Help with fills

this sounds like the perfect question for bigalhendrix to me.

I don't believe that he kept the barre shape all the time. He did alot of Curtis Mayfield type double stops w/hammer ons/pull offs. However, there is the 7th chords (E shaped barre) that leaves your pinky free to nail a note here and there.

I forgot to mention that he (amungst others) also used his thumb to nail the bass note of the chord many times.

Can someone explaine 7th chords? I know the shape but the theroy would be nice.

I play bold as love without actually forming a barre most of the time. It's usually root-note, riff, next chord, and you don't need to make a full barre for it.

Im no expert on Hendrix at all. But from what I have played when he does these 'little frills' based around a chord he doesnt keep the bared shape, but might say hav his thumb fretting from over the neck to get the low end of the chord and do a little frill within the chord shape, without actually baring.

A perfect example of this is Little Wing. You really should at least learn the intro, its gr8 and it'll help answer your question practically.

I can't even tell you how long i have been tryin to learn this intro. I am getting how to play the SRV version in the mail soon with a cd that slows it down and the tab so hopefully i will learn it soon. But i am still puzzeld with the 7th chords.

I can't even tell you how long i have been tryin to learn this intro. I am getting how to play the SRV version in the mail soon with a cd that slows it down and the tab so hopefully i will learn it soon. But i am still puzzeld with the 7th chords.

Check the Lessons pages for lots of stuff on 7ths and other chords.

-Laz

There is a plugin that u can download for winamp called pacemaker tempo controller that will slow songs down for you without changing the pitch... works very well for learning songs... thats how I learned to play battery....

There comes a time in your playing you'll reach a certain caliber when moving between rhythm and lead become second nature. Something to practice would be playing a chord then changing to the voicings. Start slowly eventually it will get easier and smoother.

With studio tricks galore mixing down a sound on sound track was common. Great example ZZ top. Another trick some rack mounted delay units have a hold option that when you play a rhythm then step on a control pedal it will hold the rhythm pattern until you remove your foot. Allowing you play leads or fills over it. Which by setting the length of the delay ms you could hold anything from a simple drown to a complete chord progression. During a song you could switch back and forth to hold any number of times to add fills or voicings.

By using more than one amp you can have the wet signal (delayed) coming from one side and dry (clean or lead) coming from the other. The delayed side (depending on the amount of time delay) would still be playing the rhythm when you did a fill or lead. delay time + beat tempo can produce some fascinating playing.

Joe

Another thing about Hendrix in particular was that he had HUGE hands. Take a look at photos. Jimi could still get a full barre with his index finger even when using the "baseball" grip with his thumb wrapped over the neck as well. His fingers were so long that he rarely used his pinky even for big stretches. Very few people have hands that large. So, you have to take that into consideration when trying to do a Hendrix cover. You may not always be able to get the exact voicings Jimi used.

Look at this photo to see just how large his hands were.

Jimi Hendrix

You gotta learn how to use your thumb if you want to play that style. It just takes practice. Use your thumbknuckle on the low E string. It gives you alot of leverage to articulate with your other fingers. Hendrix would often hammer and trill onto the 9ths, 6ths, and 7ths and also throw in some blues scale fills pretty much randomly into his rhythm playing. He never seemed to play a song the same way twice.

Yeah, good luck with the song but might I suggest something? Why play the exact voicing? lern the key of the song, what scales you can play and chords you an it in and just come up with your own way of playing the song. Much more creative and wont get redundant every tiem you play the song because something will be different about it everytime. Just my 2 cents.

Good Luck!
Bstguitarist
KB1LQC