A left handed violin for some reason never occurred to me. I'm a lefty, and when I learned violin as a kid, I played right-handed. Heck, I play guitar and shoot right handed.
There are some good reasons. One would be if you have some type of injury that prevents you from playing right handed. Another would be if you are already a pretty proficient lefty guitar player. I know one person who is SOOO left handed he can barely eat with his right hand. He basically doesn't have any manual dexterity with that hand at all. (Almost the same as an injury.) But, yeah, probably 95% of lefties really should learn to play right handed.
Lefty been playing for about 8 months now. It's very much an ambidextrous instrument, in that bow control is as important of not more so than what your left hand is doing. I like using my left hand for the strings. I'm already more coordinated there anyway. Seems to me easier just to learn whole new motions with my non-dominant right. Everything else I do left handed other than scissors because there are never any lefty's around.
playing violin is a two-handed task so there's really no "righty" or "lefty" just standard and reversed. also unrelated but im curious: do you throw and punch with your left hand?
I love how people for hundreds of years were just like "yeah figure it out" to lefties lol My grandfather was a lefty but played right handed guitar. IMO it's really just as awkward for MOST people to play either way and they should consider learning right handed stringed instruments because they will have far better luck finding instruments and parts down the road, especially with bowed instruments
I thought of doing that and found out. I'm going to try playing left handed just as it is, so I can find out if I can. But I need a lefty chinrest! Do you sell those? (Broken arm woman)
Also, the nut is also not symmetrical and would have to be replaced or redone. It’s taller as it goes into the low strings and the grooves are different as well, since lower strings are thicker.
I worked at a music store where we rented out instruments. A mom called and asked if we had left handed violins when I wasn't there and when my coworker told me, i just staright up screamed. And then she walked in while I was the only one in the store and was like, "Yeah, as it turns out NO ONE has them. So we called the teacher and he said he'll just switch them around." I didnt ha e the heart to tell her that the teacher was either an idiot or too much of a guitar player to be teaching a string orchestra class.
Yeah - a lot of people will see left handed guitars, which are fairly common, and assume that it's the same way with violins. While left handed violins DO exist, they're really rare. And if it's at all possible, most teachers will encourage students to learn to play "right handed". With a beginner, "switching the strings around" probably won't make a huge difference. They're going to sound terrible for the first year, anyway. But you're setting them up for huge problems later.
with a beginner violinist you probably could get by with this. Because there's so much learn to overcome to learning the violin. And then when they get more serious you can get them a much better and this time correct violin
I had a student who no matter what we tried could not figure out violin right handed. I managed to calve out a nut and profile the bridge and swap the hardware around. They just had to endure the peg being in the way of their thumb. Not sure if it was any good for the internal components but it seemed to work OK.
It's going to "work". It's just never going to have the voice that a properly constructed violin is going to have. If the student is able to purchase a legit leftie violin in the future, they'll be amazed how much better it sounds. But sometimes, in the meantime, we just do what we have to do. Thanks for digging in to help your student!
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
A left handed violin for some reason never occurred to me. I'm a lefty, and when I learned violin as a kid, I played right-handed. Heck, I play guitar and shoot right handed.
If you can shoot damn good, it does not matter how you play guitar or a violin 😅
There are some good reasons. One would be if you have some type of injury that prevents you from playing right handed. Another would be if you are already a pretty proficient lefty guitar player.
I know one person who is SOOO left handed he can barely eat with his right hand. He basically doesn't have any manual dexterity with that hand at all. (Almost the same as an injury.)
But, yeah, probably 95% of lefties really should learn to play right handed.
I'm the reverse! I'm right handed but I often do stuff like this left handed for some reason lol
Lefty been playing for about 8 months now. It's very much an ambidextrous instrument, in that bow control is as important of not more so than what your left hand is doing. I like using my left hand for the strings. I'm already more coordinated there anyway. Seems to me easier just to learn whole new motions with my non-dominant right. Everything else I do left handed other than scissors because there are never any lefty's around.
playing violin is a two-handed task so there's really no "righty" or "lefty" just standard and reversed. also unrelated but im curious: do you throw and punch with your left hand?
Bow control should be operated with the dominant hand because it is far more complex movements. Atleast that’s what most pedagogues think.
As an amateur luthier I thoroughly enjoyed this video good job!
I have a physical limitation that prevents me from playing right handed guitar, so play left handed but I would like to try lefty violin myself.
do you have a string coming out of your index finger?
I have no idea what that was. lol. I didn't even notice it until I edited the video.
It took me a long time to find a left-handed at a comparable price. I finally got my hands on one.
I love how people for hundreds of years were just like "yeah figure it out" to lefties lol My grandfather was a lefty but played right handed guitar. IMO it's really just as awkward for MOST people to play either way and they should consider learning right handed stringed instruments because they will have far better luck finding instruments and parts down the road, especially with bowed instruments
I thought of doing that and found out. I'm going to try playing left handed just as it is, so I can find out if I can. But I need a lefty chinrest! Do you sell those?
(Broken arm woman)
Also, the nut is also not symmetrical and would have to be replaced or redone.
It’s taller as it goes into the low strings and the grooves are different as well, since lower strings are thicker.
True
I worked at a music store where we rented out instruments. A mom called and asked if we had left handed violins when I wasn't there and when my coworker told me, i just staright up screamed. And then she walked in while I was the only one in the store and was like, "Yeah, as it turns out NO ONE has them. So we called the teacher and he said he'll just switch them around." I didnt ha e the heart to tell her that the teacher was either an idiot or too much of a guitar player to be teaching a string orchestra class.
Yeah - a lot of people will see left handed guitars, which are fairly common, and assume that it's the same way with violins.
While left handed violins DO exist, they're really rare. And if it's at all possible, most teachers will encourage students to learn to play "right handed".
With a beginner, "switching the strings around" probably won't make a huge difference. They're going to sound terrible for the first year, anyway. But you're setting them up for huge problems later.
with a beginner violinist you probably could get by with this. Because there's so much learn to overcome to learning the violin. And then when they get more serious you can get them a much better and this time correct violin
Paganini was left handed and he did ok…🤷🏻♂️
I've never heard any Paganini recordings that really impressed me.
lol!! You probably also sold your Theramin because you never touched it! 😉
I had a student who no matter what we tried could not figure out violin right handed. I managed to calve out a nut and profile the bridge and swap the hardware around. They just had to endure the peg being in the way of their thumb. Not sure if it was any good for the internal components but it seemed to work OK.
It's going to "work". It's just never going to have the voice that a properly constructed violin is going to have. If the student is able to purchase a legit leftie violin in the future, they'll be amazed how much better it sounds.
But sometimes, in the meantime, we just do what we have to do. Thanks for digging in to help your student!
AAAHHH THAT VIOLIN SOUNDS OUT OF TUNE
I think? I don't have perfect pitch man idk
Just play a violin. Unless you physically cannot play a normal violin, then play a normal one.
You're very bossy.