Left handed violin?!?!?!?

[Tropicalfruitmom]

Check this out. Yeah. Right. Sure.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...;item=916824994

[Gray Violiner]

Well, it would have been nice if they had also switched the strings, bridge and presumably the soundpost around as well as the chinrest....

[Ken Nielsen]

How about hitting the scroll of the person sitting next to you with your scroll? The music needs to be read reflected in a mirror? Finding someone to teach might be a problem. Otherwise, what a bargain!

[Steve_W]

Obviously it's a bad idea for classical players, but there are some fiddlers who use left-handed fiddles and some of them are quite good. Liz Carroll comes to mind, I wish I could play like her! -Steve

[Ken Nielsen]

I was just thinking along the same lines. People are adaptable to a great degree. The quadriplegic lady who paints using her toes to hold the brush comes to mind. She does beautiful work.

[Muse]

Did anyone notice that some of the pictures showed the chinrest on the normal side of the violin?

Either some of the pictures were mirrored, or some of the pictures are from a different violin.

[melimv]

HAHAHAAAA! you're so right! Ha!

[Steve_W]

I'd say the "adaptable" people are those left-handers who are forced by convention into having to use right-handed fiddles, Ken! Amazing how good some of them sound in spite of having to learn to play backwards! -Steve

[Ken Nielsen]

Oh, I see. It's a left-handed violin IF you watch yourself playing in the mirror.

[Ken Nielsen]

I had a 4 year old boy student once who asked me "can you sing while you play the violin?" I told him sure (I've seen the artist who recorded "King Of The Road" singing while playing his violin.) We never should think ourselves into a rut should we?

How do we know that the violin isn't a left-hand instrument in the first place, and that all of us right handed folks are the one's who have done the marvelous thing by learning it the way we have? Seriously, the whole world is set on teaching one way, so the person who wants to learn to play the opposite direction will have to fish extra hard for information that works for them.

[Gray Violiner]

Actually, lefties typically do better with the violin because having a dominant hand doing the fingering, they are at an advantage, particularly if they are older when they begin. Righties have the bowing advantage, but we really struggle on the fingerboard unless we have mastered some other bi-manual skill (like typing by touch at a respectable speed). Lefties on the other hand (pun intended) struggle with the bow more.

Hey, if you REALLY want to try something to appreciate what you have learned (which ever way you play), switch the violin to the other shoulder and try playing it, even though the strings are backwards. It is a real ego boost and it also makes you appreciate the people out there who, for typically reasons of injury, have been forced to play "backwards". Can you imagine having to essentially start all over!

[Marie Brown]

You folks are all so kind, witholding comment about an ebay seller who probably doesn't know the violin is usually held on the left.

[Thevi_Olin]

"Actually, lefties typically do better with the violin because having a dominant hand doing the fingering, they are at an advantage, particularly if they are older when they begin. "

Allright!! This is encouraging....(-: (Im left and started at a later age...)

[Gray Violiner]

Though I neglected to mention what qualifies as a later age! During your teenage years, the tendons begin to settle in, so if you start when you are in your late 30's (c'est moi!), you've got less flexible tendons and arthritis staring you in the face. It's a trade off though. I was in no way ready to make the sort of committment that it takes to learn the violin when I DID have the physical flexibility. I'm still trying to convince my body it REALLY isn't middle-aged!

[Steve_W]

"Actually, lefties typically do better with the violin because having a dominant hand doing the fingering, they are at an advantage, particularly if they are older when they begin. "

I've heard that comment before but I'm not sure if I believe it! If there were any advantage to fingering with the dominant hand, why didn't stringed instruments evolve so they were all played that way? I can't imagine that it's just by chance that we play "right-handed." -Steve