Wacky WWBW!!

docpugh · Post by **docpugh** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 2:47 pm

I believe that is a left-handed french horn.

anonymous4 · Post by **anonymous4** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 4:47 pm

docpugh wrote:I believe that is a left-handed french horn.

You mean right-handed?? Or just "the other left"?

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 5:13 pm

Well, since you obviously don't need a hand in the bell, it is clearly a right-handed Mellowfone, as popularized by the MellowSmokePerson hisself!

ai698 · Post by **ai698** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:09 pm

.em ot enif skooL

docpugh · Post by **docpugh** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:41 pm

Actually, I believe this 'reverse' french horn is what they use in the southern hemisphere, like drain water swirling in the opposite direction.

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 12:10 am

Since what they're advertizing is the "Employee Discount Sale", why not save even more and buy two employees

Alex F · Post by **Alex F** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 11:15 am

What I want to know is if they make a horn that does not crack during the first solo in the Leonora overture.

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 11:48 am

Matt Higgins wrote:ok ok ok .......do they really make a "left handed" horn?? i guess it would really be right handed though

Left handed horns are made all the time.

Occasionally right handed horns (opposite of normal) have been made, with the right hand utilizing the valves and the left hand in the bell (and an octave lower than the "mellophone"). This just doesn't look like one of them... and there's no hand (the player's or anyone else's) in the bell.

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 1:07 pm

Matt Higgins wrote:so the left hand wouldn't be put in the bell???

No, it would be on such a horn... which only gives more credence to the idea that this image was meant just for show, and is probably just a mirror image!

Charlie Goodman · Post by **Charlie Goodman** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 1:22 pm

Matt Higgins wrote:
Why is it that the horn is left handed in the first place??

My guess is that since french horns started without valves, they were made so the right hand could perform the stops and things used for natural horn playing. Consequently, when valves were developed, the simplest course of action was to put them where the other hand was, as it was unused.

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 1:27 pm

Matt Higgins wrote:Why is it that the horn is left handed in the first place??

It's a holdover from the "hand-horn" days when horn players (along with other brasses) had no valves- so they preferred to have their dominant hand in the bell, where they used it to create 'stop' notes to fill out the scales. Pro horn players that I know now swear that the secret to a good horn sound is still in how one uses the right hand (more than just hold the horn up!).

Since having one's hand so far in the bell not only effects tone, but pitch, too, I gotta believe them...