Chords for Weird Hendrix Blues Turnaround

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [B] _ _
Hello Blues fans [Ab] and welcome to Free Lesson Friday.
[N] My name is Anthony Stouffer, I'm the
curator of stevesnacks.com. This week we're going to take a look at none other than James
Marshall Hendrix, specifically his Blues album and the song Once I Had a Woman.
If you've
not heard that song, drop what you're doing, go out and buy that song immediately.
Fast
forward to about 140 in the progression and you will hear what I just played there.
And
the song has kind of a weird structure, there's not a normal turnaround, but if it were a
normal 12 bar progression, what I'm about to teach you would fit right around that part
of the song.
Right as we're heading into the 5 chord, you know, at the end of bar number
12 as we turn around in the progression.
Anyway, we lead into it, first of all we're in the
key of E.
I'm in standard tuning this time because that song's in the key of E and there's
no way for me to tell if he was using half step down or standard tuning.
So I'm just
in standard tuning here.
Key of E, [Bm] _
_ that [E] puts our box 1 up here at the 12th fret in the
octave up position.
With the lick that we're going to start it with, [B] just a bend on the
15th fret of the B string, _ and then in true Hendrix fashion we do another [Bb] bend and bend
[B] down on the G string. _ _
[Gm] _ [B] Then pull off to the 12th fret, that's at the 14th fret of the
G string. _
Pull off to the 12th fret of the G string, [Am] down to the 14th fret of the D string,
[Em] and then we do a quick, that standard blues lick there, 12 on the G, [Ebm] bend at [B] 14, follow
through on the 12th fret of the B and the [Bm] E string, circle back around to the 15th fret
of the B string, pull off to 12, [Em] and then we kind of interrupt ourselves, go right into
a bend there at the [Bb] 14th fret of the G string, and then slam that bend [Em] back down.
_ _ Okay?
It's
a little different than, _ [B] slam [Am] _ it back [Bb] down with another picking action there, to the
[Em] 14th fret, pull off to 12, and then down to the 14th fret of the D string.
[E] I'm kind of
rushing through that because that's not the point of this lesson, but anyway, that's how
you lead into it. _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ Then right as we would be going [A] back to the, [B] back up to the 5 chord,
he does this.
[Ab] _
[G] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [G] _ So when I first heard that, I was like, what is he playing?
And as I dug
a little bit deeper and slowed it down and picked out all the individual chords, I realized
you're playing, I mean, you're not even moving your hand.
You're already playing like right
over where you've [Em] got to be.
It's just a matter of knowing what little chords to use.
So let's
talk about it.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to go through and show you the little
chord combinations to play, and then I'm going to focus on the rhythm, because the rhythm
is where it gets kind of tricky.
So I'm just going to show you flat out what to play in
what order, and then we'll talk about rhythm.
So you're going to start with something you've
probably never done.
You're going to go to the 12th fret.
You know, you've got your box
one shape here.
_ [E] _ [Gb] You're going to put your index finger across the string, the B and the G
string right here at the 12th fret.
_ And you're either going to bend up or bend down, but
you want to keep both of them fretted.
[E] _ _
Then you're going to bring it back down and play
them straight.
_ Then you're going to [Gb] come down here to the 14th fret of the [Em] D string, and
if you can get the 12th fret of the G string to ring out with it, that's even better. _
_ _ [G] _ Then pull off to the 12th fret of the D string and have that and the 12th fret of the G [Em] string
ring out.
_ _ _ _ [G] _
_ Then we're going to go back and forth from [B] the 14th fret of the A [A] string to
the 12th [G] fret of the D [B] string, and then back down.
[G] _ So we got_
_ _ _ _ And [Bm] all the while that
you're going back and forth between [G] these notes, you want to keep maybe all three of
those notes ringing out, but at least the G and the D string. _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ Now when you get back
down here, you have to _ continue walking down [A] 13-12 on A, [G] down to 15 on E, _ [A] and then [Bb] back
up 12-13 [B]-14 on the [G] A string, _ _ and then up to the little two-note chord at the 12th fret
of the D and G strings.
_ [E] _ _ _ [G] _
_ [B] Now you can tell I'm not just walking [D] down those frets, I'm keeping
[Em] those notes barred.
[G] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ [Gb] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
Okay, so that gives that little dissonant, weird chording sound that
he's doing while he's playing that.
Now let's talk about timing.
_ _ _ [E] _
_ [Em] _ _ [G] It's weird when you [Em] get _
_ _ [G] _ to_
Because this note [E]
kind of interrupts things, so you're kind of like off rhythm.
So you've got to kind of mentally reset right after that note, because [G] you're going to go_
That's an even back and forth, back and forth.
It's not hard to play that, _
_ [Em] and it wouldn't
be hard to play that back to back, but you throw this in the middle, _ _ _ [B] _ it can kind of throw
you off [G] timing a little bit.
So just keep in mind that _ _ [Bm] _ [G] you want to maybe accent that
first a little bit harder than you normally would as a way to kind of mentally reset your
timing, [B] and just kind of skip [A] over [Em] this note.
_ _ _ [E] _ So don't think of that note as [Gb] a destination,
think of it as kind of a passing note, you're just getting past it [G] to get to the_
_ _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ [G] _ [B] _ Now
I know it's kind of weird, it's kind of hard to try and describe what's going on there
rhythmically, but that's just how I process [E] it in my mind, is not to get stuck on that
note, but that's [G] just a filler _ between_
But if you can nail that syncopation and timing
there, that's one of the secrets to sounding like Jimi Hendrix, is because he had that
weird kind of sense of rhythm.
And really that's about it, just kind of keep things
moving, there's not really too many pauses in there, and just make sure that _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ [A] _
you're timing
that up around the end of the 12 bar sequence, [B] _
[Gb] when the progression would be going back to
[G] the 5 chord. _ _ _
_ So anyway, that's a weird Hendrix thing that I've heard for years and never
knew how to play, finally figured it out and then figured I would teach you how to
do it too.
Anyway, until next time, thanks for watching. _
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