left-handed clarinets

norman field

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Jul 1, 2001, 4:45:10 PM7/1/01

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No, I'm not crazy.... not quite, anyhow!

Has anybody seen or ever heard of a left-handed clarinet?

Or, failing that, any information about playing a (more-or-less) normal
clarinet with the left hand on the lower joint, and vice versa?

I ask because a correspondent on another list said he'd seen some
folk-artists on tv in Bulgaria. There were three clarinettists. One
played in the normal way; the other two with hands reversed.

He was rightfully puzzled (he plays brass instruments) and asked me
'What goes on here?'

I was *astounded* and ask you to help, if you can!

Thanks in advance,

Norman.

--
Norman Field. Clarinet and saxophone. Birmingham, England.
"The History Of Art Is The History Of Revivals"
Website: http://members.netscapeonline.co.uk/normancsax

Mark Charette

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Jul 1, 2001, 5:53:05 PM7/1/01

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There have been a very few left handed clarinets made. See
http://www.avrahm-galper.sneezy.org/left-handed.html for a picture of a
left-handed Albert system.

Mark Char...@sneezy.org

--
"Do you really need a chainsaw to cut a piece of cake? ;)"
--zak greant

"norman field" <norma...@netscapeonline.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3B3F8BD6...@netscapeonline.co.uk...

Stephen Howard

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Jul 2, 2001, 6:52:11 AM7/2/01

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On Sun, 01 Jul 2001 21:45:10 +0100, norman field
<norma...@netscapeonline.co.uk> wrote:

>No, I'm not crazy.... not quite, anyhow!
>
>Has anybody seen or ever heard of a left-handed clarinet?
>
>Or, failing that, any information about playing a (more-or-less) normal
>clarinet with the left hand on the lower joint, and vice versa?
>
>I ask because a correspondent on another list said he'd seen some
>folk-artists on tv in Bulgaria. There were three clarinettists. One
>played in the normal way; the other two with hands reversed.
>
>He was rightfully puzzled (he plays brass instruments) and asked me
>'What goes on here?'
>
>I was *astounded* and ask you to help, if you can!
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Norman.

I've only ever seen one, and that was by a maker called Jean Martin of
Paris - a simple system clarinet circa 1930.
They were not shown in the maker's catalogue but were built to special
order.

Regards,

--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
Emails to: shwoodwind{who is at}bigfoot{dot}com

ARR LEBON1

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Jul 2, 2001, 8:33:46 AM7/2/01

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And all these years I told my band students that there was only one type of
clarinet in the world and that it didn't matter if it felt better to
them......to do it wrong!

Thanks for a cool post.

Jim LeBon

norman field

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Jul 9, 2001, 7:06:09 PM7/9/01

to ARR LEBON1

Yikes!

Alas, the evidence is mounting, contrary to all expectations!

Thanks to you chaps on this list (a *picture* of one, even!), for all
the information.

I can add one further fragment of knowlege: by chance, I was 'phoned
tonight by Jonathan Steward of Howarth's of London about another matter,
and took the opportunity of asking him about 'les gauchers' as Rendall
said they were termed by French makers.

He replied that the late James Howarth had in his collection a boxwood
12- or 13- brass keyed left-handed clarinet dating from the late 19th.
century.

My fascination was divided between the (still further) confirmation of
the existence of the left-handed clarinet, and the fact that boxwood
clarinets with brass keywork were available as late as the 1890s.

Jonathan went on to explain that an 1890s instrument catalogue in the
collection of James Howarth illustrated instruments ranging from a
startlingly modern Cor Anglais with full Conservatory keywork and
fingering (I don't know what this means, but you experts will...), right
back to clarinets in boxwood with only *10* keys, some models with keys
mounted on posts, and others, incredibly, with keys mounted in 'knobs',
as they were called. This was the original form of mounting keys on
woodwind instrument that had been in use since the Middle Ages
(1000-1500), and its survival as late as 1890 must principally serve to
underline the extremely conservative nature of woodwind players in
general, and clarinet players in particular!

Best Wishes,

Edward Branham

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Jul 12, 2001, 9:16:05 PM7/12/01

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I recently mangled my left thumb. It has healed as much as it will, but
there is enough disfigurement and nerve damage that I can no longer play a
RH clart. I would love to be able to acquire a LH clart!

Richard Bush

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Jul 12, 2001, 9:51:18 PM7/12/01

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Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Have you considered the possibility of
having the the left thumb ring reconfigured to be a plateau arrangement
(w/pad rather than open ring key)? It could be done.

HOST Comp Tanker

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Jul 12, 2001, 9:55:50 PM7/12/01

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Ed, all is not lost. Unless you've got nothing but a tiny stump left, you can
avail yourself of a plateau clarinet. One is up on eBay right now for a very
reasonable price, and it will close the thumb hole regardless of where your
thumb hits it.

I have read of (but have not seen) of players who have "built up" the keys on
an instrument to deal with problems such as yours. What I'd do is to carve a
"pillar" for the thumb hole on a plateau horn, and another for the register
key, out of a soft material like dense plastic foam. Then, once you get things
adjusted the way that you like, you could take a cast of the properly formed
pillars, cast something like RTV rubber into the molds thus formed, and then
glue them up to the horn.

It's a kluge of sorts, naturally. But it works. The guy that I replaced in our
big band had a very badly malformed middle finger on the right hand. I watched
him struggle with a regular clarinet for a couple of years, and it wasn't
pretty. Had he taken my advice and bought a plateau horn, his problems would
have been over.

Another avenue is to take up bass clarinet.

Good luck to you, and I sincerely hope you can start playing again very soon.

Terry L. Stibal
HOSTCom...@aol.com

Peter Willis

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Jul 13, 2001, 12:08:56 AM7/13/01

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>Have you considered the possibility of
>having the the left thumb ring reconfigured to be a plateau arrangement
>(w/pad rather than open ring key)? It could be done.

A former teacher of mine had a malformed ring finger (that had no hope of
covering the hole) and had custom keywork for his R-13. There are people who
will make custom keywork for you. I'm sure if you're interested in pursuing
it, someone on this newsgroup could point you in a specific direction or two.

Peter
Find links to saxophonia at my page:
http://homestead.juno.com/pfwillis/saxophone.html

atchaya...@gmail.com

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May 31, 2019, 5:51:32 AM5/31/19

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Left hander using clarinet how much Rs.

Fred McKenzie

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May 31, 2019, 11:29:15 AM5/31/19

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In article <be201767-8825-4cc9...@googlegroups.com>,

atchaya...@gmail.com wrote:

> Left hander using clarinet how much Rs.

Atchaya-

Very interesting. I did a Google search, and found a discussion in the
alt.music.clarinet newsgroup dated July, 2001.

<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.music.clarinet/0uHn4Pqy2kk>

There may not be a modern "backwards" clarinet. If it would help you,
you can get a "plateau" clarinet that has a pad for the left thumb.

Another alternative is to switch to Bass Clarinet, which uses pads
instead of rings.

Fred

albayc...@gmail.com

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Jul 28, 2020, 7:01:04 AM7/28/20

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Hi all
I wanted to tell you that I do have a clarinet in flat B FOR LEFT-HANDED
It is a very old adler & Co that I bought from a pastor in Bulgaria that was from his grandfather
As he told me, very few were manufactured and it was as a result of the transformation of a factory for the Second World War.
a greeting