Red House Guitar Lesson

This absolutely epic blues track is Jimi Hendrix showing the world that he is a blues player at heart. Yes he can do the rock thing, the psychedelic thing, the pop thing etc… But at the heart of his playing and his character is a great blues player that wants to be heard. This track is a classic 12/8 feel 12 bar blues, and we'll break it down for you piece by piece, section by section, starting with the notorious intro lead part. So, let's dive in…

Red House Intro

Ok so the first thing to establish is that this track is physically played in the key of B, but sounds like Bb. This means Hendrix is playing that B7 chord on the 7th fret of the guitar, but the guitar is tuned down a semitone, making the 7th fret sound like Bb rather than B. Our recommendation is that you learn it along with me in B, just as Hendrix plays it, then tune down a semitone when you come to play it along with that track!

With that out of the way, we can get into the actual track! We're using a standard 12/8 style 12 bar blues structure in the key of B blues and the whole intro solo is one time round this structure. So let's just remind ourselves of that structure here:

As for what we're playing over the top of that for the intro, in the video I walk you through each lick in detail so follow along with that to grab all the exact frets. As for the wider view, which is important to establish, there are three main elements to the solo. We have the B7 chord at the beginning (played as a D shape), the B minor pentatonic and finally the B major pentatonic. It's the combination of these three that make the solo what it is. Let's take a look at the shapes we're using for your reference:

Finally, before we move into the verse section, it's worth noting that the whole first part of that intro solo which is guitar only, is played over a silent version of the first 4 bars of the 12 bar. That's why when the bass and drums finally come in, they are playing the E9 chord, as we're on bar 5 at that point, as shown here:

Red House Chords & Licks

Now we're getting into the bulk of the song, and I believe the best way to approach this is by learning 4 "Hendrixisms" that we can apply to the chord progression. Essentially we're looking to develop some call and response. We play a chord, sing the melody, and then use the guitar to "respond" to that with a lick of some kind. Before we dive into those licks, here are a few ways you can play the 3 chords of this 12 bar blues, focusing on the 7th and 9th chord versions.

As we already know the chord structure from above, let's dive into the 4 licks that I am playing in the video.

Each lick can be placed anywhere in your progression, but to start with aim to copy where I place them in the video. The main thing is that you experiment with all of these ideas, and work to get comfortable moving from chord to lick. As always, if you struggle with this, be sure to work through our awesome blues courses to have that more structured approach.

The Band!

If you want to check out the song played by myself, Camille and Harrison, please watch the video above! We had an awesome time filming this, and I hope it provides some inspiration for you as you work through this difficult track. It'll all be worth it in the end!