Help! I can't play lead!

[Onslow]

I've strictly been a rhythm player since I started playing about five years ago and now I'm trying to approach Jimi Hendrix's style of playing. The thing is, I can't do it. I've tried to play along with tabs on the internet and the official Hendrix Woodstock book and I just can't get a handle on what the heck is going on. Can you guys give me some guidance to help me approach Jimi's style? Thanks

[rashayritto]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

what specific problems are you having?

[korovamilkdud]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

Slash didn't learn to read, Stevie Ray Vaughn didn't learn to read. I don't think even Jimi learned to read (I could be mistaken).

You learn to improvise. Shop around for information on pentatonic scales. That should get the ball rolling. Start and end your melodies on the tonic of the key you're in (to start). As you get better, you'll be able to add in all the notes of the scale, and even some outside of it, when it feels right. But for me, and for a lot of other guitarists out there. Lead is about feelin' brutha.

[Onslow]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

Pretty much everything really. The timing, the phrasing. Is it just the chords being "chopped up", if you will, or is it more improvised than that? What really throws me off are the pedal note/drone notes and layering. Also, a lot of Jimi's chords are slash chords like Cadd9/A for example, which I'm not used to either.

I can solo so-so, but when it comes to the intro and verse of Machine Gun for example, I get flustered and lost. I guess what I don't understand is how the full chord is being played over the root, but broken up into a melody.

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

You could try and download "Guitar Guru" and learn with that. I used it to learn "Hey Joe" by Hendrix and it worked a charm. It might be an AOL only thing though?

[millsart]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

There has been and never will be another Hendrix. Out of millions of guitar players he was quite special and as such, I wouldn't expect to start copping him overnight.

You need to learn to walk before you can run. Learn some simple scales and practice, practice, pratice.

[emilio]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

i can't play lead either. when i try, the volume is usually extremely low and i play as fast as i can!

[devilfish]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

I'm struggling with writing my own solo's, but to start you off, learn some basic scales and work from there. My solos are not bad IMO but I'm getting stuck in the same rut of patterns and shapes. I can play lead pretty well, just having trouble writing.

Learn more scales. I can play Hendrix confidently (i say confidently...I'm 17) But i have been playing around 5 years now i think. I got the lick library DVD which breaks it down, i found once i learn one solo from the DVD, I was progressing enough to do it all tab style. This wasn't a mission of 'I CAN PLAY HENDRIX', this was just something i felt I wanted to do to get me on the next step of learning guitar.

If you've never played lead before my advice is this, Start playing scales over and over again, find some nice little exercises to play every day then tackle each bit part by part.

If you haven't played lead before, Hendrix is going to take a LONG time. Start easyand work up from there.

(I found purple haze a good starting point for hendrix songs)

[wahwah]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

Most if not all of Jimi Hendrix' improvisations are based around licks, short musical phrases, joined together by interconnecting melodies. Players like Hendrix did not develop their craft by sitting around practicing scales, they spent their time copying and modifying the licks of Delta and Chicago blues players, few or none of whom were theoretical music students, nor readers, nor classically trained. They would incorporate the expressive techniques of vibrato, bends, hammer ons, pull offs and double stops to piece together a bag of tricks, which they would then assemble through an intuitive response to the emotional content of the music. They are often described as "feel" players, because they are not "thinking" their way through the music, calculating which scales or modes might apply to the chord progressions, but are feeling their way through, which is why these styles so often evade classically trained players who have been taught to think of music as a science.

Developing a library of licks to build up your vocabulary requires patiently replicating what you hear, developing your own skills with the expressive techniques, and being prepared to play the same licks over and over again. The number of people who say they can "do Hendrix" or "do Gilmour" compared to the number who can actually play in those styles effectively without sounding like a chump or a clone, is overwhelming. You can start now, and in 20 years you will still be hearing things in these types of players that you haven't heard before. Stevie Ray Vaughan, for example, claimed at the height of his professional career that there were elements of Hendrix' playing that he simply could not even understand, much less replicate. This is why it's so comical when younger players claim that Hendrix is too simple for their tastes, or is "over-rated." The truth is, they could no sooner play like Hendrix than fly. Don't be discouraged, be inspired, and be very patient with yourself. You are studying a master. These things take time and dedication.



Cheers......................................wahwah

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

IMO, you can still do both, be a feel and a thinking player. Vai and Satriani are two examples of guys highly educated in theory, yet play from the heart as well.
I myself, can't read music that well, but I'm very well versed in modes, so I find it easy to improvise over stuff, and usually, I rarely think about what notes I'm playing, I just know what I'm playing without consciously thinking about it, which is where you want to be at IMO

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

Oh, and go for your OWN style. Unless you want to be in a Hendrix tribute, become you're own player. Don't try to play like Hendrix, chances are you will just sound like a 3rd rate knock off.
I always thought it made A LOT more sense to start on lead guitar than rhythm, because chords are ultimately derived from scales.

[wahwah]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

Oh, and go for your OWN style. Unless you want to be in a Hendrix tribute, become you're own player. Don't try to play like Hendrix, chances are you will just sound like a 3rd rate knock off.
I always thought it made A LOT more sense to start on lead guitar than rhythm, because chords are ultimately derived from scales.

This is not the case if you want to play guitar for a living. Good rhythm playing is what will keep you in work, more so now than ever. Playing solos is a secondary skill. There are literally hundreds of thousands of guys around the world who can rip through scales, but there are many, many less who can hold down a solid groove. Also, there's absolutely nothing wrong with studying the styles of specific players, and incorporating elements of their playing into our own. It is ludicrously rare for any player to start out with their own style. The greats were all inspired by others, and obviously spent their time studying them.



Cheers....................................wahwah

[Tele-Bob]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

If you can find a copy of the old album Mountain, "Climbing," pick it up and learn the guitar solos in the song "Theme for an Imaginery Western." Played by Leslie West, it is one of the most tasteful and melodic guitar solos of all time and it's slow enough to give a guy a chance to "get it."

The song was written by Jack Bruce and there are a few different versions out there, but the one you want is on the album "Climbing" by Mountain.

This is not only a beautiful solo in it's execution, technique and note selection, but it is also in a major key so you'll get a break from the dreaded pentatonic minor by learning this one.

From what you say, I'd strongly recommend this tune.

[GuitarStv]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

There's a lot of good advice in this thread already, so maybe I'll just add my 2 cents. . .

When you're learning someone else's songs, try to figure out what they're doing over each chord. Figure out what notes they picked that sound nice over each chord, and when the best time to use them is. (For example, Hendrix likes to use lots of major scale licks with double stops over major chords). Rhythm and phrasing is also important to get down. Try to learn to hear the notes in your head before you actually play them.

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Help! I can't play lead!

Most if not all of Jimi Hendrix' improvisations are based around licks, short musical phrases, joined together by...


Cheers......................................wahwah

Well said!