Question for any string players out there

[Toblacher]

There must be lefties that play string instruments.  Why don't I see any left-handed string players bow with their left hand and finger with their right hand?  Is it impossible for the way the notes are written for the instrument to play a string that way?  Or is it just taught that way only by teachers?

[barry guerrero]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brYRXvKvFmo

[AZContrabassoon]

There are several problems with this. First, is the way instruments are built. The arch of the bridge is designed for the lowest string to be on the left. You can of course turn the bridge around and wire it backwards. Then bow with the left hand, fingering with the right. Ok...then comes the next problem. If you're in an orchestra where uniform bowing is expected (usually that's the case) say the inside stand plays regularly, and the outside plays lefty - on an upbow there's a chance the bows will hit. On a down bow will you hit the person to your other side? The other issue is not as critical, but the outside player would also have the violin f-holes facing the wrong way. Given the current norm for seating in the US, that player's sound will be directed into the orchestra, not the audience. Minor point.

There are guitar players who play "backwards", but all wind instruments are designed to be played only one way. Bassoon and clarinet are impossible with hands switched. I do know a conductor who uses the left hand rather than the normal right for some reason - he's a righty, too. And I took bowling lessons from a leftie - now THAT was confusing.

[umbernisitani]

I think that leftie conductor who conducts with the stick in the left hand that you mentioned must be Runnicles!

[AZContrabassoon]

I wish I were good enough to play under the likes of Runnicles. Nope, he's just a hack who has to be different.

[akiralx]

What would be ideal is antiphonally placed violins, the normal first violins on the left of the stage, with the seconds to the conductor's right, all left handers, so their instruments are facing the audience...

[Prospero]

Almost all the great conductors of the past used the split violins so that the independent lines of the two violin sections could be clearly heard. Toscanini, Monteux, Fürtwangler and many more.

It is said that in early stereo days, engineers and producers thought the split violins diminished the "stereo" effect. And it may be that play back was blurry enough to make for confusion. But in well engineered and produced LPs on modern equipment many early stereo recordings reveal great spatial detail. this is true of the Klemperer 2 on early EMI pressings. And you hear it on many of Monteux's early RCA Living Stereo recordings like the Sibelius 2 and the Dvorak 7.

Here is one site that goes into these distinctions:

http://www.brightcecilia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=591

[barry guerrero]

.    .    .   "all left handers, so their instruments are facing the audience"


Since there's a dearth of left handed violins, one solution would be to go back to putting megaphone horns on to the second violins seated on the right side. You'd turn the horns to face the audience.

Frankly guys, I think there are too d__n many violins to begin with, and that they should send a few chairs of them home and replace them with more bassoons and double basses. Just one person's opinion.

[AZContrabassoon]

I don't entirely disagree - in too many orchestras the bass sound is weak compared to the higher pitches. Has a lot to do with the orchestration, but Brahms and Mahler, just to name two, were really concerned about the bass sound and that's why they used bassoons, contrabassoons, tubas, and basses so much. But in some orchestras you have a real mismatch. In a typical small orchestra string section, numbers like 8-8-6-6-2 is common, but it should be 8-8-6-6-6. Those bass lines are so important. One conductor I work with gets it, and frequently has me playing contrabassoon along with the bass section where a rock-solid, loud bass is needed. Adds immensely to the 2nd movement of the Beethoven 7th.