jimi hendrix profile

ahh, jimi hendrix, the grandaddy of them all. where do i even begin?

hendrix is often cited as the greatest electric guitarist of all time, and for once, this is not an over-statement. i'll just say that had hendrix never found that 1-string acoustic in a garbage bin when he was 14, joe satriani would be working in an office job in canberra, paul gilbert would be flipping burgers in texas, steve vai would be a meth addict and yngwie malmsteen would probably have committed suicide in some strange cult setting. the basic fact is, if you play electric guitar, no matter what style, you have been influenced by hendrix in some way, full stop.

hendrix's professional solo career lasted only 4 years, but he changed the guitar completely. he played a right handed stratocaster left-handed and wrote the books on many techniques and styles.

feedback (where the signal emitted from an amp is picked up through the guitar and sent back to the amp creating a never ending loop of high pitched screams)? before hendrix it was an undesired side effect of loud volume, yet he used it eveyrwhere to create music. distortion? hendrix made the guitar sound like anything from a dying animal, to brass instruments. the whammy bar? hendrix could make his guitar sound like a car siren, add indian-sounding dips and dives to his music and simulate bombs and gunfire with it. chords? hendrix invented the style of playing bass and lead guitar parts at the same time thanks to his massive hands. he was also famous for playing at bone-crunchingly loud volumes. it is true though, that there is a certain energy gained from playing at very loud volumes.

the list could go on forever. basically anything that is now commonplace today in guitar was revolutionized or at least fiddled with by hendrix and his influence on modern music is unchallenged. i can't stress enough how much he changed guitar playing. where as some players are famous for 1 certain aspect, hendrix is famous for millions.

he was a musical genius, despite having no formal training was unable to read music. however, he wrote some of the most beautiful, intense, screaming, heaviest songs ever written. take a look at voodoo child, little wing, castles made of sand, purple haze...the list carries on for years.

i listened to hendrix exclusively for over a year straight and he was the initial reason i started playing guitar. all the other players listed on this page cite him as a huge influence. hendrix is the original badass that every kid wanted to be like. but there's something in his playing i've never heard anyone else come close to. it's hard to explain to a non musical person, but his phrasing and, most importantly, his musical vision were extraordinary. he had a scarily, uncanny way of making all of his playing "fit". you'll often be left sitting there going "how did he just DO that?". even if you figure out the notes, you can never play it like he did.

as an example of his intensity and total emotiveness on the guitar, check out this vid, especially from 1:48 to about 2:18.



you can see from his body language how he is focusing his all on his playing and the licks he produces are ridiculously powerful. i have to say, it is, by far, THE most intense guitar playing i've ever heard. sure it's not the most technically impressive, but you can literally hear his anguish in his playing.

also, here is a good example of his softer, more chordal work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joaMnMPvBe4

as you can tell, i feel pretty strongly about hendrix. i could write an 8,000 word essay on him if i wanted to. i think everything spawned from him. i can't even begin to describe how much he changed and influenced music and guitar playing in general. it's even scarier when you consider that his music is about 40 years old. i would have had a heart attack hearing him for the first time in 1968 (there's the famous story of how he literally reduced eric clapton, the then "best guitarist in the world" to tears when he asked to jam with him). it's funny because by today's standards, his level of technical skill is laughable, but he managed to do more than most musicians do in 30 years. basically, i think he is the god of electric guitar and always will be.