Why Playing a RH Guitar Upside-Down Is Genius

🎸🎵🎵 Buy me a skinny decaf soy latte (or a beer is fine)...

If you are an early days left-hand guitar player then I STRONGLY recommend you watch this before deciding what sort of guitar you will choose. A left-handed guitar, or right handed guitar?

I'll also show you a few players who do what I do, that is, play a RH guitar upside down. You will see that there is no barrier to doing the guitar a little different to everyone else. In fact, there are some massive upsides to doing this!!

Upside-down guitarists featured in this video...

Also, if you want an instant campfire guitar song repertoire then checkout all of my songsheets here...

🎵🎵 FREE Songbook Songbook Songbook FREE🎵🎵
I am celebrating my first 12 months on YouTube with the release of my first 50 EPIC Campfire Songs songbook. It is the MUST HAVE collection for all budding Campfire Guitar Hero's.

Download it for FREE (or you can tip me if you appreciate my work) here

💥💥SO WHAT'S THE STORY WITH CAMPFIRE GUITAR HERO?💥💥

Channel creator, Dene, is a self taught guitar “hacker” who, as a teenager, first picked up a friends right handed guitar and said “show me how to play Slash’s epic solo in Sweet Child ‘o’ Mine”.

Well, once the laughter had subsided, his friend said “you CAN'T play my guitar, you are LEFT handed. This is a RIGHT HAND GUITAR”. 😩

Dene said, “gimme that damn guitar, yes I can” and as they say, the rest is history.

You see, Dene has since progressed from bedroom guitarist, to street busker, to garage band, to national tours and eventually INTERNATIONAL CONCERT TOURS playing at some of the BIGGEST live music arenas in the world.

It’s amazing the opportunities that Sony Playstation's Guitar Hero can give to someone who works hard enough and long enough on their passion😀😝.

Fast forward 20+ years (closer to 30+, but whose counting).

Actually, Dene never really touched a REAL guitar for about 20 years. What a tragic waste of time and untapped talent that was.

His fingers got older, his pitch perfect voice followed the way of his knees and hips… it got creaky.

But Dene was not deterred.

JUST LIKE YOU, one day he woke up and said “I can do this, I WILL do this!” and he started playing guitar again.

He is now at the point in his guitar playing where he can share his (campfire) guitar skills and knowledge to the world (cue the Campfire Guitar Hero trailer 😍).

But let's all be very clear here... Guitar is a journey, not a destination, and Dene has so much more to learn himself on guitar. Whilst he is a super-competent campfire guitar-ist with an OK but NOT chair-turning voice on the Voice (you be the judge), his next guitar chapter is to learn solo-ing and lead riffs on his acoustic guitar.

This is a whole different level and requires going back to basics, accurate string picking, scales, metronomes etc. You can follow his journey to lead guitar on Instagram.

But in parallel to his guitar learning journey, his goal is to help all aspiring guitarists/singers to just enjoying playing and sharing great songs.

That’s what get’s Dene out of bed everyday. Playing and enjoying great songs on his epic, song slaying axe (actually, it’s an acoustic mini Martin, so it’s actually not that impressive, epic or scary).

Dene loves to rediscover THOSE FORGOTTEN SONGS WE ALL LOVE TO REMEMBER, and he wants to share these with you.

Yep, Dene knows great songs from all era’s and is definitely one of those “Cool Dad’s”… just ask him.

So, that’s the story with Campfire Guitar Hero.

It’s all about rediscovering those great and often forgotten songs we all love to remember.

It’s about learning how to play these on guitar in about 5 minutes, giving you the essentials in a quick and entertaining format on YouTube.

So what are you waiting for?

Do you wanna be a Campfire Guitar Hero?

Subscribe. Follow.

Learn. Practice. Play. Enjoy.

