Skip to main content

Flying High
with Hendrix

Flying High
with Hendrix

"Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?
Hey Joe, I said where you goin' with that gun in your hand?
Alright. I'm goin down to shoot my old lady,
You know I caught her messin' 'round with another man.
Yeah,! I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady,
You know I caught her messin' 'round with another man.
Huh! And that ain't too cool."

- Jimi Hendrix

Learning the Language of Jimi Hendrix

Three songs. Three different musical landscapes. One unmistakable guitar voice.

It was about 1987 or 88' and I was in Golden Discs in Limerick. I was tring to find an album that someone had played me and blew me away. I didn't know who it was only that it was a guitarist that could 'make the guitar talk'.

I described (badly) what I heard and was told by  the teller and another browser, I should buy Jimi Hendrix - Live at the Isle of Wight. I was very sceptical; the CD only had 6 songs on it. That seemed like poor value for the hard-earned, petrol-station pounds I had. It was more out of a sense of 15-year-old embarrassment that I took these men's advice. 

As it turned out, I was looking for Frampton Comes Alive!, and it was a few years later that I snagged an original of the double live LP on vinyl. Anyway I ended up with Jimi on that day.

Looking back, Jimi Hendrix changed my idea of what an electric guitar could do. His playing could be explosive and unpredictable, and maybe a bit chaotic for my sensibility at the time. I might not quite have been ready for Hendrix, but beneath the feedback, fuzz and showmanship was a deeply musical guitarist with strong roots in blues, rhythm and blues, soul and rock ’n’ roll. It turned out to be a rite of passage.

This Learning Path explores that musical language through three songs: “Hey Joe,” “All Along the Watchtower” and “Little Wing.” Rather than attempting to copy every note, we will use the songs to understand some of the ideas that made Hendrix’s playing so distinctive and discover how we can bring those ideas into our own playing.

Making a Song Your Own

Two of the songs in this pathway were not written by Hendrix. That is an important part of the story.

In Hendrix’s hands, “Hey Joe” and “All Along the Watchtower” became something new. He did more than add a guitar solo: he reshaped their rhythms, textures, dynamics and emotional character until the arrangements sounded entirely his own.

That ability to transform a song will be one of the recurring themes of this pathway. We will look beyond the notes and ask:

How does a guitarist create movement over a simple progression? How can rhythm guitar become melodic? How do tone, dynamics and phrasing help tell the story of a song?

Playlist

The Pathway

Across these three songs, we will explore the relationship between harmony, rhythm and melody.

We will look at chord progressions and the shapes Hendrix used to decorate them; rhythmic ideas drawn from blues, soul and R&B; and lead-guitar phrases that combine bends, slides, double-stops and expressive vibrato.

The aim is not to become a Hendrix impersonator. It is to understand some of the musical choices behind the sound—and use them to become a more imaginative guitarist.

Flying with Hendrix - Hey Joe

| Daragh Henchy | Flying with Hendrix
Learn the Song