Little Wing is Surprisingly Difficult to Play

Honestly, I listen to it and think it will be straight forward but it's actually really tricky! Anyone else noticed this? I think Hendrix played so many things that if you do it slightly wrong it just kills the song completely. :sad:

I play that song on pedal steel at a music lab/singer/songwriter night. The changes are really off the wall!!!

Try to start with the Derek and the Dominoes version or the SRV version to get the muscle memory.
Then once you are completely comfortable with that, you can go to the Hendrix version and work out the parts.

Another thing that might help is to download the Audacity 1.3 Beta download.
This way you can download the tune and there is an option to slow the feed and also to remove background noise.
This way you have the guitar part only, and you can quite literally take it a note at a time.
Terry Downs wrote an EXCELLENT article on how to effectively use this program and it is 100% free.
Slowing Down, Learning, and Archiving Guitar Licks
http://www.tdpri.com/category/articles/page/7/

Justin Sandercoe gives a good little lesson on his website for the intro. He breaks it down really well. I had always been intimidated by it and now I can pull off a decent rendition. With a little patience, I don't think it's beyond the abilities of intermediate guitarists like me.

Also, don't worry about playing it note-for-note. Hendrix never did.

^^^ Yeah, that's the thing. Added to the challenge of playing any song so it sounds good is trying to play exactly what the original player did. Often in the case of improvised styles of music, the original player just played what came out, not trying to do it exactly like anything.

And if you succeed at doing it like the original, the best you're going to achieve is a good copy. You'll benefit from the learning experience of course, and I'm not at all suggesting it's bad to learn anything you want to challenge yourself with. I just think it's good to keep it in perspective.

As Stevie says, if you learn anything note for note then at best, all you'll achieve is a good copy of the original and bring nothing of yourself to the music.

Take the original, learn the main parts that you feel are important to the song and then interpret it in your own way.

That's what Derek & The Dominos and SRV did with this tune and their versions are every bit as good to my ears as the original.

Just saying.............

As Stevie says, if you learn anything note for note then at best, all you'll achieve is a good copy of the original and bring nothing of yourself to the music.

Take the original, learn the main parts that you feel are important to the song and then interpret it in your own way.

That's what Derek & The Dominos and SRV did with this tune and their versions are every bit as good to my ears as the original.

Just saying.............

exactly. the chord progression is where you start and it's beautiful ballad with tons of room to improvise. the intro isnt hard once you get comfortable with that style of playing...I love the few live versions hendrix plays which are all different variations of licks and solo. The solo for me is where the magic is.
Is one of the most beautiful guitar solos ever...that an al anderson no woman no cry live. :cool:

but you are correct in interpreting it your own way.

For another challange, try to learn, "Castles Made of Sand". Its a doozie. And even moreso, try to learn "Blackbird", by the Beatles. McCartney is a pretty darned good guitarist, but I never realized it until I tried to learn Blackbird.

Thanks guys! Justin's lesson is great - only lesson I've seen where the guy 1) knows how to play the song correctly himself AND 2) bothers to actually explain each bit.

I've got the first three parts down PERFECT now, where in the last year the only thing I ever got right was the first slide down. :D

And yes, I can play the main part of Blackbird but I really need to learn it properly! :)

I actually find the SRV version even harder. it's constant playing, due to the lack of vocals, and relentlessly difficult. same as hendrix, no 2 bars are ever the same which is a real headache + it goes on for 6 minutes..

I agree and disagree with the note by note / interpretation comments made.

My personal experience, is that if I don't force myself to learn note by note, I cheat myself out of the tricky beats. Not that I deliberatly ignore them, but sometimes you simply let your fingers go "where they are used to going" on the little licks, whereas the artist version is actually slightly different but would force you to make your fingers do somehting slightly unusual.

So, for me, it is best being a good monkey and copy note for note, and if I ever get the song in full, then jam it until I get my own stamp on it.

the chord progression is where you start and it's beautiful ballad with tons of room to improvise.

