Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Jimi Hendrix Blues Style Guitar Lesson – EP365

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a Jimi Hendrix style rhythm and lead over a stripped down jam track (just bass and drums). Incorporate some of these classic Hendrix licks into your playing when you improvise.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Slow Walk-Through

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

  2. Robert Burlin says

    Nice Brian!
    With The Black Lives Matter movement in full swing this weeks lesson is a pure gem. Can sure feel Jimmy in there. Can’t wait to get to put some polish on this one.
    For me last weeks lesson was about George Floyd’s Funeral Service. I cried like a baby. Did you see it and feel it, the music was celestial? I plan to gospel 364 up some, I have been playing it over and over and over non stop. It is like the melody is wanting me to find a word for each note, not so easy, but your song and the funeral service have lit up my creative side, will share it with you all when I have something.
    How about a Black Lives Matter theme for a few weeks?

      • Robert Burlin says

        Saying “All Lives Matter” feels like a weapon. It may not be a consciously wielded weapon, but it is a weapon to silence, to shut up. A weapon to undermine what Black people are trying to say.

        It’s not like people go around saying “All Lives Matter” in normal circumstances. You only say that when people say “Black Lives Lives” matter, first. “All Lives Matter” is an immediate backlash to the centering of Black people.

        The statement All Lives Matter shows me, at least, that white privilege protects white people from seeing the state of the world as it is. That they believe that all lives already do matter. So when people say “Black Lives Matter,” now Black people are asking for something more.

        All that’s being asked for is equity. All that’s being asked for is: Can we have an actual world where all lives matter?

        • Robert Burlin says

          I don’t know that we can name a date when Black lives mattered in the same way that all other lives do. Because as soon as non-Black people and white people came into contact with Black people, that first contact was about colonization and enslavement. There has never been a context within those races being in connection with one another where all lives mattered.

          • Robert Burlin says

            Saying “all lives matter” is similar to saying, “Well, I don’t see color,” or, “There’s only one race, the human race.” That is technically true: There is only one race, the human race. That is a fact. Socially, however, we don’t live as if there’s only one race, the human race. We live as if there are different races, and we assign different values to each one of those races based on this paradigm of supremacy.

            Both are true at the same time. There is only one race, the human race. The construct that we live in today and that we have lived in for centuries has not matched up with that universal truth.

            Similarly, “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” are true at the same time. I always find it curious that some people find the statements “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” as being on the opposite side of a spectrum. That it’s either one or the other: Either Black lives are the lives that matter, or all lives matter.

            When it’s conceptualized that way, then of course every one of us would say: “All lives matter.” All lives inherently matter—that’s a fact. But the social construct that we live in shows us that all lives do not matter equally.

            What Black Lives Matter is saying is that Black lives matter, too. Black lives matter like all other lives matter.

      • Robert Burlin says

        Yes Lance, and when I heard this weeks creation it called out those very feelings and emotions, and I shared them here only to have Alex ask me if I was serious, well, when I first saw those words and the question mark a huge fiery pit opened in my stomach and I swore I would never share my feelings again, but then I say what Darren and Lance said and that pit went away. The song about Jimmy and George is demanding that I put words to it and turn Brian’s Song in the Spirit of Jimmy into a finished timely of the moment song from the depths of us all.

    • Mike S says

      Robert Burlin,

      This is a post for a weekly free guitar lesson that Brian graciously gives to us all. It’s not the right place to post your own feelings on BLM, Gay Pride or any other social/political agendas. Go to forums that are made to discuss those issues. No one here wants to hear all your biases and opinions on those issues.

  15. Steven B says

    I cant keep up with the pace!! The last bunch of lessons have just opened up so much logic and flow, linking everything together in a way that keeps extending my understanding.
    Just a brilliant way to put the theory into our thinking, something we must all do to improve. Your delivery works incredibly well. Thanks!

    • Brian says

      you’ll get different results depending on the browser you use. If you use Google Chrome or Firefox and click on the “Download MP3” link, it will download the file automatically. Other browsers will try and play the file after it downloads (which is what you’re experiencing). So try RIGHT clicking on the “Download MP3” link if you’re on a Windows computer and then choose the “Save As..” option. If you’re on a Mac, hold down the “Control” key and click on “Download MP3”.

