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Every wind instrument which require the two hands to press keys (saxophone, clarinet, oboe…) have the left hand of the player being the top one. This consistency makes it easier to switch from one instrument to another but is there a particular reason for that?

One could think that both hands are equally used on these instruments but I remember, as a left-handed person, trying to grab the saxophone the other way around when I started (it did not last long). There are lefties guitar, while, even if both hands do not have the same role, both of them are pretty active. If there is a physiological reason for having the left hand on top, then why don't we have left-handed wind instruments?

Tom
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  • No significant benefit but significant price difference due to very small number of instruments is sufficient to discard the idea from my point of view. Note, that all fingering tables would also be affected. – guidot Aug 17 '20 at 15:07
  • Would a left-handed transverse flute be able to march with right-handed transverse flutes? But there is a counterexample: baroque oboes frequently have an ambidextrous key. See for example http://www.baroqueoboes.com/OBOES/oboe415.html – phoog Aug 17 '20 at 15:31
  • Since about 85% are right-handed, often the right hand (fingers!) has more to do. It's probably down to market forces, making left hand saxes would be a small market - and most players adapt. As they often do on guitar. – Tim Aug 17 '20 at 15:38
  • @phoog - on the left hand side of a row, yes! – Tim Aug 17 '20 at 15:40
  • @Tim indeed. What about left-handed pianos or other keyboards? For an electronic keyboard it ought to be fairly trivial to achieve. Would it help anyone? I tend to doubt it. Do left-handed jazz pianists play more interesting bass parts? – phoog Aug 17 '20 at 15:53
  • @phoog Joe Zawinul experimented with 'inverted' keyboards. It's easy enough to program. – PiedPiper Aug 17 '20 at 15:56
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    @phoog - I guess anyone wanting to learn l.h. piano might struggle to find a teacher. A rich guy did in fact have a l.h. grand made for him. But I doubt l.h. 'boards would be a viable option. – Tim Aug 17 '20 at 16:11
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    Also see https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/60492/how-important-is-it-for-the-left-hand-to-be-nearest-the-mouth-when-playing-tin-w – Tetsujin Aug 17 '20 at 17:54
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    @phoog - ambidextrous winds go back further than that. Renaissance recorders almost always have duplicated holes (or keys with basses) for the bottom note, the unused hole being plugged with wax. – Scott Wallace Aug 18 '20 at 14:12
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    A factor that I don't see mentioned is that on many instruments, particularly the saxophones, the right hand bears most of the weight. – badjohn Aug 19 '20 at 16:51
  • @badjohn That's a good point indeed! – Tom Aug 19 '20 at 20:02

1 Answers1

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Western woodwind instruments were played with either hand on top up to the eighteenth century when keys started to be added. The first key on the modern flute was the D-sharp/E-flat key which was on an extra joint and could be rotated for either hand. As more keys were added people finally settled on having the left hand on top and all modern western instruments are built this way.
The concept of right- or left-handedness is irrelevant for woodwind instruments because neither hand dominates, although I once saw a "left-handed" keyed Irish flute, and I've heard of "left-handed" recorders.

PiedPiper
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  • I believe I've also heard of left-handed recorders. What do you make of the baroque oboe, though? There are two keys, and only one of them is ambidextrous as far as I can see. – phoog Aug 17 '20 at 15:55
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    @phoog With only one key it was easy to play either way. Once they added a second key they had to settle on one system. The first key was probably left ambidextrous for those who didn't want to use the second key. – PiedPiper Aug 17 '20 at 15:58
  • Same with the baroque bassoon. Instruments with only a few keys had a "forked" key on front that allowed you to play either hand on top. When more and more keys where added, somehow the choice was made to have left hand on top. The modern bassoon start at around 22 keys, but may have up to 28 or even a few more. Most busy finger is left thumb where I have 10 keys on my bassoon. – ghellquist Aug 17 '20 at 18:00
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    Thanks for this answer! Interesting to see how it shifted from ambidextrous to a single design. As I remember trying in the beginning in the wrong way, I would say that the current choice is probably the more natural for right-handed people… – Tom Aug 17 '20 at 18:24
  • @Tom_C Consider it from the perspective of *closer in* and *farther out*, and it's not surprising that the majority dominant hand is the one doing the reaching. – chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic- Aug 18 '20 at 04:27
  • @chrylis-cautiouslyoptimistic- Which is odd, because on the piano (in some styles, at least), it's the left hand which reaches farther (both in terms of playing octaves, and in moving up and down the keyboard).  I think similar would apply to guitars and other (plucked) stringed instruments too. – gidds Aug 18 '20 at 08:43
  • @phoog - by the time of baroque oboes, the ambidextrous key was just an esthetic vestige, since the assymetrical double holes made it only possible to play with the left hand above. – Scott Wallace Aug 18 '20 at 14:14