3 Hendrix Riffs To Learn

Jimi Hendrix is undeniably one of the most influential guitarists the world has ever seen. His popularity amongst guitarists is undeniable, as I’m sure everyone has at some point in their guitar journey learnt one of his songs.

So in this lesson, we have broken down 3 of Hendrix’s most iconic riffs for you to have a go at for yourself! 

Hey Joe

This opening riff is as classic as Hendrix gets! He floats the E minor pentatonic scale right over an E major chord, with plenty of attitude and freedom. Knowing how deep his blues background ran, this probably wasn’t a rehearsed, note for note part, but rather one inspired out of a dozen that day.

We kick things off across boxes 1 and 2 of E minor pentatonic, then move into E minor shape 4 towards the end. Notice I said E minor ‘shape’, rather than ‘pentatonic’, as we’re grabbing a couple of extra notes outside the basic pentatonic box.  

There’s a good argument that this end section slips into D major pentatonic box 1 to match a subtle chord change. However, since we can’t exactly ask Hendrix to check his intent, we’ll stick with E minor pentatonic. It keeps your fretboard logic consistent and gives you a great workout shifting across the neck this way!

You can check out the full Hey Joe lesson here.

The Wind Cries Mary

This is one of those riffs that you recognize the moment you hear it! The track revolves around the F major, but Hendrix being Hendrix, he loves to bend the rules and modulate as he goes. Watch how he sets up the intro: he walks chromatically right up to the F, starting with heavy power chords before sweetening things up with major chord fragments. 

These intro shapes are what we call ‘inverted powerchords’. By putting the 5th on the lowest string instead of the root, you get a much fatter, more harmonically rich bite. Hendrix uses them to crawl chromatically from Eb straight up to F, and then he mirrors that exact same climb with the major chord fragments.  

On that bottom line of chord shapes, those Eb, E and F all trace back to the CAGED ‘G Shape’. We’re playing them as first inversions, kicking off from the A string. Right after that climb, there’s a brilliant little lick based around the F major chord fragment using box 1 of the pentatonic scale.

You can check out the full The Wind Cries Mary lesson here.

Purple Haze

The intro to Purple Haze is a textbook example of call and response. Shifting neatly between shapes 3 and 4 of E minor pentatonic.

For the ‘call’, we set up in shape 4: slide from the 7th to the 9th fret on the D string, grab fret 7 on the G string, and then hit fret 8 on the B string with a sweet little quarter-tone bend. Finally, resolve the phrase by landing back on the 7th fret of the D string.  

Now for the ‘response’, which moves mainly into shape 3. Start on the 5th fret of the D string, pull off or pick the open D, and drop right down to the open low E string. From there, round out the phrase by sliding from the 5th to the 7th fret on the A string.

Run through that full call-and-response loop once more, and then we hit phrase three. We kick off just like before with a slide from fret 5 to 7 on the A string, follow it with frets 5 and 7 on the D string, and then slide straight from fret 7 up to 9 on the D string before landing cleanly back on fret 5. 

The fourth phrase starts on the 5th fret of the D string, followed by the open A string, the open E string, and we finish with fret 3 on the E string.

To wrap up the intro, we borrow heavily from that third lick we just covered. First, slide from fret 5 to 7 on the A string, walk up to the D string through frets 5 and 7, and slide up to fret 9. To round out this first half, drop back down and hammer on from fret 5 to 7 on that D string. 

For the second half, pick fret 5 on the D string, hit the open D twice for some percussive rhythm, and slide from fret 7 straight to 9 on the D string. Finally, drive it home on the G String: pick fret 7 twice, then resolve right on the 9th fret.

Remember to add plenty of bends and vibrato, listen to the track, but you can (and should!) also try to add your own touch!

You can check out the full Purple Haze lesson here.