  33. jseppi says

    Brian, another very good lesson! I’m enjoying your play-a-long style lessons more than ever. I really feel it’s rounding my playing and versatility. Please keep the creativity engine pumping out more good music for us to learn from.
    .

  39. Roland says

    great lesson! thank you! I just watched a part of the video in 50% slomo, so that I can count how many times you hammer on an pull of for the trills! i realised it is 2 times. an i realized you sound completely drunken, when I slow you down to 50% 😂

  40. RIFF DIGGER says

    Great that you thought to go this Jimi/ bluesy direction. I’m learning “Ramblin’ On My Mind” (Bluesbreakers with EC [Elmore James]) also in E7 as well as Hendrix’s version of Catfish Blues (Muddy Waters) in E. The trills, the hammer-ons, the bending of strings. -this style is SO melodic and fun to play. And you certainly have an eclectic guitar collection to play these blues chestnuts on, and I hope you will do more. Jimi – Yes! Eric, yes!

    • RIFF DIGGER says

      I want to add that my Favorites folder is loaded with many of your great Blues arrangements. What’s fulfilling for me, as I’m getting faster at keeping pace as you teach during the last year of study. At the beginning it was slow going for me, if not downright sloppy and crude with many a late night with the printed PDF tab files that I would enlarge to 11×14” at the local Staples print/USB flash-drive area. Printed and labeled all my FAVORITES so I have a lot to digest and go back to the Premium section to work on. Thank you.

  41. Les Brown says

    As always, this is a GREAT way to teach. I don’t WANT to sound like anyone but me, which is why I appreciate the way you teach by composing something with Hendrix ideas that will help me see what he does through your eyes. Great lesson, Thank You!!! And thank you for standard tuning!!!

  46. Stobes says

    Brian, Did Jimi drop to Eb so he could bend the strings easier? That would make sense tomy fingers anyway! Maybe a lesson on vibrato would be useful.
    Ii know everytime i hear someone do that well, it turns heads!!

  48. Jorgen B says

    Hi Brian, I just turned 70. Haven’t touched a guitar much the last 40 years. My little brother Erik gave me a Premium for Active Melody, so I put new strings on a guitar and found an old Marshall in my shed. It stinks moulded of old shed, byt now I am actually playing Hendrix! I bought Are You Experineced back in 67 and still have it. In September 70 I attended one of his last concerts in Copenhagen a few weeks before he sadly passed away. I didn’t imagine it was possible to play something like this myself.
    Thanks Brian – and Erik

    • Alfred Dowaliby says

      Good for you Jorgen! It always inspires me to read stories like this! It’s a tremendous feeling, isn’t it, when you connect with the guitar and express yourself and the kind of music you love with a great sound? I was going back through the site and realized I had somehow missed this fabulous lesson. Time to roll up my sleeves, turn up the overdrive, put it into high gear, and dive into this one. Brian’s playing on this is fantastic! As I watched/listened to him play, I was picturing him (Brian) at the Isle of Wight, I think that this could also be played as a wonderful stand-alone piece.

      Cheers!
      Alfred

  50. Chad S says

    Perfect lesson for me. I’ve been working on Em pentatonic licks, especially blues and rock stuff. I’ve been working on maggot brain and voodoo child. This is the perfect lesson to build on what I’ve been working on. Keep up the Em pentatonic stuff! PERFECT!

  51. Chris G says

    THIS IS AWESOME!! I’m primarily a rock, not blues guy, but you have made me capable of playing blues riffs I never thought I could. Love the thumb fingerpickin’ from a few weeks back, but this, this is just my absolute favorite so far!

  52. Greg H says

    This has to be one of my favorites that you’ve done. Impossible not to tap your toe or slap your knee to this great jam! I’m sure it will even sound great on a acoustic guitar too. Please keep up this amazing work Brian. My retirement is counting on you! LOL!

