Steve Schwartz:

>Richard Pennycuick wrote:
>
>>Why is the French horn fingered with the left hand?
>
>Why does this even come up?

Because I genuinely wanted to know.  Sorry if I appear dense.

>All the standard stringed instruments are fingered with the left hand,
>for example.

On the other hand, so to speak, I haven't seen trumpet players who finger
with the left hand, nor trombone players who work the slide lefthanded.  I
don't even know if either of these feats is possible.  My original question
was based on the reasonable assumption - at least, I thought it was
reasonable, even if Steve may not - that as most people are righthanded,
then for most people, the horn would be easier to play if fingered with
the right hand.

Thanks to those listers who've answered the question.

Richard Pennycuick
[log in to unmask]

 [Left-hand trumpets are not terribly uncommon, and most trombones are
 ambidextrous (i.e., all you have to do is rotate 180 degrees the joint
 where the bell assembly meets the slide assembly - trombones with
 triggers are exceptions).  I suspect, though I don't have much evidence
 for this, that for many instruments the most complex movements are
 assigned to the right hand as something like 90% of the population is
 right-handed.  Originally, as pointed out in a previous posting, the
 natural horn was "controlled" with the right hand with the left used
 simply to hold the instrument.  It was only later that valves were
 added, so it was natural for the valves to be operated by the "free"
 hand, in this case the left.  That's my theory, and I'm sticking to
 it.  -Dave]