Studies show about 10 percent of the world is left-handed and being left-handed may cause you to think "differently." Thankfully, guitar greats including Jimi Hendrix, Tony Iommi, Paul McCartney, Albert King, Otis Rush, and Dick Dale are but a few of those wonderfully different thinking ten percent.
It's All in the Chart
A left-handed guitar chart depicts the way a left-handed guitarist sees the guitar. The string on the far left is the high E string, and the string on the far right is the low E string as long as you are playing a left-handed guitar. The following chart depicts left-handed chord diagrams for major, minor, and seventh chords for all the letters of the musical alphabet, A through G. For help with this printable, please refer to Love To Knows easy-to-use guide.
Tips for Playing These Chords
When playing the chords, do the following:
- Take each chord slowly and make sure every note rings out clearly.
- Arpeggiate the chords by playing across the strings one note and at a time and strum them as block chords all at once.
- Learn the standard notation if you don't know it already.
- Use the tablature as a guide.
- Put them together in progressions like | A | D | E | A | and | Gm | C7 | F | E7 |.
Other Resources
Here are a few places you can continue your research on left-handed guitar music:
- Lefty Fretz - This site offers left-handed diagrams for 15 of the most common chords. Below the charts, you'll find an explanation for how to read them, and you can click on each chord to listen to it and make sure you're playing it right. Lefty also offers power chord diagrams.
- Chord Book - The chord generator at Chord Book has a left handed and right handed mode, so you can choose which way you'd like your chords presented.
- Mel Bay Left Handed Guitar Chord Chart - Mel Bay is legendary for publishing every conceivable type of guitar instruction book. This one is devoted to teaching lefties guitar chords.
- Hal Leonard Left-Handed Method - This book is a great start for lefties looking to learn fundamentals and basics of note reading and music theory applied to the guitar.
Practice Makes Perfect
The same concepts apply to right-handed players as left-handed. Practice. Play. Listen. Love to learn as you improve. The chords presented here are a wealth of material and fodder for quite a bit of music in all styles. Master them and then learn more.
