When you run across a left handed guitar player on your friendly neighbourhood guitar forum asking for advice on starting out, you always have the obligatory post from some genius who thinks he has the most important advice in the world to give. “Um…dude…the chord diagrams will be backwards…how will you figure out chords!?! ”
They act as if you need a PHD in particle physics in order to have the brain capacity to read something backwards…it’s not quite that bad! Some of you will just make do with deciphering regular chord diagrams – but why make it harder on yourselves? Lefty friendly diagrams will help make learning chords that little bit easier.
For those of you who are new to guitar and a little unsure, I’ve put together a simple left handed guitar chord chart which shows you some essential open chords that every new guitarist should learn.
Click on the diagram to hear the chord to ensure you are playing it correctly! Note: You will need Adobe Flash Player to view the chart, so if you are using an iPhone or other device incapable of displaying Flash here is a printable non-interactive version you can download.
Give it a few seconds to load, and see below for a quick explanation on how to read it correctly.
Explanation for Beginners
In case you are a complete beginner looking at these diagrams for the first time, let me briefly explain what they represent. The diagrams should be read as if you have your guitar standing up in front of you with the fretboard facing you.
The numbers located underneath the diagrams (1-4) are your finger numbers. Your fingers are numbered as follows:
- Index : 1
- Middle : 2
- Ring : 3
- Pinky : 4
- Thumb : T (thumb isn’t used in any of these basic chords)
The red dots indicate where you should place your fingers, and the white dots tell you that the string should be played ‘open’, i.e do not fret any notes. An ‘X’ above a string indicates that the string should not be played.
Hungry for more? Check out our brand new Left Handed Chord PDF eBook and expand your repertoire with over 300 exciting new left handed chords today! I wish I’d had this book when first starting out! Click Here.