Guitar Lesson: Learning How to Play the Guitar Like Jimi Hendrix

So you want to play the guitar like the great Jimi Hendrix. This can be frustrating, but with a little ingenuity and practice, you’ll be sounding like Jimi in no time.

Learning how to play the guitar like Jimi Hendrix can be a mammoth task, so it is better to take a certain element of his playing, and work on that. After you’ve learned that element, move on to another. Today I’m going to talk about Jimi’s clean rhythm playing. His rhythm playing was fantastic, and reminds me of all the R&B guys from the 50’s and 60’s. You’ll hear this style of playing in “Little Wing”, “Castles Made of Sand”, and “The Wind Cries Mary”.

This lick demonstrates Jimi’s use of 3 reoccurring elements in this style of playing:

1. Major Pentatonic scale
2. Doublestops
3. Hammer ons

This lick is in the key of E Major and uses all the above. Make sure to barre your first finger across the 9th fret on the D, G, and B strings.

Jimi had a vast catalog of licks and styles he recalled from at will. Any aspiring guitarist should learn as much material from Jimi as they can. Learning how to play the guitar is an ever changing thing. There is so much you can learn. It is best to define what you want to learn, and write it down. Now practice this everyday until you got it. Repeat. You’ll get much more accomplished this way. I guarantee you.

To learn more about playing blues guitar please check out my Blues Guitar Course.