lefie chords (without changing strings)

[bcnesa]

Hi everybody!
I am brand new to the mandolin family and now working out my chords. Worth to mention that have no previous experience with any instrument either-
Did not sign up yet for any classes with a teacher and trying to workout the simple things on my own.
Reading your threads here i bought regular mandolin (for the "righties") but playing it like a leftie, grabbing the chords upside down.
With the simple ones C, D. G no problem, but I´m struggling a lot with F the fingers so spread out and the index on the first fret and E string is super difficult.
To be frank i dont still understand all your "codes" 0120 etc so bear with me and be gentle to a complete newbie
I would really be grateful for some tips on how to work this out and any other vaulable tips would be fantastic.
Greetings from sunny Barcelona

[Jim Garber]

Welcome to mandoland, bcnesa! You say that you don't play any instrument. May I ask you then why you decided to play lefty? If you are starting out from the beginning, I would suggest that you try to play righty. Of course, if you do play guitar that way already I would stick to playing mandolin the same way.

[Jon Hall]

I'm sure that it's not impossible to learn to play upside down but it will be a lot more complicated to study instructional material and very confusing if you ever take lessons from an instructor. I have taught several left handed people to play either guitar or mandolin right handed.

[stevejay]

Learn double stops upside first. Your basic chords aren't too hard to figure out. Two note chords will probably lead you to the 3 string version anyway. Melody playing is melody playing, the high strings are a bit harder now, but you gained on the low. I play upside down sometimes, but have a lefty mandolin which I recommend.

If you're lefty and comfortable, stay with it. I tried right-handed and it's harder for me.

[Jim Garber]

The main problem with a lefty strung mandolin is that they are much less common. If an when you want to upgrade you may not be able to find a lower priced one and may have to spend much more for a custom model.

[Jim Broyles]

0120 is a chord symbol, and it means you leave the G string open, fret the D string at 1, fret the A string at 2, and leave the E string open. Always read left to right/low to high. If you are playing a lefty mandolin, strung high to low/left to right, simply reverse the order of the symbol to play the chord.