Lefty Flip

Lefty Flip is a togglable gameplay feature appearing in most Guitar Hero games—excluding mobile games—that "flip" the highway, for (usually left-handed/southpaw) guitarists to play songs on a guitar controller with the neck of the guitar pointing towards the right side.

The standard fret and gem color scheme in most Guitar Hero games is GRYBO for right-handed users, but Lefty Flip literally "flips" the color schemes, notes, and gem colors to OBYRG. This feature only applies on Guitar, Bass, Co-op Lead, and Co-op Rhythm instruments.

Other games[]

PC games[]

Guitar Hero III PC keyboard controls — The PC version of *Guitar Hero III: Legend of Rock*'s default keyboard controls splash screen.

On the PC version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, and Guitar Hero World Tour, Lefty Flip is the default option for keyboard users where the default keyboard fret controls are:

Left Shift: Orange
Z: Blue
X: Yellow
C: Red/Cancel
V: Green/Confirm

This may likely be due to the player's left hand's position, using the index finger to confirm/enter menus instead using the pinky on the Left Shift key, which the player could accidentally trigger the sticky keys computing feature if pressed 5 times consecutively.

Lefty Flip can be toggled off for keyboard in the control settings and the player would need to remap their keyboard's fret buttons accordingly.

Guitar Hero Live[]

In Guitar Hero Live, by default for right-handed users on a Guitar Hero Live guitar controller, the black frets/notes are the lower frets/notes while white frets/notes are the higher frets/notes (i.e. B1B2B3W1W2W3). With Lefty Flip toggled, the white frets/notes are the lower frets/notes and the black frets/notes are the higher notes (i.e. W1W2W3B1B2B3) where "3" is on the left while "1" is on the right.

Likewise, the graphic for the barre chord is flipped. When Lefty Flip is not toggled, the top half of a barre chord is white while the bottom half of the barre chord is black (example: B1W1). When Lefty Flip is toggled on, the top half of a barre chord is black while the bottom half of the barre chord is white (example: W3B3).

As a Battle Power-Up[]

Main article: Battle Mode

Guitar Hero III Battle Mode — Lefty Flip power-up in action in "Guitar Battle vs. Lou", used by Player 2 (A.I. Lou) against Player 1 (the player) in *Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock*. Both guitarists are playing with the Lefty Flip feature off.

In Battle Mode from Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock onwards, there exists an obtainable, consumable power-up either referred to as "Lefty Flip" or "Righty Flip" depending on the opponent's opposing fret layout. This ability flips the opponent's fret layout on the highway for a short amount of time before flipping their highway back to their regular position.

Against an A.I. in a boss battle, these power-ups do reduce the A.I. opponent's performance, reducing their chances of hitting notes/chords when notes are appearing in different lanes.

Tips & tricks[]

For non-lefty users aiming for achievements involving completing a song on lefty that has difficulties playing a guitar controller in the southpaw position ("Hendrix Award" in Guitar Hero II, "Hendrix Reborn" in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and "The Stranger" in Guitar Hero Live), the player could place a mirror or other reflective object behind them, facing the monitor. The player can look through their reflective object to see Lefty Flipped OBYRG notes as GRYBO.
Alternatively without a mirror or reflective object, the player could position themselves laying their back on a bed or other platform and look upside down to see their Lefty Flipped OBYRG notes as GRYBO but with the notes scrolling "up" with the fret line on top of the screen.