Why no lefties?

[SqueakyOnion]

After a brief search in the archives, I found nothing on the topic.

Out of sheer curiosity, why is it that all tubas are right hand tubas? Why no lefties, like french horns?

Is that just "the way things are," "the way things always have been," or what?

You see, I almost got my right hand crushed the other day, and was thinking about what I would do if that would have happened....

[LoyalTubist]

Top action piston valved tubas go either way. Try it.

[Donn]

Out of sheer curiosity, why is it that all tubas are right hand tubas? Why no lefties, like french horns?

I believe I've seen such tubas marketed in on-line auctions. From India. They say "left handed", I haven't looked to see what that means.

[corbasse]

Who cares about TUBAS...All they play is quarter notes and half notes (usually with the wrong buttons mashed down to boot).

Why aren't most French horns built RIGHT handed?

Why do all of the violinists finger with the left and bow with the right? ...just to avoid poking each other in the eye?

Well, french horns were right handed. The hand in the bell did all the major work for some 200 years. Valves were added as an afterthought and only came into full use when the left handed operation of these was already well established. You're not going to thrash thousands of perfectly good instruments because you could maybe play 1 or 2% faster if you reverse things.
There are righthanded french horns though, most of them converted or specialy built for people with a left hand unsuited to operating valves.

Aren't there any left handed tuba's? Or is everybody with a disabled right hand condemned to play french horn?


Violins do bow with the right to prevent poking eyes out. And the right hand does the harder job. I've seen a few professional string players in orchestras who play reversed though. Weird sight, you constantly have the feeling they're playing the wrong things.

[Onebaplayer]

Unfortunately I dont have the resources to back this up and its too late at night for me to look it up, but there is at least one left handed tuba I've heard about. I believe it was custom built by Miraphone for a high schooler who lost his right hand in an accident.
Secondly, as far as dexterity with your dominant hand, i have found this to be backwards. Gutiarists do the most work with their left hand (these days that is, flamenco is a different story) I played guitar pretty seriously for a number of years and have complete control over my pinky (moves independently from my ring finger) this dexterity is not something i have on my right hand (which is common with most people) and makes using the 4th valve difficult. Which I guess is why many Piccolo trumpet players use their left pointer finger to operate the 4th valve. My point in this rambling is that I am very much right handed but due to training with an instrument that required extreme dexterity, my left hand is more nimble than my right. That is enough of a reason to not worry about which hand your tuba is built for, because short of disablity, it doesn't matter.

[Steve Inman]

Who cares about TUBAS... [snip] Why do all of the violinists finger with the left and bow with the right? ...just to avoid poking each other in the eye?

At least the violinists have nothing to fret about . . . .

Cheers,

Steve "who also plays guitar" Inman
Kokomo, Indiana USA

[tubatooter1940]

I learned to play left-handed on a sousaphone on a stand. Right hand was required on valve bone and trumpet-no problem.
My top action efer gives me cramps in my right hand but I can reach around to the the valves with my left long enough to shake the cramps out.

[XtremeEuph]

..........I just ignore the subject because all clarinets are held the same (yes i know its a lil different), I havent heard of too many left handed euphs either (or can you hold them left handed too? didnt think so..).......the french horn thing bothers me though

[Teubonium]

..........I just ignore the subject because all clarinets are held the same (yes i know its a lil different), I havent heard of too many left handed euphs either (or can you hold them left handed too? didnt think so..).......

My 3+1 comp euph requires BOTH hands to operate it!!

[Casey Tucker]

there's a tuba student at ASU named Eddy Brown who only has a left arm. he contacted miraphone and has a 188 (i think) made w/ the valves turned around so he can still play. the horn looked exactly the same just the valves were turned around. he was the principal tubist in the texas 5a symphony orch 2 years in a row and principal in the 5a symphonic band. quite the player i would say.

-casey

[Lew]

...

Out of sheer curiosity, why is it that all tubas are right hand tubas? Why no lefties, like french horns?

Is that just "the way things are," "the way things always have been," or what?

You see, I almost got my right hand crushed the other day, and was thinking about what I would do if that would have happened....

Yes, that's just the way things are. As Bloke pointed out, every instrument is designed to interact with a person in a certain way. Left handed tubas have been made in small quantities, both as special orders from manufacturers and as conversions by repair shops. Why did Paul McCartney use a left handed bass when he can clearly also play right handed?

If something happens to your right hind you can have a tuba reversed, or many tubas, both top and front action, could be played with the left hand if you had to. In fact, there have been a few times when I have used by left hand to continue playing my Besson 983 to be able to turn the page with my right hand when I had a short time for the turn and couldn't reach the stand as easily with my left hand.

[XtremeEuph]

..........I just ignore the subject because all clarinets are held the same (yes i know its a lil different), I havent heard of too many left handed euphs either (or can you hold them left handed too? didnt think so..).......

My 3+1 comp euph requires BOTH hands to operate it!!

Congra-tu-fricken-lations, very funny....

[MaryAnn]

On violin, the bow arm is the dominant or leader and the fingering arm is the submissive or follower. This is one thing that has to be gotten across in lessons. The bow arm gets the tone and the other just moves around and wiggles, more or less. Since most people are right handed it just ended up with the right arm being the bow arm. I think it's the same with guitar; expression (on classical guitar anyway) is largely with the right hand, while the left scoots around among the frets, and again, wiggles.

Anyone who had piano as their first instrument will be pretty ambidextrous anyway. I'm convinced that anyone can be ambidextrous if they train themselves to be, at a young enough age.

MA

[Brassdad]

Strangely West Indian tubas are left-handed yet East Indian tubas are right handed...

And Aussie toilets flush counter clockwise.

[Ed Jones]

A number of years ago Meinl-Weston made a true left handed six valve F tuba for a German player who had only limited use of his right arm. It was a mirror image of a model 46. The fifth and sixth valves had a trigger mechanism similar to the old double rotor, independant bass trombones of a generation or two ago. There was a picture of Gerhard Meinl holding the horn in the TUBA Journal and my first reaction was "Oh great, they screwed up the negative". That was until I read the caption.

Ed "who wishes he was in Denver but has to stay home and fight the mosquitos during outdoor concerts because he used up all of his personal leave" Jones

[iiipopes]

I confess. I gave in. I'm left-handed, and when I volunteered to play as a freshman in high school marching band, it was a 1st generation King fiberglass souzy. I had already given in to convention in 5th grade when I started playing trumpet and used my right hand because that's how my dad played, and of course I wanted to do everything just like him!

[windshieldbug]

Some things, you hafta just do it right handed, to avoid making a big deal out of it.

An opposing view. I (am)was right handed, but my right side still is very spastic, so I moved the mouse over to the left. I still play right handed, but I think I could be much more consistent with my left. Most everything else I've had to switch over.

[tubatooter1940]

Having played right-handed guitar for a few years, I strung a guitar up for left-handed playing trying to get my faster right hand to do the fretting. I figured a couple of months hard work would get me up to speed. WRONG!
Holy cow it was like starting all over from beginner. Not near as easy as going from Bb to Eb tuba or switching hands on the valves. I failed miserably.

[finnbogi]

Out of sheer curiosity, why is it that all tubas are right hand tubas? Why no lefties, like french horns?

If I remember correctly, Wiener system tubas have the three "standard" valves on the left hand side. Then there are three more valves for the right hand, but theoretically you could use a Wiener tuba as a three valve F.