Why no lefties?

[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.