Due to the mirror effect, left handed guitar players will generally find it much easier learning from a right handed teacher. I’ve often wondered if the opposite is true in that right handed players would find it easier learning from a lefty teacher? I see no reason why not…
As a left handed player I have always found it incredibly easy learning from other players whether it be in real-life or on the screen. I learned to play guitar using the DVD course from MetalMethod and never thought twice about the difference it made being left handed and using these lessons – I just got on with it. Years later I realised that the reason I found guitar so simple to learn from other players was because I was playing left handed and for the most part, they were playing right handed. The instructor would appear on screen perfectly mirroring my position and therefore making it exceptionally effortless to duplicate what they were playing.
Now flip this idea on its head – I find learning from another left handed player more difficult. And not even slightly more difficult, it’s blatantly much harder (for me personally). Without the mirror effect I am looking to the right on screen to be seeing what I should be playing on the left on my own guitar and vice versa. Even if the player was sitting next to me I would still be giving myself a sore neck constantly turning to the side.
This is why I find it so perplexing why all instructional guitar DVDs don’t have their video image flipped so that the teacher appears left handed on screen. As a lefty, if I find it so much easier learning from a right handed teacher then doesn’t it make sense that right handed players would experience the same effect learning from a lefty tutor? Seeing as right handed players are probably 95% of the market doesn’t it make sense to cater to them?
To illustrate my point here is a screen grab from one of Justin Sandercoe’s YouTube lessons. In the first image he is right handed, and in the second he is left handed – which one would you find easier to follow? Maybe it’s just me, but the mirror effect wins every time – as a lefty, image one is my choice.
Theodore Tziras is a monster player who is left handed, but when he makes a video lesson for his YouTube channel he always flips the image so that he appears right handed. He says he does this so as not to confuse people but I honestly think if he left the video untouched it would be so much easier to follow for right handed players. Perhaps right handed players are just so used to 95% of videos being by right handed players that they’ve never experienced how easy it would be to follow an opposite handed player.
Unless i’m just a very peculiar individual who perceives things completely differently to everyone else, I think this concept is just a massive advantage to left handed players. Not only can we learn from other people much more easily, we can also teach other people much more easily (as long as you sit opposite your student 
). Great news for all of you budding left handed guitar teachers out there!
Let me know what you think in the comments section below – do you agree or disagree with what I’ve said. Ask your right handed friends to consider this idea and see what they think as well.
Right On Neal or Left On ! A lefty guitar teacher has the potential to be the champion teacher of righty guitarists. It would be interesting to hear from a left handed guitar tutor.
I have a Black Sabbath DVD that has 4 different perspectives 1 being a players perspective looking down on the guitar but it is impossible to follow because it is back to front for a lefty, so righty to righty must be difficult to follow initially, i wonder if that is the reason for the high beginner failure rate ? But if instructional DVDs offered a Right and Left perspective the mirror effect would rule the instructional DVD world.
I was looking at an instructional DVD that had over the shoulder angles, I found it pretty hard to follow as well. I mentioned to the guy that as a lefty it was tricky to follow, so he said he wouldn't do it in his next DVD lol. I've seen quite a few recently that offer that angle so maybe people are starting to cotton on…
Totally agree! Been using Jamplay website recently and following a right handed player is sooo much easier!
PS. Best leftie site I've come across…keep up the great work!
Thanks Mark, comments like this motivate me to keep the site running
Ssshhhh………this is the one benefit we get as left-handed players (other than exclusivity of course). Don't start suggesting DVD makers flip the image around to assist right handers or there's a chance they will and there will go our advantage!
Haha, well at least we have thousands of current DVDs to use if they ever do realise lefty is best
Totally right man.
Mirror effect simplify the learning.
As a matter of fact I can tell you that a right handed guitar player who entered my band a year after (and I was the ony guitar in the band) when I had to teach him all the riffs he just told me “wow, it is much easier having a mirror fretboard in front of me!”
Ah, good to know Alessio! I'm interested to see what right handed players think, I imagine they should feel the same as your bandmate. I've taught a few friends some stuff in the past but never thought to ask about it!
I am planning on learning to play and this TOTALLY makes since to me. I am a right-hander but in my mind I always hold like a left hand. I think I have always mirrored what I saw in front of me. The couple of times I have played games like Guitar Rock at my friends it feels so strange to hold the guitar controller "correctly." I think you may really be on to something here.
Of course I am, I'm a freaking genius you know :p Joking aside, this is definitely one of the benefits to learning, and then later on teaching as a lefty.
