Playing a Left Handed Guitar

Before beginning to play, make sure you have enough space around you, for both your guitar and your arms.  It’s best to sit down rather than stand, especially when you’re first learning, so grab yourself a suitable seat such as a stool or armless chair.

On left handed acoustic guitars, everything that’s on a right handed guitar is basically reversed, so the thickest string will still be at the top and the thinnest at the bottom, but you will play chords and notes with the neck in your right hand, and strum or pluck the strings using your left hand.  Left handed electric guitars have the controls reversed also.

Place your guitar comfortably on your left thigh, with your thigh in the curve of the guitar body, so that it’s near to your body and feels in the best position.  Use your right hand for the chords and notes, using your fingers to press each string to the fret.  Use your left hand for strumming.  If you prefer to use a guitar pick for this, hold it between your left thumb and index finger.  Try to practise moving just your wrist for this action, not your whole arm.

Most instructions for playing guitar are written for right handed players, but this can easily be overcome by replacing right with left and vice versa.  With chord and scale charts, it’s not so simple for left handers.  You could spend a lot of time rewriting them for left handed playing.  However, most left handed guitarists find they get used to reading right handed charts and switching them over in their heads, with a little practice.  You will need to move your hands in a mirror image of the chart, but once you’ve learned to do this it should become second nature.

Beginners or kids who are new to playing guitar, may find it helpful to take a few lessons with a professional teacher until they master the basics.  Or you can teach yourself guitar using books or videos.  You will need to learn to play chords, starting with the three basic chords; G, C major and D major.  It’s best to practice songs that use just these chords, then begin to learn more chords and progress onto playing more difficult songs.