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As guitarists, many of us are fans of the late, great Jimi Hendrix, who has influenced players in all genres of music, including jazz.
As guitarists, many of us are fans of the late, great Jimi Hendrix, who has influenced players in all genres of music, including jazz.
While Hendrix left a legacy as one of the greatest rock improvisers of all time, he also left his stamp on the harmonic side of the instrument, including a chord that bears his name.
Taken from the song “Purple Haze,” and spelling out an E7#9 voicing, this chord has become synonymous with Hendrix’s playing and is even referred to simply as the “Hendrix Chord” by many players.
In this lesson, we’ll be taking a look at how you can take the Hendrix Chord and apply it to your jazz guitar comping phrases, slightly altering this classic shape to give it a jazzy feel along the way.
Jazzy Jimmy Hendrix Chords
Here are four chord shapes to check out on your guitar, the first being the classic “Hendrix Chord,” E7#9, with the next three being jazzy variations of this important voicing. The first jazzy shape simply takes off the root, creating the commonly used “rootless” voicing for this chord.
The second shape keeps the root off and adds the 5th on the first string to produce a four-note rootless chord. Finally, the third shape uses the b13 note on top of the chord, producing an E7#9b13 rootless chord based on the original Hendrix Chord shape.
Try working these shapes out on the guitar first, to get your fingers around them, and then move on to the comping examples below where these shapes are applied to practical, musical situations.
Jazzy Hendrix Chord Example 1
To help you take these shapes off the page and