Not long after I released my free standard ukulele chord charts and slack key ukulele chord charts I got a request for some left-handed versions, where the diagrams were horizontally mirrored. Now it’s a little controversial, but for the ukulele at least, the main argument against switching the order of your strings is that it makes it harder for you to find and use resources designed for “right-handed” players. From a tab/diagram perspective, it’s essentially a different tuning.
Well, I myself already use non-standard slack-key tunings on some of my ukes, where there are exactly five printed uke books using those tunings. None have great chord charts. So for those southpaws who really do just want a nice set of mirrored diagrams, I feel for you. Play what makes you happy. I understand how frustrating it can be to constantly tweak charts in your head- it’s why I started making chord charts in the first place.
The next version of Chordious will have an option to easily mirror charts, but in the meantime, here are mirrored versions of all of the charts I’ve released in the past:
Left-Handed Ukulele Chord Chart (Standard GCEA) [1.2M PDF]
Left-Handed Ukulele Chord Chart (Baritone DGBE) [1.2M PDF]
Left-Handed Mini Ukulele Chord Charts [1.1M PDF]
Left-Handed Ukulele Chord Chart (Slack Key GCEG) [1.2M PDF]
Left-Handed Ukulele Chord Chart (Baritone Slack Key DGBD) [1.2M PDF]
Left-Handed Mini Slack Key Ukulele Chord Charts [1.2M PDF]
As before, all of these chord charts are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Basically it means you’re free to do whatever you want with these charts, even sell them, as long as you credit me with having made them in the first place.
And again, as an added bonus, I’m also giving away the individual chord images I generated for the charts. Do whatever you want with them. Hell, you could print them out on stickers and “fix” all of your “right-handed” songbooks.
Left-Handed GCEA Ukulele Chords PNG [306k ZIP]
Left-Handed DGBE Ukulele Chords PNG [307k ZIP]
Left-Handed GCEG Slack Key Ukulele Chords PNG [306k ZIP]
Left-Handed DGBD Slack Key Ukulele Chords PNG [307k ZIP]
Enjoy and happy strumming!
/jon
P.S. The program I wrote to create the images is available and includes an easy option to mirror diagrams for left-handed use. Download Chordious today!
P.P.S. All of my free ukulele chord charts can be found here.
Jon Thysell 
Thanks for the southpaw chart. I am going to try and teach my niece the ukulele. She was born with fingers missing on her left hand and I have just been in contact with “one hand Dan” over at the CBNation website who has some videos posted there. He is very enthusiastic about my project and has even offered to make her some special pick holders!
So it’s not just lefties who need this info, Thanks again, Mark.
I’m glad you found this useful!
Jon… You are the Man..
THnks you so much.. Just got my Ukulele this week… CAlled her Kallie>>:)
Very informative website and thank you forall the tips and charts you have shared to all leftys..:)
Have a great day…
Can’t wait for the weekend to start.
THanks Jon.
Thank you!!!
Jon, thanks for all of the work and effort you put into the Uke charts. I became disabled several years ago and when I started getting depressed I picked up a guitar which I go a custom lefty model. Anyhow it was extensive guitar playing that lifted me out of depression so this year at age 65 I’m playing in front of audiences. In my area here in Maine USA there are several Ukulele groups forming where the players range from a few to a couple of dozen on any given meeting. So in addition to guitar I’m getting into the Ukulele too. I had to switch around the middle two strings to convert a righty Uke into a lefty. I just printed out sets of the lefty charts you made and I say thank you very much. I’m playing at church suppers and open mics and am aiming at playing for charity at nursing homes as I have found music helps pick people up and brings them back to life and in a lot of cases they get interested in learning too. I play mostly guitars, but now thanks to your charts I’ll be practicing the Ukulele. The work and effort you put into making these charts is a tremendous helpful tool. Thank you P.S. I don’t know if you ever heard of an Englishman named Neil Innes. Neil has done work with Monty Python and also did a parody of The Beatles with Eric Idle called The Rutles. On the second Rutles album Neil wrote a song called My Little Ukulele. It’s a very funny comical song about a Vaudeville performer standing in the wings with his Little Ukulele waiting to go on as other acts come and go. A sample line from the song: “Once a leading lady was clearly in distress, she asked if I could help her with the fasteners on her dress, you should have seen the outcome, I almost broke me strings, while standing with my little Ukulele in the wiings,”
Hi Frank! It’s always good to hear when people find what I make useful. Keep on strumming!
Thank you so very much for the diagrams and your obvious love of the instrument
finally help for this left hander,just started lesson,and have been writing out the chords backwards.This is so helpful! Thank you
Thank you! I am a vocal music teacher, attempting to teach myself the Uke this summer. I had my new Uke restrung for lefties and I really need your chord charts! Thank you for doing the work and providing them free of charge!
J. D.
Thank you for the lefty chord charts— especially for slack key tuning. It may interest you to know (if you don’t) there are several kinds of lefties. Some are ambidextrous while others are “hard” lefties. Perhaps due to this, some will adapt more easily to playing a right-handed instrument than others. I played the guitar poorly for many years. When you start out playing, having a strong left hand means forming chords and changes is relatively easy. For a rank beginner that is the “hard part”, you know, calluses, barre chords etc. The right hand doesn’t do much beyond “thrum thrum tha thrum”. Once you master chords and chord changes, and can play a few tunes, you start to realize everything is really in the strumming and finger/pick hand: melodies, harmonies, rhythms, percussion. There is a reason the chord work is delegated to the weaker, less coordinated hand. In my case this realization did not arrive until 30 years after I gave up the guitar, weary of bashing out my exquisite chords with my little floppy flipper. Now I have taken up the ukulele. The first thing I did was get a lefthanded instrument. It felt better from the instant I started, as if though the instrument actually likes me and wants to be played. As per there being a shortage of materials in a right-handed world, once I learn to read music, understand the theory underlying chord construction and know where every note is on my instrument, Tab will become unnecessary. Just my two bits…
Glad you find it useful, even if you eventually outgrow it. Happy strumming!
I am so grateful!! Trying to play right handed upside down is no fun. Took a full year to find someone who said–restring your uke and think upside down, didn’t work well, either. Now I can practice easily.
Glad to be of help!
Hi Jon, Our son is left handed and has to flip the ukulele at school but has been provided with right handed Uke chord chart! Could you please let me know where I can get a flipped chord chart for him? Many thanks.
The charts in this blog post already have “right-handed” diagrams that have been flipped horizontally.
If you’re looking for the opposite of what in this post, check out https://jonthysell.com/2013/06/07/free-ukulele-chord-charts-and-diagrams-standard-gcea-baritone-dgbe/