Learn Guitar Online, Jimi Hendrix - 3 Tips For Rock Guitar

[Paul Blair]

For many young guitarists the electric guitar began with Jimi Hendrix,
of course the electric guitar has been around for a long time - the
first commercially accepted electric guitars appeared in the 1930s.
Charlie Christian set the guitar world alight with his innovative
single note lines, the general public became aware of the "new" sound
of the electric guitar when Christian joined the Benny Goodman
orchestra in 1939.
It's important for the guitar enthusiast to study the history of their
instrument, this puts everything into it's proper perspective.
There could never have been a Jimi Hendrix without a Charlie
Christian, just as there would not have been a Joe Satriani without a
Jimi Hendrix.
Hendrix opened a whole new world for the electric guitarist, feedback,
wah-wah pedals, complex jazz chords mixed with power chords ... here's
3 tips to help you with your rock guitar playing.
Tip 1: Alternative tunings - learn the notes on your fretboard
Even though Jimi played many of his songs with his guitar tuning a
semi-tone lower than standard guitar tuning, it's possible to play his
songs without re-tuning your guitar.
For most guitarists, carrying one guitar to a gig and keeping that
guitar in tune is enough trouble without having to constantly keep re-
tuning their instrument to some unique tuning specifically for a
particular song on the program.
A quick glance at a selection of guitar tab sites will reveal a myriad
of different tunings by guitarists, and while it's all well and good
for guitar player 'x' playing in band 'y' to use drop "C", tuning for
their songs.
The very real problem facing the serious guitar student is how do they
(a) play a variety of songs by different bands without having to
constantly keep changing their tuning? ... remember guitar player 'x'
in band 'y' only plays original songs by band 'y', he or she does not
have this tuning problem as they don't play (or very rarely do) cover
versions of songs by other band. and (b) how will the student
guitarist ever get to know the 'sound' of each note on the fretboard
if they are constantly moving the pitch of these notes to different
locations on the fretboard when they are re-tuning their guitar?
The solution is to know the names of the notes on the guitar
fretboard, that way you can play any song with standard tuning,
remember you don't go into a music store and as for a piano in drop
"C" or drop "D" because a piano has all the notes you need,so does a
standard tuned guitar.
Here's how this works, suppose you want to play a Jimi Hendrix song
where Jimi has his guitar tuning down a semitone, let's say Jimi is
playing the 5th string open, with his guitar tuned down a semitone the
5th string open would produce the note Ab that exact same note could
be played on the 6th string fourth fret,
Another example if Jimi is playing the 3rd string open, with his
guitar tuned down a semitone the 3rd string open would produce the
note Gb that exact same note could be played on the 4th string fourth
fret.
Tip 2 : Blues scale note duplication
One of Jimi's trademark sounds is to play a note and then bend or
slide to that same pitch note on another string. This gives the
illusion that an entirely different note is being played.
This is because a note of the same pitch when played on a string with
a different thickness the tone of that note will be different and our
ear often perceives a note with different tone to be a note of a
different pitch. It's very much like when you make the "doo wah" sound
with your voice the pitch is the same for both the "doo" and the "wah"
however, because you changed the shape of your mouth the "tone of
these pitches appear to be different.
Here's an example: play the note "G" on the 3rd fret first string then
slide from the 6th fret second string "F" to the 8th fret second
string "G". Listen carefully to both "G" notes, notice how the pitch
of both notes are the same although the tone of both notes will be
slightly different. The note on the thicker string will be more
mellow.
Tip 3: Hybrid chords
Certain chords become instantly recognizable as part of a musician's
style. With Jimi Hendrix, the dominant 7th sharp nine is one such
chord.
For my example I'll use the E7#9 chord, it's technical name is E
dominant 7th sharp 9. Basically this chord could be thought of as a
hybrid chord i.e., a combination of a "E" dominant 7th chord and a "G"
major triad.
Let's take a closer look:
G major triad contains the notes G, B, D / E dominant seventh contains
the notes E, G#, B, D / whilst the E7#9 chord contains E, G#, B, D, G
Here's a sample of this chord used in the chord progression for "Foxy
Lady".
||: E7#9/// | G/A/ |E7#9/// | G/A/ :||

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