  60. Ethan G says

    Hi Brian, I hear those quick hammer on/pull offs referred to as a ‘trill’ quite regularly. One of my favourite guitar terms, a close second to the term ‘gliss’ or ‘glissando’ like the slidey part in ‘All your love’ by Otis Rush/Bluesbreakers.

  61. Maxwell E says

    Just got to this one ,fantastic……once again you have excelled in your lessons.
    Brian I think , no , I know you are the best teacher on the internet .
    I have been a member for 2.5 years and in that time I have been ill for 2 years and in all that time , probably played 2 months at 1 hour per day and didn’t know what a bend was or what lead actually was
    and at my age have progress to a stage of actually getting a bit of a tune .
    So anybody out there who would like to pick up a guitar aged 64 you must try these lessons as Brian always repeat main things which gradually sinks in.
    Thanks Brian for giving me the pleasure I have enjoyed , you are a remarkable man.
    Maxwell

  65. Craig M says

    Late, I know but late getting to this. Loving it but for some reason struggling with that E (something) in the 9th bar. Real roadblock for me. Fingers just won’t behave despite slow down and repetition way beyond I normally need to. Pinky and ring finger just don’t want to grab the top strings. I’m taking it as a good thing, an opportunity to get outside comfort zone but is it just me? Is this a difficult chord to master in the songs normal timing? Tempted to just substitute another “easier” E to move on to others I also really want to get onto but that wouldn’t feel right to give up. Not seeking responses…unless it snagged you too. That aside, genius lessons.

  67. Kevin L says

    Brilliant lesson brian!
    Love that tone also!
    Sounds like your using a slide in places 😃.
    Im so glad I’ve became a member of active melody.
    You’re way of teaching is brilliant to help not only improve technique but also understand, timing and the theory behind it so as to implement it in my own playing.
    Looking forward to working my way through the lessons.
    Cheers kev👍🏻

  73. ryan d says

    if playing acoustic…. the 1st solo… e12 / b15 ^.. we would need to move the E pentatonic box down to play acoustic.. would that move to e9 / b12? having trouble getting the same sound

  74. Joe C says

    Brian,

    Thank you for providing so much value to all of us, your followers/students. I’ve been so pleasantly surprised as a Premium Member of your community I felt that it was just not cool to keep quiet about it any longer. In so many cases when making a buying decision we’re faced with deciding on quality vs quantity, it’s almost always one or the other.

    Active Melody solves that problem by providing an abundance of both to make the complexities of guitar seem way simpler then they really are. Your laid back style all the while you constantly over deliver is awesome, so glad to have found you man.

    You are truly a master and the Active Melody site is a gift, to say “Thanks a Million” is truly an understatement…

    Steve Miller used a five word salutation many times on stage that I love to borrow because it leaves me, and I hope anyone who hears it, with such a genuinely grateful, humble, wishful, friendly feeling, it bears repeating often;

    “See you around the block!”

    • Ian R says

      This is a great lesson Brian. Can we download a gpx file of tab for guitar pro app. Please. Please allow all lessons. So we can put the tap gpx file in guitar pro app. iOS. Thanks. And mac 💻

  76. Simon brewer says

    Just like to also add my thanks for this lesson Brian as not only does it sound brilliant to give intermediate players like myself an opportunity to dabble in aspects of the great man it was also interesting and very helpful to hear you also give a quick overview of the tone and how one can accomplish such. Saves people like me who are more acoustic players with limited electric knowledge asking how it’s achieved. This is another lesson I’ll be adding to my favourite list. Gotta say that list is getting rather big. Thanks again.

  78. Todd K says

    Great Lesson Brian, Reminds me of Muddy Waters Catfish Blues. A lot of good lessons in there. Groove/ timing, call and response, vibrato and accurate bending, trills/ hammer on and pull off.
    Thanks!

  84. silver_surfer says

    I liked this the first time around and I still like it. Brian – any thoughts on revisiting some of your early lessons? EP058 has some similarities to this and it would really help me if the tab could get loaded into Soundslice. The tabs are great but Soundslice is so much better.

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