Hey Joe Guitar Lesson

The beginner's version is perfect if you are currently getting to grips with your open chord shapes and need a cool song to study alongside them. This application makes learning the shapes so much more fun! As for the intermediate players amongst you, we'll be tackling the whole track, and using it as a fantastic opportunity to more deeply embed your CAGED chord learning. So, let's jump straight in… (Beginners, you can scroll to the bottom of the page for your version!).

Hey Joe Intro Riff

I always like to start with a brief disclaimer… There will be no tab of the exact parts of the song (although I will include a short tab for the CAGED licks we've invented to help you sound more like Hendrix later on!). Use your ears, use the skills you are developing via our courses and pathways, and use the video to loop sections as many times as you like! In this post, we'll talk about theory and offer practical tips to help you improve!

The intro riff is a beautiful combination of the E minor pentatonic scales played loosely over an E major chord (with a potential D major essence of the chord at times, but we don't need to focus on that at all!). It's an incredibly creative opening riff, and I wager a bet that this was one of many iterations that Hendrix played when recording this in the studio. He was at heart a blues man, so improvisation is at the root of his playing style.

So, when working through this intro section along with me in the video, note that the two key positions we're working with are based firstly in the E minor pentatonic box 1 and 2, and then at the end in the E minor shape 4. I say E minor rather than E minor pentatonic as we do have notes from the full scale in there too. They look like this:

Now there is a possibility that this final part is actually a D major pentatonic box 1, as it does kinda sound like the chord changes here… BUT as there is no way to prove that as we can't exactly interview Hendrix about it, it's easiest to simply use this as a way to learn that E minor pentatonic across the neck!

Hey Joe Verse Section

Moving onto the verse section we can start to work in some of our CAGED across-the-neck ideas. The basic chord progression here is nice and simple, and completely owned by major chords. It is | C G | D A | E | E | - Simple as that! Now you are more than welcome to play these chords anywhere you like. If you're more advanced you can use a variety of CAGED shapes across the neck, or you can use open chords etc… Our job today is to learn a Hendrix-style part that uses the barre chord shapes, and intertwines them with some licks we've written in the Hendrix style. So, here are those chord shapes first:

So take your time initially working through these chord shapes. I run them through nice and clearly in the video, so work with me on that. From there, we can start to add these licks.

So, let's take a look at those chords with pentatonic shapes:

With that understood (hopefully!) let's look at the exact licks I've written for you to practice with. It's the same lick over the C and D chords, as they are both A Shape CAGED, and the same lick over the G and A chords, as they are also both E Shape CAGED. One thing to note is that although the pentatonic box 5 is underneath the A shape, it's often far easier and more practical to slide into box 1, which is next to box 5, as we do in this part. Good luck getting this together… here is the tab for it:

Hey Joe Guitar Solo

The guitar solo is a beautiful example of what you can get out of the E minor pentatonic box 1! This epic, creative and perfectly played solo is all just one box. So, next time you're thinking, "Do I need to learn loads more scales?", the first question to yourself might be, "Can I get the most out of the scales I already have!". So, let's take a look at box 1 of that minor pentatonic scale in E minor:

As you're working through this solo, be sure to visualise this shape, and any licks you particularly like, be sure to take them out of the solo and start using them in your own playing.

Hey Joe Beginners Guitar Lesson

Finally, for you wonderful beginners out there looking for a slightly simpler way to work through this track, here we have it! We will be taking a simple, custom loop that integrates basic versions of the chords and a very basic version of the riff. It's not as Hendrix plays or wrote it, but it is similar enough to be able to use it with the song and it still sounds good.

So, first up here are the chords you will need to play:

If you are ok with these chords, then I have two strumming patterns for you to choose between. If you are a complete beginner, I would recommend the first, 8th note pattern below, and if you're an improver, then try the 16th note pattern. If you are unsure as to how these different types of rhythm patterns work, check out the Beginners Rhythm course!

Finally, for the cool little E major part, that is similar to the riff in Hey Joe, here is the tab to help you work through that part. At this stage we don't need to understand the ins and outs of it, it's more experiential in terms of simply playing and getting used to playing more intricate parts around the open chord shapes. So here is that tab:

Good luck getting all of this together guys! I really hope this post has helped you gain a deeper understanding of this classic track. Please get in touch via our Discord community to let us know what you think!