CHAPTERS
0:00 The EPIC intro
2:56 Pros
6:23 Cons
9:50 Playability
11:06 Artist #1
11:31 Artist #2
12:08 Artist #3
12:47 Artist #4 and #5
12:58 Artist #6

#campfireguitar #beginnerguitar #lefthandguitar

[JordyJayHomer]

When I was young and had been playing guitar for a few years, I saw a guy at a party playing upside down. I arrogantly said to him, "you can't that way", and the guy asked, "why?" I said, "because it's wrong". He replied, "there are no rules in music, man!" It shut me up and made an impression on me. 😄

[grahamdonald]

Hi there. Am so glad to have found this video. I have been playing left handed, upside down ( cack-handed ), since i was around 15. I am now 68, and play my old beat-up Epiphone acoustic nearly every day. The chords i struggle with the most are probably Bm, Bb and F. Having short fingers probably doesn't help with that, but it doesn't slow me down too much. I don't use a plectrum at all, and i can do enough finger picking to get by. Anyway, thanks again for your great video, and maybe i, ll see you around the camp fire one day! Cheers. Graham. Adelaide SA 🎸

[nicktheunthicc]

I started playing the guitar around 2-3 weeks ago and I play it exactly this way. The reason why is because I always thought it was the right way to play it. But the problen is my bandmates judge me for it after they saw me playing, because of that I never really got the chance to play it in front of then anymore even though I've learned quite a lot of songs. Which means I also don't get to perform songs while playing the guitar since they don't let me. Seeing you post this really increased my confidence. I really thank you for that.

[EthanW]

I'm left handed and play the traditional way with your low e on top, but I've become decently good at playing upside down like you just from picking up friends guitars. If your're left handed I think it's worth at least practicing a few chords and songs upside down, because then like you said it doesn't matter what guitar you have, you'll always be able to play. And if you think about it, it's not really like it's holding back your progress by spending time learning it upside down because you're still building your dexterity, timing, and rhythm in the same respective hands, your just playing different chord shapes. One of these days I'm gonna pickup another guitar (probably just a cheap one) and keep it strung right handed so I can practice more playing upside down.

[Fanston]

Firstly, there are definite limitations. Songs in the main are written using right handed guitars, therefore theres a barrier there. Thankfully its only a barrier if you want to copy the original. Bring your own version to the table, develop it, and it'll sound like YOU. Playing bass lines with a pinkie is difficult but there are ways. I've played this way for 50 years - problems yes - regrets none.

[psychicbass]

I play bass guitar like this...I am right handed and knew 2 guys that play guitar like you, I thought it was interesting so about 13 years ago I flipped my strings and I find it really makes better sense, on the downside I play both ways and playing it flipped makes some techniques difficult and had to modify my playing style s bit...but I still love it.

[eyman]

I NEEDED THIS! I’m an ambidextrous and when I first got my guitar (two days ago) I naturally started to play my right handed guitar upside down and felt comfortable rather than playing it normally. I became paranoid because I thought I was the only one 😭but luckily I decided to Google if it was okay to play it upside down and found your channel!

Thank you, you’ve encouraged me to continue playing the guitar upside down!

[ianjohnson]

You have amazing skills Dene. Its hard enough to play normally (well easier with your amazing videos) but playing the way you do up the great work.

[panter]

I play more than 50years this way,
all mine electric guitars are left handed but srtung righthanded so no problems with the knobs and cable
my classic and flamenco guitars are right handed. just flip over and play. so easy
greets
Dimitri

[PeaceZeppo]

I learned on my brother's right hand guitar and about a year later, someone told me I had to reverse the strings, so I did. My brother became irate and my fingers wouldn't cooperate. I prefer the high E on top. Thanks for the references to others like me.

[jeremiahessien]

Really nice, please do a video on fingerpicking for left handed upside down guitarist 🙏🙏. Will really appreciate it

[ReginaldMacmillan]

Albert King played this way and little Jimmy king another lefty could play with strings either way, I'm left handed and play right handed using my left hand on the fretboard I probably would have learned upside down except for the fact I always felt the guitar looked weird upside down also I found it easier to play right handed, I guess it's about what works for the individual

[seaneverett]

Cool video! I've been playing like this for years as well :) To combat the electric problem with controls like you mentioned I just pull off the knobs, even on the slider, which makes them very tiny and more shallow, even if you do bump them (specifically the dial ones) they won't move, and it's still simple enough to adjust volume/tone if you need to, just might not look so pretty seeing those metal nubs instead of a pretty plastic dial.

Also the walking bass line trick, especially with D, I usually use my thumb for the high E string in the 2nd, ring on the B string in the 3rd, and index on the G string in the 2nd, which leaves my middle finger free to easily reach for the low E in the 2nd if I wanna play like D/F#, such a common walk-down in lotsa music say G, D/F#, Em.

