If you’re reading this blog you’re most likely either a) A saxophone player; or b) Someone who at least has more than a passing interesting in one of the most versatile and popular instruments invented in the last 200 years. If either of these statements applies to you, then you know that playing a saxophone requires\u2014among other things\u2014the use of both hands.<\/p>\n
However, what happens if a player loses his or her ability to use both hands? Do they have to give up playing the instrument that they love? Well that may depend on which hand they lose.<\/p>\n
If the player loses the function of their left hand\u2014or loses the left hand or arm altogether\u2014then there may still be an option for them to continue playing sax. Enter The UNK One-Handed Woodwinds Program<\/a>, founded by Dr. David Nabb, Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska. Nabb is a performing saxophonist who\u2014after having a stroke in 2000\u2014partnered with Jeff Stelling, the owner of Stelling Brass & Winds, an instrument repair and custom horn building shop, in Kearney, Nebraska.<\/p>\n Partnering with Stelling allowed Nabb’s visionary toggle-key <\/em>system<\/a>\u2014which allows woodwinds to be played with only one hand\u2014to be realized. This patent pending design:<\/p>\n …allows one index, middle, or ring finger to perform the functions normally executed by the same fingers on both hands. The right hand index finger operates the B key, bis B flat, and F keys. The middle finger operates the C key and F sharp. The ring finger operates the G and D keys….<\/p>\n To see how this toggle system is laid out, what a one-handed saxophone looks like, and for a full fingering chart, check out the PDF file I linked to in the above quote source.<\/p>\n If you’d like to see and hear a one-handed, toggle-key saxophone in action, here is a performance of Blue Caprice<\/em> by David Nabb.<\/p>\nSource: Toggle Sax.pdf<\/a><\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n