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Did Jimi use any musical theory in playing the guitar?
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04-11-2023 03:35 AM
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Who knowes - from the man himself. Sorry, I could not help myself in this one.
To be honest, I dont know. But the man was such a great talent and WAY ahead of his time...
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Story goes Miles was talking to Hendrix about the diminished scale. Jimi says "Miles, I don't know, the diminished scale"...Miles answers (scratchy voice) " Don't worry, I'll show you"...believe it's from the autobiography.
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Well, he sure knows his pentatonic scale.
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Yes I know it.
Originally Posted by jaco1
Miles also says something about rock musicians.He's rather negative.
Still, Miles really liked Jimi's guitar playing.
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He played great but did he know that this scale is called the pentatonic. Originally Posted by docsteve
I do not know.
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Before he was Jimi Hendrix, he was a hired gun who did pickup gigs and studio work. You don't get that good without having names for sounds. It's just how it goes. He might not have known the diminished scale, but how often did that come up on Chitlin Circuit gigs? I'll say just about never, or else Hendrix would have known it.
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It's the only scale he knew, but what he did with it is still way cooler than what anyone else ever has. Originally Posted by kris
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Well to be fair, he knew the major AND minor pentatonic inside out.
He also really knew the fretboard well, and knew how to play chords in many different positions. He was a unique and ground-breaking rhythm player.
Whether or not he had names for it, the guy at some point in his life clearly lived and breathed the guitar, and he knew his instrument well.
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He knew some cool chords, as a teenager I learned to play 9ths, 13ths and the ‘Hendrix chord’ (7#9, though I didn’t know it was called that at the time) by listening to his records, long before I got into jazz.
He was a great blues player, he really spoke that language naturally.
Also he could play those really inventive soul/gospel/R&B-type rhythmic chordal textures (e.g. Little Wing intro).
When I got my first electric guitar, I used to spend hours trying to figure out his stuff from the records (no internet or tabz then!).
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He liked his guitar so much he wanted to eat it. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
playing with teeth is a legend...?
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Miles was surprised to find out that Jimi didn't read sheet music.
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I can't believe some people judge a guitar genius by what scales he knows...
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Hendrix was my biggest influence in high school before I got into jazz. He was an amazing player that could really make the guitar sing. I doubt he knew the technical names for what he did, but who knows.
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His pedals weren’t true bypass. Imagine what he could have achieved with a modern boutique pedal board!
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This is not a genius rating. Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
This is a surprise-I know all the scales and I will never play like a genius.
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His single line playing had a lot more going on than just pentatonics, and his harmonic palette was pretty big too. Plus his comping was highly contrapuntal (while singing). Sometimes it seems like people talk about Hendrix without having listened to him. He was not formally trained, but he was obviously a very sophisticated musician. Given that he spent time on the chitlin circuit and in army dance bands, I suspect he had more going on in terms of names-of-musical-things than he let on, but we'll never know. I wouldn't credit Miles as an entirely reliable reporter of fact on the subject, given how little time he actually spent with Hendrix. Bottom line, his recordings are the best evidence of his abilities, and the recordings (at least the three real albums he completed in his lifetime) are extraordinary.
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Modern Jimi would be in his bedroom playing blip blips on his new Super Duper Glitch Pedal Deluxe and checking for Likes on his YT channel. Luckily, the old Jimi had bills to pay and hit the road. Originally Posted by Christian Miller
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I like his guitar playing in "unison" with his voice. Originally Posted by Christian Miller
Very characteristic sound.
...real singing while playing...
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say what we will..his influence on many musicians of all styles is real..
some of his melodic solo work (wind cries mary..hey joe) to me, is beyond a label
his use of chords opened rock guitarists (and others) to another harmonic world
did he understand some theory..of course he did..he played with many seasoned musicians of all stripes and some of their knowledge was assimilated by Hendrix
and remember he was on top for only 3-4 years
we can only guess where he would be today....would he have grown musically? would he have ventured into "jazz-fusion" ?
well..just remember..he also played the kazoo on one of his songs
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He learned fast...
I got a record in 1974 he recorded in 1966 called "Roots of Hendrix", which was horrible, didn't sound like he knew how to play yet. It was one of those where a couple of songs are recorded two or three times, only the last song on the album was done with a fuzz effect. For those that know his later work it is interesting to "hear through" the mess and recognize some hints of the origins of what would come in a few years.
The first Hendrix I heard as a youth was Band of Gypsies, which is still one of my favorites. Very hard to understand (but inspiring) the transformation over just a few years from what sounded like crap to sounding like an absolute master magician on the instrument...
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I hear my train-a-coming ! Originally Posted by kris;[URL="tel:1259382"
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anyone here like Pali Gap ?
I love that ….
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I have observed that many people know about as much theory as is needed to execute the job.
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That's not a really a Hendrix album. It's a demo he played on as a sideman and is just a bunch of loose noodling. There are interviews with people who saw him live in that Originally Posted by pauln
pre-Experience NY period who say that he had the whole package together by then. There are some other sideman recordings from around that time (e.g., Isley Brothers "Testify"). But SFAIK, there are no recordings of him as a solo act from that time. But the Are You Experienced? sessions started in the fall of '66, so this is a hint of what he would do only months (not years) later.
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If you have a name for what ever you play, and you know when you can use it, and when not … that is theory. Through a lot of playing, those sounds will live in a groups related to each other. That is theory. When x happens, I can use my y things. That is theory. Music by its’ very nature creates coherency. Formal theory just makes life a little easier, and allows for the quick placements of new ideas. There are strengths and weakness to every thing.
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