Left-Handed Guitar: The Complete Method [Paperback]

Troy Stetina (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2001

Attention all Southpaws: it's time to turn your playing around! We're proud to announce that our groundbreaking guitar method solely devoted to lefties is now available with a CD! Complete with photos, diagrams and grids designed especially for the left-handed player, this book/CD pack teaches fundamentals such as: chords, scales, riffs, strumming; rock, blues, fingerpicking and other styles; tuning and theory; reading standard notation and tablature; and much more! Now with CD!

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0634030086
• ISBN-13: 978-0634030086
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars something to consider, August 16, 2006

By 

Gregory Pearson (vancouver canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Left-Handed Guitar: The Complete Method (Paperback)

I am a lefty and when i first started out i saw this book and thought it would save me.But if you go to the end of the book it tells you to get used to reading guitar tabs "right handed".which is great advice but you just spent a whole book getting used to left handed tab form.Arrrgh! I love being lefthanded but if you do not get used to reading right hand tab rightaway it will be very frustrating.It takes alittle time but you can do it.You just have to look at the tabs like you were looking through the back of your guitar neck.Try it,you will see.While this book can teach some helpful things ultimately you will have to unlearn and this is unproductive.Please take my advice from one lefty to another.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Entry Level Guitar Instruction book for Lefties, April 13, 2010

By 

J. Trujillo - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Left-Handed Guitar: The Complete Method (Paperback)

Lets just cut straight to chase: being a left-handed guitarist can be a huge pain in the arse from the get-go. Finding a good entry-level left handed guitar (acoustic or electric) is hard enough be that from the pains of the extremely limited selection in music and guitar shops to the ire of having to trust online stores purchases for guitars (rarely rated as well) that you never even feel until after you bought them and its shipped to your door. I say this because that's exactly what I had to go through just GETTING my guitar as a lefty. Time and time again I was told to just learn the guitar right handed and save myself the time and frustration. However, no matter what, it just felt 'right' to play left and so I continued to search for materials applicable to us South Paws.

Enter the Left Handed Guitar: the Complete Method. What this book is: a simplistic and basic ENTRY level guitar instruction book setup with the left-handed guitarist in mind. Note I said 'in mind' not 'for'. You get exposure to simple theory and chords that will give you a good starting point to continue on from. And coming from nothing, that's better because at least it is something.

What it is NOT: a GO-TO for how to play the guitar left handed through out your musical development. Having known nothing about music, let alone the guitar, prior to this book it was a huge pain and hurdle to have to 'translate' chords for left-handed implementation. In fact, it got so frustrating that I gave up after a few weeks back in 2006. It was frustrating having to 'read through' the guitar neck when I didn't even know what a left-handed version was supposed to look like, let alone sound (yes, I know it should all sound the same but having the physical ability to confirm you're placing your fingers correctly is a HUGE comfort and motivator). This book allowed me to progress and at the very least have a reassurance of how things should look on the guitar neck as seen from a lefty amateur.

For those reviews saying you will have to 're-learn' the guitar or forget what you learned after completing the book, I would disagree. I will agree 100% that regardless of what product you use as a South Paw you will have to cater to the right-handed music world. You will have to learn to chords or rather how to shape them correctly by 'looking through' the guitar neck and essentially playing the inverse of a righty. That's the continual bane of being lefty. And I do not believe there is any book that will ever be created that can avoid this. But to say you have to re-learn, that is a bit of stretch. It lays out the fundamentals and then basically says, ok, this is the best of what we can show you since you are a stubborn SOB for staying left-handed, so the rest is up to you. If you want to be a lefty guitarist, I am of the opinion, the odds are already stacked against you starting out and it is only perseverance and a strong desire to play that will allow you to succeed. So naturally, you accept this and thus see this book for what it is: some basics to start playing and get over an initial hurdle or two.

If you're looking for fundamentals and basic theory, note locations, and simple licks for lefty's, this is a solid buy. You will have to keep learning from other sources as you progress, but starting out, I would recommend this to any south paw if for the most basic reason that its better than most of the other (if any) of the left handed instruction guides out there. I still refer to the book for some of the layouts and styles (esp the scales) when I get lazy and confused, but beyond that, I have been able to adjust to the right-handed 'norm'.

Worthwhile for a fundamentals book but not essentially a classic or essential buy.

3/5

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very pleasant suprise, September 9, 2005

By 

Beth Wright "ZenAmberBliss" (Daytona Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Left-Handed Guitar: The Complete Method (Paperback)

This book is an excellent rare find. It comes with a cd to help one hear how the practice set should sound if played correctly. My instructor was thrilled with this book and so am I.