The majority of the people are right handed, so there aren’t many things made specifically for left handed people. Trying to find activities that are made for left handed individuals can be difficult, and this is no different for playing the guitar.
When talking about music there is only a small portion of musicians that are left handed. Even if they are actually born left handed they change their positioning to be able to play right handed. Some examples of artists that have done this are Jimi Hendrix and Dan Seals.
So how would a left handed person go about playing an instrument that was designed to be used by right handed people?
First of all, don’t let this discourage you or stop you from playing. There are ways around this issue and you will be better off if you stick with it. There are actually two possibilities to overcoming this problem. First, you can switch the strings around or second, you can play the guitar upside down. I know that sounds funny, but it is actually quite effective.
Some would argue and say that it is more difficult to play with the guitar upside down and it’s ridiculous to create notes using the instrument the wrong way, while others say that there’s nothing that’s impossible as long as you try your hardest. Even though the idea of rotating the guitar seems strange it can be done.
A left handed player can use the same set of strings with various finger positions to create many of the basic cords. Even though most people are used to playing the guitar right handed, there have been some left handed players that have come up with new methods or techniques to playing.
To start you should have either a guitar guide or manual to help you out. Despite the fact that you are playing the guitar upside down doesn’t mean that you have to change the mode of how your fingers should be. Your fingers will be placed the same way whether you are playing right handed or left. The only difference will be the finger that you use on the fret. If you were to play a guitar right handed, the C chord would mean that your fourth finger must be at the third fret dipping on the fifth string. Then your third finger would lie on the second fret pressing on the fourth string. Lastly, your pointer finger would be on the first fret down on the second string.
Playing the guitar as a left handed player means this would need to be done in an inverted way. Your last string would be on the top of your guitar, but the fret would be in the same position. It is a lot easier if you actually have a guitar to practice with. Make sure that you always follow the diagram that they give you in the guide or manual and don’t strum the forbidden strings in each of the chords.
Learning this can be difficult so you should start off with the chords that require the use of only two or three fingers. These would be the basic chords like C, A, G, E, D, and some minor details. Once you get the hang of these chords then you can move onto the harder chords. Don’t try to learn the hard ones first, because you will only end up frustrating yourself and potentially giving up on learning.
If you find that playing guitar left handed isn’t working for you or that you just don’t like it you can always go with the normal way of playing. This would be using a right handed guitar the right way regardless of the fact that you are left handed.
Copyright Liam Gibson (Guitar God)
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