crimsonchrome wrote: ↑Sat Jul 06, 2019 9:32 pmhello brendan and everyone...hope this my first post doesnt make me seem like a know-it-all. im seeking to clarify things.i have read with great amusement on a forum dated 2017 that brendan was selling to few left handed combs. others may disagree but a harmonica is made to be held in the left hand.....low notes to the left.........therefore it is a left handed instrumant....i have seen on this forum and others about players asked how they as lefthanders...adapted to the instrument....well im sure there are numerous exceptions.but by and large if you are playing a harmonica held in your left hand...and are lefthanded.....you are not having to adapt to anything......the proper way no offence is to hold the harp in your left...hand...if you are lefthanded you arent ....with exceptions.....adapting to anything...you are delighted that you match the instrument! more clarification: allow me an ilustration to make my next point....if you salute someone right handed..its called....a right handed salute....if you shake hands right handed its called......righthanded handshake....then why is it that if i place the harmonica in my right hand ....upside down or not....why is this called LEFT HANDED playing?....why do some harmonicas books tell the lefty to reverse hands and play the harp in their right hand? why reverse someone who already has lefthand coordination down pat...because they are left handed?....finally with much admiration and respect to the engineering and playing genius of brendan....maybe the sales of the so called lefthanded combs...werent as expected because most but not all lefthanded ....lefthand playing chromatic players will will want the slider button on the right side of the harp.....so they can help cup/control/ etc with their right because most but not all lefthanders ..playing left handed will be holding in their left....having the slider button on the left while holding in your left is cumbersome...and requiers adaptation where none is needed .....most but not all leftys have the slider button on the right..."right" where they want it.....so to be clear if harp is in your left you are playing lefthanded.....if its in your right hand you are playing.....wait for it....right handed so the combs on this site.....and others as well as reversible silder buttons.....should be marketed as reversible slider buttons....not left handed for the reasons stated above.......thanks for letting a lefty explain that harps are already left handed and to call them any thing else is not only confusing.but incorrect
My opinion and my experiences:
1. Concerning the holding of a harmonica and cupping, hand wahwah and similar hand technics it is fully irrelevant, if one is using the right hand or left hand, respectively the handedness of the player. As well it is fully irrelevant, if one is playing a harmonica with the low tones to the left and the high tones to the right - as it is done and taught usually, or if one is doing just the other way round.
It is merely a matter of convention and of beeing used to. Usually anyone is playing a harmonica in the way of having done it playing the first time and then having learned it further on and has got used to. Musically and technically that does not make any difference.
Following this there is no need of any "left hand instrument" at all, concerning any harmonica type without a slide.
2. The only thing where handedness is affecting the use of a harmonica is the slide. Concerning the occasional use of a slide on a normal chromatic when an accidental note (# or b) is required, it does not really matter, whether the right or left hand might be used - no matter which one is the "main" hand of the player.
Anyway, Seydel is offering their chromatics with left hand slide unit optionally, by their harp configurator - for just a few bucks more:
https://www.seydel1847.de/epages/Seydel ... rrency=EUR
![Image](https://up.picr.de/36196300na.jpg)
Severe issues first might come, when using the slide lively and very often, especially when using it to create more or less fast rhythmic patterns, lively passages of trills and alike, constantly hammered throughout longer tunes, fast dance music, reels and jigs, uneven beat etc. For me as a right handed player it would be quite difficult to play a slide harmonica in my style and my usual speed with the "wrong" hand.
Maybe these isues are less when a left hander has got used to handle the slide properly with the "wrong" hand (i.e. the right hand) from the scratch. That is what I presume the most left handers are doing since left hand slide harmonicas are not the common default. (And at least they are more expensive, if available or even known at all.) Left handers might correct me in case of error. But crimsonchrome's (a left hander's) post seems to confirm this too.
It is the same when one has got used to play any harmonica "the other way round" (low = right, high = left) and therefore is handling the slide with the left hand from the beginning. Playing a harmonica the default way or otherwise does not depend on the handedness of the player, but does matter right handed players as well, when they are used to play the harmonica "the other way round".
3. The use of a harmonica with double slide - as e.g. the Hohner Chordomonica II - will enforce those issues. Ergonomically it is nearly impossible to handle the double slide properly with the left hand just by turning around the instrument (see pictures). And the double slide requires more sophisticated movements of the fingers than a common single slide. It feels more than writing than just pressing any odd button.
![Image](https://up.picr.de/36196298ty.jpg)
above: original version of Chordomonica II by Cham Ber Huang, as produced by Hohner in the 1960-es until maybe the end of the 80-es, discontinued since long
below and to the right: new version of Chordomonica II, custom made by Bernd Kiefer, still available on special request
![Image](https://up.picr.de/36196299wk.jpg)
detail double slide, new version
![Image](https://up.picr.de/36196497xl.jpg)
above: original version of Chordomonica II, by Hohner, discontinued
below: new version of Chordomonica II by Bernd Kiefer
And sorry, there are no Chordomonicas for left handers, at least as far as I know.
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_e_sad.gif)
dear greetings
triona