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February 26, 2010
Frédéric and Jimi and the ways of the hand
In this Chopin year, we're going to be hearing a lot about idiomatic instrumental composition, and in particular, the ways in which the physical, tactile act of playing interact with aural considerations. Most of the talk will, of course, be about the keyboard, from Bach (see here) to Chopin and on to Bartók and Ligeti (tactility is also a hot topic among the complexers). But here is also a new article about the complex handedness of Jim Hendrix and his choice of a left-handed guitar.*
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* Playing "wrong-handed" is a minor fascination of mine. From time to time, one hears about pianos with inverted (right-to-left bass-to-treble) keyboards, which can be emulated with a good midi keyboard and are, at turns, frustrating and fascinating to play. Also, there is the example of the violinist Rudolph Kolisch, a close associate of Schoenberg, who played left-handed, which offered an acoustic advantage in quartet playing and some advantage in teaching as well. Noticing that some old recorders came with alternative seventh holes (one of which could be filled with wax), I once spent some time learning to play with the hands exchanged, an exercise which seem to increase both physical and mental agility.
Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Feb 26, 2010 at 05:11 PM