Oh yes, the day has come. 30 days of the man himself – the one, the only, the icon that is James Marshall Hendrix. I've been a fan of his ever since my early days of guitar playing, but I'd never actually sat down and tried to work out any of his stuff by ear myself, believing I needed to be dependent on tablatures... another instance of failing to see something that was right in front of me! I'm not going to belabour Jimi's life story as it's told in many other places in great depth and detail, but for those of you unfamiliar with his background I'll give a quick synopsis before we get into the nice juicy licks...
Born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27 1942 in Seattle, Washington to parents Al and Lucille (and the first of five children, all who would end up being given up for adoption or foster care), his upbringing was a tempestuous one as Al struggled to find steady work after being honourably discharged from the US Army on September 1 1945. The family nounced from cheap apartment to cheap motel room, and both Al and Lucille took refuge in alcohol, leading to frequent fights between them. The young Jimi (having been renamed James Marshall Hendrix in 1946) was deeply affected by these experiences, often taking to hiding in closets. In 1951 they were divorced, with Al being granted custody of Jimi and Leon. In 1958, Lucille passed away from a ruptured spleen as the years of alcohol abuse caught up with her, having developed cirrhosis of the liver. Jimi (16 at this point) and Leon were not allowed to go to their mothers' funeral, their father instead buying them shots of whiskey and telling them that was how men dealt with loss.. So, not exactly an idyllic childhood. And understandably, young Jimi picked up a few quirks.
His habit of cradling a broom much as a child would hold a security blanket, in emulation of a guitar, caught the attention of his high school social worker who suggested that the lack of a guitar might actually be causing him psychological damage and requested schhol funding. This sady failed, and Al refused to buy him a guitar, but whilst helping his father with a house clearance in 1957, Jimi discovered a ukulele with one of the four strings still attached. He was allowed to keep the instrument, with it's single string, and began playing along by ear to rock and roll records, particularly “Hound Dog”. Finally, in 1958 he acquired a cheap acoustic guitar and that's when things got started in earnest. Hendrix would practice for hours along to records by the blues greats such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and BB King. In fact one thing I remember thinking when I was tackling BB King was that at some point Jimi would have been doing what I was doing – studying the same songs, picking out the same notes by ear. There's an eerie thrill to be had there.
Anyway, back to the story! The first tune Hendrix learnt was Peter Gunn, and after his first gig with his first band the Velevtones it was obvious that he needed an electric guitar to be heard over the band. Al finally relented in 1959 and bought Jimi a white Supro Ozark guitar, and he had his first gig with a professional band – who promptly fired him for showing off! His next band was The Rocking Kings, who gigged regularly around Seattle. Sadly the Supro was stole one night at a gig and Al – now convinced of his son's ability and determination – replaced it with a red Danelectro.
However, it was not all plain sailing, as by age 19 Jimi had been caught riding in stolen cars and amassed enough of a criminal record to be faced with the choice between joining the army or prison. Hendrix chose the army, and must have impressed during his basic training as he wound up being assigned to the elite 101st Airborne. However, he didn't take to soldiering and was eventually given a general discharge. He didn't enjoy army life, but during this time he met and impressed bass player Billy Cox. In 1963, a year after Hendrix was discharged, Cox was discharged too and the pair moved to Tennessee to form the King Kasuals – this was where Hendrix picked up the trick of playing with his teeth. From there, they moved to Nashville in 1964 and Jimi began to take jobs as a sideman – backing James Brown, Little Richard and Ike & Tina Turner as well as the Isley Brother with whom he recorded the single “Testify”.
Hendrix soon found sideman work to be restrictive and unfulfilling, citing incidents with James Brown and Little Richard where band members would be fined for minor infractions like incorrect dress, errors in dance routines etc being essentially methods by which bandleaders would find excuses not to pay their members. He made the move to Greenwich Village in New York in 1966 and we all know the story from there – impressed Animals bass player Chas Chandler so much he brought Jimi to England, set him up with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience, they released “Hey Joe” as a single and from there Jimi would go on to become a megastar guitar icon before his tragic death at the age of 27.
It's startling to reflect that Hendrix was a relative latecomer to the guitar, and even more humbling to realise he accomplished everything he did in just twelve years- from picking out melodies on a one string ukulele to practically inventing psychedelic rock with a burning Stratocaster, a cranked Marshall and a wah. Having been playing for, at the time of writing, 26 years myself, I can't help wondering a) where he found the time, and b) what the hell have I been doing all this time??
Well, after a pause for reflection, let's get into the nitty
gritty of his playing. All the examples here are drawn from the
“Blues” album, as with all the theatrics involved with Hendrix's
performances, he was at heart a blues guitarist, and he played the blues beautifully, with a
deftness and intricacy I don't think I quite realised until I began
to transcribe his material.
The tools he used were pretty much the same as everyone else we've covered so far – minor and major pentatonics with a smattering of blues scale – although he would find his way to include elements of Dorian and Mixolydian tonalities in his more psychedelic exploits, and songs like “The Wind Cries Mary” showcased his ability to use chord fragments to construct solos.
To do justice to his playing in a thorough in depth analysis would mean this article not getting finished until sometime around 2025, so I'm going to purposely limit the scope here. We#re going to take a simple minor pentatonic phrase which crops up in many of his improvisations, and see how he develops it.
Here's the basic phrase:
Here's the first development of it (all these are taken from Red House, tabbed in Bb for convenience but probably played in B and detuned to Eb), starting to incorporate sequencing ideas:
This next one effectively takes the Magic Three Notes idea my students will be very familiar with and moves it up onto the E and B strings to create a blistering repetitive pattern
This final development takes you all the way down the scale, and includes an actually there bum note on the recording! Just goes to show that if Hendrix can make a mistake and laugh it off, improvising his way out of it, then surely we all can take some lessons from that – don't fear the so-called “wrong” note, just hold your nerve and keep going!
We'll return to Jimi again as there's SO much to be learnt from his playing, but as time is a factor we'll move on to the final act of 2020 – the Texas Tornado, Stevie Ray Vaughan himself!
Stay safe and sane out there, and may you all have the best Christmas and New Year's that COVID restrictions allow for....
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