Archive for June, 2010
Left Guitar
While most guitars are built for right handed people, there are also left handed guitars available. If you want to play guitar this way, you can buy one built for southpaws. Or you can flip a right hand guitar upside down.
Playing a Restrung Guitar
Step 1
Clutch the guitar’s neck with the fretting hand (that’s your right hand). Curl the fingers a bit. Hold the guitar pick with your left hand in-between the thumb’s knuckles. Place it on the guitar’s sound hole. Hit the lowest placed string with the pick’s edge. Use the wrist, not the arm. Strike in a downward manner.
Step 2
After hitting the string downward, strike it up. Keep repeating this until it becomes second nature to you. Keep doing this with as little motion in your hand as possible. When you’re ready, proceed to the second lowest string. Keep going until you reach the upper scales.
Step 3
To play a scale, position your right hand’s index finger at the first fret. Hit the lower bottom string using the pick. Take your index finger off the fret. Put the middle finger at the second fret. Again hit the lowest string.
Remove the middle finger. Put the ring finger on the third fret and strike the lowest string again. Remove the ring finger and put the pinky at the fourth fret. Hit the bottom string.
Step 4
Keep playing the left handed guitar by repeating the process described above with the other strings. The only difference is at the third string. Here the fourth fret is dropped. Keep repeating this until you are comfortable with it.
Step 5
If you want to play the chords, start with G major; it is the simplest. To play G major, position the middle finger at the third fret right on the 6th string. Place the index finger at the 2nd fret (fifth string) and the ring finger at the 3rd fret (first string). Hit all the strings using the pick on your left hand.
To play C major left handed, place the middle finger at the second fret (4th string), ring finger at 3rd fret (fifth string) and the index finger on the 1st fret (second string).
To play the D major, set the index finger at the 2nd fret (3rd string). The ring finger should be placed at the 3rd fret (second string) while the middle finger is at the second fret (1st string). Only play the bottom 4 strings.
Tips
Take your time. Unless you practice regularly, you will never be able to make progress. If you are buying a new guitar, have a look at different models. For beginners, the basic models will be sufficient.
There’s no need to buy feature heavy guitars yet; you won’t be able to use it anyway. There are many fine products on the Internet, so take a look there.
Learning how to play left handed guitars takes time, but it can be done. By focusing on the scales and chords first, you will able to progress much more quickly.