I also find lots of chords even less of a stretch than "proper" players, and even "fuller" where they usually do some weirdness to mute like the A string. Say, Am11 for instance. (labelled from the low E: EADGBe) [5-3-5-5-3-3], you can barre the entire 3rd, and pinki/ring/middle on the 5's, and play everything! As Notes: [G-C-G-C-D-G] stacked those notes are 1st, min3, 7th, min3, 11th, 7th. which add up to an Am11! Most rightys mute the A string with whatever finger holds the D string, and do an odd stretch back with their index to reach the 3rd on the B string, and ignore the high E.

I can play every open position chord, and also use all my open position shapes as barre chords, even modify them to get Suspended, Diminished, Major 7ths, Dominant 7ths, add9 chords, etc... Might not be the same "go-to" shape as a righty but I can still make them somewhere on the neck :)

I would have to say the biggest drawback is open string droning, especially if you use lots of barre chords, as it's almost impossible most the time either the meat of your palm mutes the low E or how you make that barre there's no way to let the low strings be open, where as a "proper" player can easily not barre as high with their index finger leaving the E or A etc.. string open to drone on. Us upside-down lefty's those low strings start at the base of our index finger when we barre haha!

The second biggest drawback, especially with guitars that have a cut-out, is the balance point, even if you put a strap button in an ideal location, the weight distribution is just off, and it causes neck-dive, which is a real pain to deal with, I mostly stay seated, or if I need to play one unbalanced like that standing, I safety pin my strap to my shirt in a couple places to "lock" the strap so it can't slide over my shoulder preventing the neck from diving. If it's really off (heavy like les pauls) and still pulls funny, I'll just use one safety pin and a small piece of cordage, and pin the cordage to the strap, and tie the other end to a belt loop haha :)

[CornishCockney]

Thanks for introducing me to this video Dene. Really interesting. I've played "proper" lefty guitar for nearly 40 years so too late for me to change, anyway, since arthritis got the better of my thumbs I gave up guitar and focussed on lefty ukulele. This is where it gets interesting because you mentioned about the comments of your strumming sound being different; well, you strummed some chords at around 6 minutes but never really strummed all 6 strings, missing the bass strings, and, do you know, your strumming sounds a lot like my baritone ukulele tuned DGBE, 4 strings with no bass strings.

[JH-zhhq]

Great video! I am glad I started learning guitar this way, since it makes it easy for me to play my guitars both ways - right handed and left handed - by just turning them around. I'm a left handed player who already knows how to play with my right hand and still uses right handed playing for professional purposes, since that's how I was trained since childhood. I also spent some years practicing playing left handed with the low strings up, but stopped doing so, because of needing 2 models that way.

[JohnnyAppeseed]

12:33 sadly Miche died 2 years ago. I discovered him about a year ago so never got the chance to talk to him. I also play upsidedown left handed. I’ve been playing that way for 25 years. When your friends are all righty’s and you grow up poor, you can only learn on their rig lol but honestly, I have very few limitations today. Although I use to blame a lot of my poor playing on it. But It wasn’t until only a few years ago when I heard Eric Gales play that I decided to start really taking it serious, and stop hiding behind my faux limitations I set on myself. When I stopped doing that I found out a determined player can figure anything out. Today, I can jam blues for hours. Sometimes a whole day will go by and I don’t even realize it until the sun goes down.

[ZiggyTrippzMusic]

Cobain started with a right handed strung backwards also, like Jimmy did

[dinos]

I do most everything right handed except I written, and play guitar left handed. So, as a kid my mom had an acoustic guitar that was never really played that I can recall, and I picked it up, left hand3d and figured out how to play simple songs. I then tuned the 2 high ‘skinny’ strings to be open tuned like the others and that was all she wrote. Played in a couple bands (rythum primarily) and like he said, , always got a kick out of watching other guitarists faces when watching me play the first time or two.

Great video, enjoyed reliving the good, the bad and the ugly of it all. LOL

[Thebigkeoghowski]

The irish singer Bob Geldof plays this way as well.

[OlMoldy]

There's a video with MonoNeon and another super talented musician who both play upside-down. Find that video and you will experience musical ascension