Song List: Purple Haze* Hear My Train A Comin'* Manic Depression* The Wind Cries Mary* Dolly Dagger* Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
(Click on a song title to see more information on it)

• 4 iLevels: transcription of guitar and bass, plus 2 breakdowns of the guitar part

• 2 Performance Videos: guitar transcription and easiest breakdown

If you had to pick just a few Hendrix songs to learn, Purple Haze would definitely be one of them. It's full of innovative things: His use of effects and his recording techniques were groundbreaking. The layered guitars at the end were recorded by slowing the tape down; it was then speeded up to the regular tempo. The guitar layering is nothing short of amazing. And who else could have come up with the line, "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky"?

• 4 iLevels: transcription of guitar, plus 3 breakdowns

• 2 Performance Videos: guitar transcription and easiest breakdown

This acoustic track comes from a blues compilation. Hendrix improvised it for a crew filming a documentary (you can get it on video). Actually played on a twelve-string, it sounds fine on six. You don't hear Hendrix on acoustic too often, which is what makes "Hear My Train A Comin'" a bit of a rarity. The title eerily presages his untimely death.

• 3 iLevels: transcription of guitar, plus 2 breakdowns

• 2 Performance Videos: guitar transcription and easiest breakdown

Another Hendrix classic. As with "Purple Haze," "Manic Depression" delivers an innovative solo. Musically, Hendrix's technique and use of electronic feedback on the solo are the main significant things. You hear him fusing avant-garde classical influences with rock, a feat that busted rock out of the pop-culture box and placed it solidly in the realm of serious music.

• 3 iLevels: transcription of guitar, plus 2 breakdowns

• 2 Performance Videos: guitar transcription and easiest breakdown

This shows Hendrix at his ballad-best. We could have chosen any of his ballads, but "The Wind Cries Mary" is accessible and easy enough to learn. Here you get some truly gentle feeling and delicate playing from a guy whose wild stage persona belied a soft-spoken private self. A good example of the innovative rhythm-guitar style based on R&B that Hendrix is known for.

• 3 iLevels: transcription of guitar, plus 2 breakdowns

• 2 Performance Videos: guitar transcription and easiest breakdown

"Dolly Dagger" was done late in Hendrix's career, essentially just before he died. It was to be on his next album, which he never got to finish (the song is the single from New Rays of the Rising Sun, released 1997 MCA/Universal). Again, you hear Hendrix fusing R&B into a rock idiom. His style was changing - we'll never know where he would have ended up.

• 3 iLevels: transcription of guitar, plus 2 breakdowns

• 2 Performance Videos: guitar transcription and easiest breakdown

This song was included on Electric Ladyland at the last minute. A film crew was shooting some documentary footage for promo purposes and asked to film Jimi playing with the band. They played this tune experimentally and liked it, went back into the studio and finished it up. A good example of mixing blues with psychedelic rock, it was a natural for Stevie Ray Vaughan to riff around with a couple of decades later.

All songs used by permission. Original sound recordings (P) (c) 1999 Experience Hendrix, L.L.C., under exclusive license to MCA Records, Inc., Universal City, CA 91608 USA. Licensed by arrangement with Universal Music Special Markets. Exclusive publishers of Jimi Hendrix sheet music: Hal Leonard, Corporation (United States and Canada), Shinko Music Co., Ltd. (Japan), and Music Sales, Ltd. (Europe). All compositions written by Jimi Hendrix, Experience Hendrix, L.L.C. (ASCAP). Not for broadcast transmission. All rights reserved. Do not duplicate. Not available for separate rental.