I just stumbled upon this site recently, and I gotta say that it's been very helpful for me. I'm about to start learning and I was surprised to see a site entirely for lefties! haha. Thanks for all the tips on this site. I love it!
Thanks Chris, just trying to show that it isn't all bad being a lefty player. Best of luck with your guitar journey
That picture illustrated your point brilliantly. If I had a choice of watching the same video but one had been flipped so the teacher was leftie I would definitely choose the one were he was rightie
Most people (southpaws at least) seem to think the same. Good news for those of us who prefer to learn from the internet/video
Yes, as a left handed professional guitar tutor for adults,
right handed Students found it easier to study with me.
I am currently teaching my partner the bass, she finds it easier to copy me as in the mirrored image I create by standing in front of her.
Great to have another perspective from a teacher, thanks Marty
Makes perfect sense yeah! I never really thought about it like this, but thinking about it now it's definitely the case. Southpaws ftw
And in the same fashion, I can’t follow left-handed chord symbols at all. Maybe it’s from decades of reading them right-handed, but it might also be that I think of the symbols as mirror images as well. You only have to rotate them 90 degrees right in your mind (or hold your guitar up). Easy-peasy!
Definitely agree with ya Ive always found it easy learning from video ;’) Never really thought about it but I definitely think its easier cos of the mirrored teacher
Cheers, i am a lefty and i already purchased a lefty a few months ago and gave up within first week. Then i realised i was holding the lefty guitar as a righty would.. i fail miserably. Anyway i held it up in the correct position for a lefty or southpaw and it felt alot more compfortable and i’m pretty sure i’d rather the lefty guitar. If it wasn’t for this i’d probably would have gone and got a righty. Thanks
so true, i always watch right handed videos to learn, so much easier. i tried seeing a left handed vid, and its so much harder. mirror imaging is the best way to learn. the biggest problem i find now, is lefty chord charts.. i’m tring to find posters or something like that to hang in my room to look at. but theres not many around.
There’s a simple lefty chord chart for beginners on the site http://leftyfretz.com/free-left-handed-guitar-chord-diagram-chart/ But it’s only there to show people how they translate over from right handed diagrams. I think they’re completely not needed. I am self-taught and it never even occurred to me when learning that there might have been such a thing as a left handed diagram.
Hi,
as a definately left handed beginner I was a bit confused whether I should buy a lefty or a righty guitar. I read on another lefty site a couple of simple things to check which really helped me: if you naturally air-guitar by picking with your left and fretting with your right then you’re a lefty. If you clap your hands and the left hand does the majority of the work/movement then you’re a lefty. Those two tests clinched it for me, and now I have you to thank for the solution to my concerns about how to go about learning to play it. Sit opposite a righty! Geez – you are a true blue (as we say here) genius!
Great site. Thanks for taking the time to put all this great lefty stuff on the interweb.
Mark
Thanks Mark, enjoy your new hobby
I agree with you on the mirror effect but….I can’t get my head around TABS
It confuses me seeing tabs upside down and worse if I try to write them. I’m not sure what should be on the left or right or even upside down for us lefties.
Do you have an example of how they should look for a Left hander?
Cheers
Bill
Tab is no different, you read it from left to right. I can’t give you an example because left handed tab doesn’t exist.
Hi , being a lefty i found your site as a means to find LEFT HAND tutorials . Viewing your comparisons i was immediately struck by the truth of your observation ! The mirror image of the RIGHT HAND player is far easier to follow . THANKS
Absolutely true!
I am a long time leftie player, and yes, playing guitar with righties is too easy!
I realised these things also-
1. how you play air guitar is how you play real guitar,
2. i write with my right hand, but i do most other things mirror image, {including martial arts training}, but many[righty] people do not ‘see mirror image.’ I guess it won’t work for everyone, but it works for me! thanks
I always wanted to learn to play the guitar, but I pulled off my left ring finger while pruning a tree.
I am naturally right handed. Would I have to learn to fret with my right hand on a lefty guitar and strum with my left?
I always wanted to learn to play a guitar, but I pulled off my left ring finger while pruning a tree.
Should I get a left handed guitar and use my right hand for fretting and my left for strumming?
I am naturally right handed.
Yes, get a lefty and play that way. The ring finger is very important in guitar playing. It may seem awkward at first, but if you really want to play, you can get through it! My experience as a teacher (I’m also lefty) has shown that at a beginner level, you can go with either hand.