‘Jimi
Hendrix’ Style Lesson
By
David M. McLean
"Purple
Haze"
Jimi Hendrix released his debut album,
"Are You Experienced?", in 1967. The opening track was
a song called "Purple Haze, and it set the music world on
fire. Recorded at Olympic Studios in London and released as a
single (following the debut single, "Hey Joe") on March
18 in the UK…and raced into the Top 10.
Rock critic Dave Marsh calls Jimi’s first album,
"…the greatest, most influential debut album ever released…",
and with 3 of the songs ("Hey Joe", "The Wind Cries
Mary", & "Purple Haze") making it into the
Top 10 in the British charts before the album was even released
(& before Jimi’s appearence at the Monterey Pop Festival in
June of 1967), it’s hard to say he’s wrong.
So, let’s
take a look at the opening riff of this amazing song. Various
guitarists finger this riff differently (and Jimi did, too), so
we’ll settle on this fairly standard version.
Part
1 Audio (midi file)
Note how
the 2 bar motif is repeated in bars 3 & 4, then a 2 bar variation
in bars 5 & 6, and then a variation on the variation for bars
7 & 8, which nicely caps off the opening riff. The riff is
repeated following the solo, and in some cases when Jimi played
live, it’s also repeated at the end of the song. Played on acoustic,
one will note that it is very blues-based & strictly minor
pentatonic (except for the occassional 1/2 bend into the "blue"
note). Just for kicks, try playing this on acoustic guitar at
half speed, tossing in your own variations.
Now for the
famous "Hendrix Chord". While Jimi certainly didn’t
invent the #9 chord, he was most likely the first guitarist to
use it in anything but a jazz context. The formula for this chord
is 1-3-b7-#9. In simple terms, he’s chording what is a blues fundamental
– pushing the major 3 against the minor 3. Unfortunately, we don’t
have the time to look further into this staple at the moment,
but we’ll get to it in a later lesson. Here’s the opening progression
of "Purple Haze".
Part
2 Audio (midi file)
Notice
the repeating rhythm. Jimi used this in a variety of songs (including
"Foxey Lady" & others) to drive the song forward.
He rarely stays strictly to the rhythm, stacking on endless variations
as he went, but this will get you started.
For ideas
Jimi applied to the solo, be sure to look into other installments
of the series. That’s all for now – see ya next time!
