right in wind instruments (i.e. providing a more even playing field for both hands (as it takes time for the wind to reach the farther end of the tube played by the faster right hand). Those who are interested in more information can acces my scientific articles online at www.mimickingman.com I. Derakhshan, md, Neurologist 12.16.2010
I am a neurologist with interest in laterality of motor control.
I am a right hander and I play the violin. I read some of the comments which were made earlier by right and left handed players of different musical instruments. Handedness is primarily an expression as to which of the two hemispheres is in control of action (including that of speaking). Approximately 80 percent of people are left hemispheric in their laterality of motor control and 20 percent are right hemispheric. There is no circuitry for “ambidexterity). Of those who consider themselves right handed, approximately 80 persent are right hemispheric for action (i.e. are wired as left handers). Approximately 50 percent of left handers are wired as right handers (i.e. are left hemispheric for action). Therefore, 1 in five person in society displays (claims) a handedness for which they are wired in the opposite direction (a huge minority that had caused a Babylonian chaos before the discovery of the circuitry underpinning handedness (see above).
There is a simple way to find out which way a normal person is wired: simply draw two lines at the same time while holding a pen in each hand. The hand opposite the hemisphere of action draws the longer and the straighter line (or draws a larger box if the object was to draw a box with both hands at the same time). This is because the real dominant hand is directly connected to the opposite (action) hemisphere, whereas the nondominant hand must await the arrival of the command issued in the action hemisphere to reach the other hemisphere (which is the “slave processor” for the action hemisphere through the corpus callosum). This causes a delay in moving the nondominant side of the body equal to the inter-hemispheric transfer time (About 20 milliseconds or more). This is why the bowing is ahead of the fingering in violin playing and why there is a “melody-lead of the right hand’ in piano playing. And why (I suspect) the left hand is held on top of the right in wind instruments (i.e. providing a more even playing field for both hands (as it takes time for the wind to reach the farther end of the tube played by the faster right hand).
Those who are interested in more information can acces my scientific articles online at http://www.mimickingman.com
I. Derakhshan, md, Neurologist

]]> By: Kate http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/music/wind-instruments.html#comment-25266 Kate Thu, 09 Dec 2010 11:09:03 +0000 http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/?page_id=1198#comment-25266 I am left-handed and have a music degree from Durham University. I play the flute and discovered at the age of 16 that I needed grade 6 piano (as well as grade 8 in my own instrument) to get into university. So I went to a piano teacher and told her I needed grade 6 piano. She thought I was mad, given that I had about 18 months, but we did it. It never came into that I was left-handed. What did come into it was that I was hopeless at sight-reading more than one line at a time, as I was a flautist, not a pianist. I could play anything by ear and "got away with it" for ages by simply asking her to just play things through a few times so I could hear what it sounds like, until she twigged that I couldn't really sight-read at all. I started out like most children with a recorder at the age of 6 or 7 and didn't start the flute until I was around 12 or 13. If you are musical you are musical, I do not think it has anything to do with handedness, and wind instruments are no more difficult to play with one hand on the top than on the bottom. You cannot play the flute the other way round because you all need to be sitting in the same direction in the orchestra. It would be chaos if some were pointing one way and some the other. What was interesting was that, as a bit of fun, a musician made a "left-handed" flute and it was in a well-known flute shop in London when I went in once to have my flute serviced. I was about 15 at the time and probably around grade 5. A professional, right-handed flautist was in the shop at the same time. He picked it up, but could not even get a note out of it, as his brain somehow could not cope with it being round the wrong way. Yet, I played it straight away. Very strange! I am left-handed and have a music degree from Durham University. I play the flute and discovered at the age of 16 that I needed grade 6 piano (as well as grade 8 in my own instrument) to get into university. So I went to a piano teacher and told her I needed grade 6 piano. She thought I was mad, given that I had about 18 months, but we did it. It never came into that I was left-handed. What did come into it was that I was hopeless at sight-reading more than one line at a time, as I was a flautist, not a pianist. I could play anything by ear and “got away with it” for ages by simply asking her to just play things through a few times so I could hear what it sounds like, until she twigged that I couldn’t really sight-read at all.

I started out like most children with a recorder at the age of 6 or 7 and didn’t start the flute until I was around 12 or 13. If you are musical you are musical, I do not think it has anything to do with handedness, and wind instruments are no more difficult to play with one hand on the top than on the bottom. You cannot play the flute the other way round because you all need to be sitting in the same direction in the orchestra. It would be chaos if some were pointing one way and some the other.

What was interesting was that, as a bit of fun, a musician made a “left-handed” flute and it was in a well-known flute shop in London when I went in once to have my flute serviced. I was about 15 at the time and probably around grade 5. A professional, right-handed flautist was in the shop at the same time. He picked it up, but could not even get a note out of it, as his brain somehow could not cope with it being round the wrong way. Yet, I played it straight away. Very strange!

]]> By: Dane http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/music/wind-instruments.html#comment-24550 Dane Sun, 05 Dec 2010 05:29:53 +0000 http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/?page_id=1198#comment-24550 your teacher's lying! I'm left handed and I play the piano smoothly ^^ at first I had a hard time with my left-right hand coordination but after practicing a couple of times my left-right hand coordination improved! :) see? even left handers can do what right handers can your teacher’s lying! I’m left handed and I play the piano smoothly ^^ at first I had a hard time with my left-right hand coordination but after practicing a couple of times my left-right hand coordination improved! :) see? even left handers can do what right handers can

]]> By: Bezz x http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/music/wind-instruments.html#comment-6583 Bezz x Mon, 05 Apr 2010 19:25:43 +0000 http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/?page_id=1198#comment-6583 Same here:-) Same here:-)

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