Purple Haze

Purple Haze is one of those songs that can feel very overwhelming to learn, but that actually becomes very manageable once we break it down into different sections.

The intro

At the start of the intro, we’re going to play Bb on the E string on fret 6, and another Bb, an octave higher on the D string on fret 8. The idea is to cover the other strings so we mute them with the left hand.

We then want to play Bb on the E string on beat 1, then on the D string on beat 2, back on the E string on beat 3 and back on the D string on beat 4. We then repeat that for another bar!

The next part of the intro is played over shapes 3 and 4 of the E minor pentatonic scale and is built around a classic “call and response" idea.

The “call” is played over shape 4, and starts with a slide from fret 7 to 9 on the D string. We then play the G string on fret 7, followed by fret 8 on the B string with a quarter-tone bend! To finish, we land on fret 7 on the D string.

The “response” is mainly played over shape 3. We start with fret 5 on the D string, followed by the open D string, and the open E string. We then slide from fret 5 to 7 on the A string.

This “call and response” repeats itself one more time, before we play the third phrase, which starts with a slide from fret 5 to 7 on the A string again, followed by fret 5 and fret 7 on the D string. After that, we slide from frets 7 to 9 on the D string, before landing on the 5th fret of the D string.

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.

The last part of the intro starts with a phrase similar to the third lick we’ve already played. We start with a slide on the A string from the 5th to the 7th fret, we go up the scale to the 5th fret on the D string, 7th fret on the D string, slide up to fret 9 on the same string, and we finish the first half of the phrase with a hammer-on on the D string, from fret 5 to 7.

The second half of this phrase starts with the 5th fret on the D string, followed by two open D strings. Then, staying on the same string, slide from fret 7 to fret 9. To finish with, play fret  7 on the G string twice, and land on fret 9 on the same string!

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

The verse

To play the verse, we’re going to need to know E7#9, G and A. Let’s have a look at them!

E7#9, also known as the “Hendrix chord”, is played for a bar, and G and A are played for two beats each. On G and A, we can add some colours by adding a 9th when playing our G, and a 6th when playing our A. Of course, as we’re looking at a Jimi Hendrix track, we’re going to need to play these last two chords with the thumb over so we can add these little extensions!

The rhythm of this verse is very Hendrix like, and you should definitely play around and experiment with the strumming so it’s not “too consistent” across the different verses that you’re playing. On E7#9, the idea is to target either the open E string or the rest of the chord depending on the subdivision you’re playing.

Same idea on G and A, where we target the root note on the E string, with the addition of the 9th and the 6th that we’ve just looked at! Feel free to experiment with these extensions and the pattern.

The break

The break after the verse starts with an octave shape played on the A and G strings. We start on frets 7 and 9, which we slide up a tone (two frets) and back. We then move that octave shape to the 5th and 7th frets before tackling a little lead line.

The lead line that finishes the break is exactly the same as the very first phrase we’ve seen on the intro, over shape 4 of the pentatonic scale, and played twice!

The second break

On the second break, the harmony shifts, the bass plays A for a bar, B for a bar, D for a bar and goes up to E. The lead starts with the same phrase we’ve just seen, but follows it with a couple of new phrases. On the first one, we slide from fret 9 to 11 on the D string, land on the 9th fret on the G string, and bend fret 12 on the B string. We repeat this phrase twice.

The next phrase is played over shape 1 of the E minor pentatonic scale. The phrase is very similar to the previous one, but the last bend is now on the high E string instead of the B string! We also repeat this idea twice!

To finish with, we stay in the same hand position but we now play the 12th fret on the high E string, and the 15th fret on the B string, and let them both sustain together, adding quite a bit of vibrato!

The solo

The solo is a proper psychedelic solo, built around major and minor ideas in the key of E. This means you can use both major and minor blues licks, or target some of the notes Jed’s demonstrating in major:

Or in minor:

We can do that because the accompaniment leaves a lot of space for Hendrix to improvise, so feel free to play around and experiment with everything you want!

The second theme

Let’s return to the theme that we started with! The first part is exactly the same as the calls and answers we’ve seen at the start. We then have some variations with a couple of new phrases.

The first one is played on shape 3 of the E minor pentatonic scale. We start with fret 7 on the A string, jump to fret 5 on the D string, then bend fret 7 on the D string twice!

The second phrase starts in the same way with fret 7 on the A string, then fret 5 on the D string. After that we play a semitone bend on the 7th fret of the D string, pluck it again before releasing the bend.

To finish with, hit the 5th fret on the D string, and jump to the third fret on the E string.

We then finish this theme with the same first two phrases we’ve seen at the very start!

The outro

After this second theme, we’ll have another verse, followed by another break. The harmony then returns to what we heard during the solo. The song fades out, and you can use the same phrase we’ve seen at the end of the break, playing fret 15 on the B string and fret 12 on the high E string!

Remember to experiment with this outro, and if you want to learn more about Jimi Hendrix, you can have a look at our Jimi Hendrix course below!