Question Log
Submitted by Alex on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 17:13
This is a questions blog. It will be a constantly growing page in a question and answer style.
Here, you can ask any and all questions about Playing the Guitar. Ask about anything about technique, theory, note choices, improvising, learning songs, or whatever else that's regarding playing guitar. I will answer to the best of my ability and update this page as needed.
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Jimi Hendrix - Red House intro
Originally Asked by: Beatle.
I have read that Hendrix couldn’t read music and was self taught , it is said that he doesn’t know were the notes are on the neck and if you watch him at Woodstock you will see him counting frets before he starts Red House. Your thoughts ?
Red House
I think that even though Hendrix may not have known theory from a proper, classical perspective, he probably knew what various things sound like. He probably knew how to get a happy sound vs a sad sound, and also how to add certain tones to each chord. I think he knew theory intuitively through years of practice, playing rhythm and accompanying people on guitar.
The Red House intro is a tricky one. It's in the key of B, and starts with an B7 chord which is played on Fret 11 - High E string, Fret 10 - B String, Fret 11 - G string. So it is a little far from the root pentatonic position of B (on the 7th fret). So he probably remembered that the chord occurs 4 frets up from B (7th fret) and counted up 4 frets up to find the starting chord. I believe he had to count the frets, because that chord is not in a "root position", but kind of "in-between". Try it and see!
Here is a tab of this song: TAB