Guitar Lessons That Don't Suck! Southpaw City

If you have been to my Welcome site and seen the picture of my wife and I, you may be asking yourself, "What gives this guy the right to put out a website about left handed guitar players. He's as right handed as they come". While you may be right, I grew up surrounded by left handed people and continue to have them in my life everyday. I have left handed people in my life that I love very much. My dear sweet mother was left handed as is my little brother. I also have a left handed son and if that doesn't get me into the club, my wife Diane is also left handed. So I'm not exactly ignorant when it comes to what lefties have to put up with in this world.

Being left handed and wanting to play guitar in a right handed guitar world can be frustrating when you are just starting out. There have been some great left-handed guitar players in history, the most famous of course was Jimi Hendrix. He solved the “problem” of being left handed by taking a right handed Fender Stratocaster and turning it up side down.

His most famous Strat, the one he called “VooDoo”, was an Olympic White Stratocaster. Fender has recently re-released this guitar strung so that right handed guitarists could get the whole upside down thing. Read this great article about Hendrix and how he adapted a right handed guitar to suit his left handed purposes.

People who are left-handed usually play the guitar or electric bass in one of three ways. (1) Use a right-handed guitar and learn to play right-handed, (2) find a true left-handed guitar (or a right-handed guitar that has been made to play left-handed or (3) take a right-handed guitar and turn it upside down, picking with the left hand. These players leave the strings the same, making them reversed, upside down, for a left-handed player.

Some Southpaw wanna bees figure life will be easier if they just swim downstream. They simply learn to play right handed from the beginning. However, if you decide to take the route Hendrix did, you will need to have a qualified guitar technician put a new nut on your guitar because you will also have to string the guitar opposite of a right handed person and the strings will cross the nut exactly inverse of a rightie.

There have been a number of left handed guitarists who have left the guitar as is and just learned to play it "upside down" so to speak. Though this is certainly possible and there is nothing "wrong" with it, to my knowledge there exists no learning materials to address this method, you'd be on your own to adjust accordingly.

Below you will find a list of some of the best left handed guitars in the history of American music. You will also find seveal links to websites and videos just for Southpaws. The first is a website just for lefty guitar players, followed by a link to Hendrix' "All Along the Watchtower". Then there is a great article on how to play like Hendrix. Now, we all know that is impossible but hopefully you can pick up some great tips. And finally, a link to an online music store that sells nothing but left handed guitars. Here's to hoping you enjoy these links.

Joe

If you decide to take a right handed guitar and adapt it to play left handed, ala Jimi Hendrix, here are several issues you will have to deal with. If you look at the nut, the white piece of plastic or bone that the strings pass over where the headstock and the neck meet, you will notice that grooves have been cut out in different sizes according to the thickness of each string.

You will need to get a good guitar technician to make you a new nut cut out in exact reverse order of the original since your strings will be in reverse order on your adapted guitar. The bridge will also need to be adjusted so the lower strings will be longer in order for you to be able to have correct intonation. If this isn’t done you will never be able to tune your guitar correctly.

On most acoustic guitars the bracing is made a certain way for right handed guitars, but unfortunately there is nothing you can do about this issue.  For electric guitars adapted for Southpaws, the controls will be backwards and again there’s not much you can do about it, you will just have to get used to it. .

Great left handed guitar players include Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jimmy Cliff, Tony Iommi, Seal, Babyface, John Flansburgh (They Might Be Giants), Beeb Birtles (Little River Band), Elvis Costello, Elliot Easton (The Cars), Elizabeth Cotten, Iggy Pop, Blues Man Albert King, Otis Rush, Bobby Womack, Al McKay (Earth, Wind & Fire), Cesar Rosas (Los Lobos), Chris Rea, Surf Guitar King Dick Dale, Paul Simon, Johnny Winter, Dave Loggins (Please Come To Boston), Dickie Lee, Dan Seals, Billy Ray Cyrus and of course, Paul McCartney. Although often pictured playing his violin shaped Hofner bass, he also was quite proficient on the guitar. Mark Knopfler and Danny Gatton are two remarkable lefties who play right-handed.

Click their name to view their video

My aim with these lessons is to give you information about the guitar that is easy to understand, interesting and challenging. Learning to play the guitar is hard enough when everything makes sense. I want you to keep coming back and keep finding everything you need to become the guitar player you want to be. I will keep adding lessons, articles, videos, audio files and software day by day. Please help me and leave a comment and let me know what worked and what didn't work for you while you were here. Best of luck to you and please come back again. Thanks Joe

Call the Roll - Southpaw Greats

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Great left handed guitar players include Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jimmy Cliff, Tony Iommi, Seal, Babyface, John Flansburgh (They Might Be Giants), Beeb Birtles (Little River Band), Elvis Costello, Elliot Easton (The Cars), Elizabeth Cotten, Iggy Pop, Blues Man Albert King, Otis Rush, Bobby Womack, Al McKay (Earth, Wind & Fire), Cesar Rosas (Los Lobos), Chris Rea, Surf Guitar King Dick Dale, Paul Simon, Johnny Winter, Dave Loggins (Please Come To Boston), Dickie Lee, Dan Seals, Billy Ray Cyrus and of course, Paul McCartney. Although often pictured playing his violin shaped Hofner bass, he also was quite proficient on the guitar. Mark Knopfler and Danny Gatton are two remarkable lefties who play right-handed.

Click their name to view their video