I use LW to practice "playing the changes" using solo lines that bring out the essence of each chord, and keep the song recognizable throughout. The most difficult passage for me to improvise over is the Bmin-Bb7-Amin movement, but I've managed to learn some effective coping strategies through practice.

I actually find the SRV version even harder. it's constant playing, due to the lack of vocals, and relentlessly difficult. same as hendrix, no 2 bars are ever the same which is a real headache + it goes on for 6 minutes..

I agree and disagree with the note by note / interpretation comments made.

My personal experience, is that if I don't force myself to learn note by note, I cheat myself out of the tricky beats. Not that I deliberatly ignore them, but sometimes you simply let your fingers go "where they are used to going" on the little licks, whereas the artist version is actually slightly different but would force you to make your fingers do somehting slightly unusual.

So, for me, it is best being a good monkey and copy note for note, and if I ever get the song in full, then jam it until I get my own stamp on it.

I think if Little Wing is one of the first songs you ever attempt it would be pretty difficult but if you try to learn lots of little snippets from other Hendrix stuff (like Castles in the Sand or SRV's Lenny) it would probably fall into place easier. Sometimes if you get stuck on one song it helps to diversify and then come back to it. Then everything falls into place. You might not even perfect the other song you diversified to but you will learn something else and when you come back to the original song you can fill in some of the gaps you found hard last time.

A lot of Little wing is just double stops sometimes hammering on and off to another note of the pentatonic. A lot of the double stops are notes in the pentatonic scale but sometimes you need to do them outside of the standard minor pentatonic box (ie. the most common of the five minor pentatonic "boxes" in an octave of the fretboard). The are often an easy slide away ie. about two frets away from the standard position.

I really like the style - I think it defines the Hendrix sound in a lot of ways and he was a complete genius for coming up with it in the combinations he used.

yup. the tabs are really confusing

I think if Little Wing is one of the first songs you ever attempt it would be pretty difficult but if you try to learn lots of little snippets from other Hendrix stuff (like Castles in the Sand or SRV's Lenny) it would probably fall into place easier. Sometimes if you get stuck on one song it helps to diversify and then come back to it. Then everything falls into place. You might not even perfect the other song you diversified to but you will learn something else and when you come back to the original song you can fill in some of the gaps you found hard last time.

A lot of Little wing is just double stops sometimes hammering on and off to another note of the pentatonic. A lot of the double stops are notes in the pentatonic scale but sometimes you need to do them outside of the standard minor pentatonic box (ie. the most common of the five minor pentatonic "boxes" in an octave of the fretboard). The are often an easy slide away ie. about two frets away from the standard position.

I really like the style - I think it defines the Hendrix sound in a lot of ways and he was a complete genius for coming up with it in the combinations he used.

Hey Deepsouth. thanks for that. Yes, it is about one of the first "proper song" I've tried to learn in full, and yes, i've learned Castles made of sand in full too. Took me some time but got there. I understand the similarities you refer too and how learning one helps learning the other. yes, I do "other things" on the guitar too than learn these songs, or I'd go crazy. I understand the minor pentatonics and how SRV / Hendrix play around the chords also. It's just that at this time, it is just about at the edge of my technical ability. I'm not used to learning long runs, hybrid picking etc. so slow progress, but getting there. Thanks.

Honestly, I listen to it and think it will be straight forward but it's actually really tricky! Anyone else noticed this? I think Hendrix played so many things that if you do it slightly wrong it just kills the song completely. :sad:

That's exactly why Hendrix was the best in his generation. He approached the guitar differently than the other top guitar players of the time. Clapton, while great in a lot of ways, was still very deserving of his moniker, "Mr. Cliche". Though he could play those cliches better than just about anyone out there and make it an art form, Hendrix simply rewrote guitar and discovered new territory.

Thanks for the replies, guys! Alas, I can play through the introduction (all I wanna learn for now) of Little Wing! It feels so easy now, thanks to the Justin Sandercoe tutorial - can't believe I used to make such a mess out of it.

Moral of the story - plain tabs don't do Hendrix any justice!