At a concert this evening, some time during the third movement of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade For Strings Opus 48, it dawned on me that I’ve never seen a left-handed violinist. Do they exist? If so, how rare are they? Do ensembles with left-handed violinists require extra insurance?
[sub]These are the types of thoughts that kept me out of the better schools. - George Carlin[/sub]
There would definitely be a need for more insurance, because they’d be constantly jabbing each other in the eye with their bows.
Which actually tends to discourage people from playing them backwards in general. From what I’ve heard, both hands actually have a fair amount of fine control stuff to do, so it doesn’t make much difference which handedness you have.
No matter if you’re right-handed or left-handed, you’re pretty much going to learn how to play a string instrument with the bow in the right hand with the left hand on the fingerboard. As a violinist myself, I would guess that a left-hander would have a slight advantage over a right-hander, as the more dexterous finger work is done with the LH. Of course, if you practice, practice, practice, there shouldn’t really be a difference between a left-hander and a right-hander.
I just asked my roommate just to be sure, and she says she knows of one violinist who plays backwards. Something was weird with her left hand (some fingers fused together or something), and so she strung her instrument backwards and learned how to play the opposite way. In an orchestral setting, I can’t imagine that the bow would really get in anyone’s way; usually you sit far enough away from your stand partner and the people in the other sections, and you get your own personal space.
Back in the 30s Johnny Long had a succesul dance band and led it with his left handed violin.
Previous to this his band had been the official Duke University band
He was the last one I remember-----but I’m sure there are still a few 'lefty’fiddlers.
All violinists do not necessarily have to plaY classical
And--------There are a lot of people who play violin------but there are darned few violinists!
EZ
Yep, as observed, the logistics make it very unusual in classical music, but it’s less uncommon in other genres. I’ve seen a couple of leftie fiddlers.
The other reason it’s so rare for classical violinists is that you need a custom-built instrument. It’s not just about putting the strings on in reverse order - the whole body of the violin, while looking symmetrical, has much thicker wood on the bass side. Restringing a regular violin will at best make it sound crappy, and at worst make it prone to cracks and other damage over time.
This I didn’t figure out. Thanks. I suppose I was thinking of a violin more in terms of a symmetrical instrument, rather than a piano or a french horn (or QWERTY keyboard?), which is played one way, regardless of handedness.
My mom is a lefty former violinist (not professional), and tells me that she was told being a lefty was actually an advantage – better coordination with the left hand for fingering. I can believe it, having several years of right-handed violin experience myself. I don’t think anybody learns classical violin backwards.
If this is true, that it’s easier to play well with if you’re left-handed, then why would they make the violin this way? I’ve been playing violin since about 3 and a half and in that time, I’ve known some lefty violinists but they never seemed to have any advantage. Is it made this way because the right arm/hand has much more physical work to do in terms of effort?
Bingo.
When I learned to play the violin, I held it exactly the same way as a right handed person.
Although, it wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest that many violinists are sinister.
Same here: I was a strongly lefty child who played the violin (and got featured in an Encylopedia Brittanica supplementary article about child prodigies for it!) and playing in the traditional stance was never an issue. Like others, I see it as a minor advantage, inasmuch as your individual fingers on your left hand do more work than those on your right hand (although your entire right hand moves more and exerts fine gradations of pressure).
Daniel
If that were really the case, don’t you think we’d all have the “reverse” violins? I think the control over the bow is more important than the fingers. As you point out, the bow is very sensitive to subtle changes in pressure as well as angle and speed.
The orientation of string instruments is pretty much consistent, throughout history and across the whole world. There was no way anybody could instigate a wholesale change - imagine trying to convert America to driving on the left of the road, except that it would take 20 years for people to regain their standard of driving.
And really, when at a high standard, there’s little to be gained either way. The right hand has intricate and dextrous things to do (they’re just not as obvious), and either arm has far more power than is needed to bow.
For beginners on violin and guitar, the fingering is the biggest challenge. Lefties playing a right-handed instrument have a bit of a head start in this regard. But when you get into more advanced playing, the bowing or picking requires more skill and control. There’s also a matter of natural arm position – dominant hand in close, non-dominant hand outstretched – which some people are more sensitive to than others. If it were truly better to be left-handed when playing a right-handed instrument, you can be sure that left-handed instruments would be the norm for the benefit of the right-handed majority.
[Slight hijack]
Does this also hold for floor-standing instruments like the cello and double-bass?
Yup.
Hear, hear.
I used to know a violinmaker who told me a lefty would have no problems–the only difference is that the dominant hand wields the bow instead of working the fingerboard.
All the same, there is a book on left-handed lore with a picture of Charlie Chaplin playing a violin left-handed. According to the text, Chaplin had to rebuild the violin so he could string it to accommodate his left-handedness.
As we know, of course, Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney did likewise with their guitars.
In a shop on Pier 39 in San Francisco, I visited a small shop called Left-Hand World. Among the newspaper clippings on the wall was a picture of a grand piano designed, supposedly, for a left-handed pianist–the pitch gets higher right to left, not left to right!
In The Left-Handed Book, author James DeKay says “left-handed saxophonists do not exist”–but he did not notice Rudy Vallee or Bill Clinton.
The book’s probably exaggerating this one - the most he could have done was reposition the bass bar and soundpost. There’s no way to truly rebuild, because you’d have to be adding thinkness to wood in places!
Perhaps he simply meant that it’s impossible to play the saxophone ‘left-handedly’?
That would be my guess.
I’ll have to find that book–it was in a public library–and refer again to the text; you’ve set me thinking.
At least Chaplin–I admit I’m guessing here–never had to handle a power saw, a Polaroid camera, or a winding clock. And he might have had difficulty using a personal computer, unless he could find a left-handed mouse–maybe lefties like Clinton, Brad Garret, Missy Gold, or Bush I have had to use those…