Little Wing - When the verses are 10x harder than the solo...

Maynehead

I've been trying to learn this classic for a while now but tonight I've really sat down and tried to go through it.

Such a hard song to play! Spent a couple of hours listening and playing and only managed to get to the end of the first verse... The little improvisations around the chords that Jimi does are really tricky to play clean, not helped by my short fingers not being able to reach some of the notes.

Funny thing is I usually breeze through the rhythm sections of songs and spend a long time on the solo. For this song I can improvise a solo easily enough, but I'm really struggling to improvise anything over the chords. So, I'm reduced to trying to learn what Jimi is doing on the verses pretty much note for note.

And this is just remembering the notes... to get anywhere near the feel and the dynamics that are essential to Jimi's playing I fear will take a lot longer...

Anyone feel the same or got any tidbits of advice for playing this song?

BahHumbug

I feel the same.  I decided I was going to learn it at the start of the year.  Having never had a go at Hendrix before, I thought it was about time I absorbed some of his style.  Even found some really good quality tab lying around on t'web.  But, yeah, it's tricky.  That project ha snot ptrogressed much at all......

Grunfeld

Maynehead said:

 ....I'm really struggling to improvise anything over the chords. So, I'm reduced to trying to learn what Jimi is doing on the verses pretty much note for note...

And this is just remembering the notes...

I think you can go at it a different way which might be easier.  Jimi's solo is pretty distinctive, and has a large number of signature licks which you probably do want to learn note for note so that it sounds, well, like that that solo.

But the verses are different and I'd be inclined to learn first a simpler version of what he does, and once you're happy with that it will make learning an exact version of the verses easier.  Trying to learn the notes without an idea of the patterns would be a mare of a job.

Basically, learn the basic "Hendrix-isms" of how he embellishes major chords and minor chords and it will take you a long way into understanding what he's doing on "Little Wing" in particular (where's there are so many of 'em.)  Check out YT for upteen number of "how to play like Hendrix" ideas rather than exact transcriptions of the song.  Once you've got those down it'll be easier.
(And you'll have pretty much the entire RHCP catalogue in your pocket

Maynehead

Yeah, that's a good suggestion. I've always found that learning the theory first makes learning the notes much easier. I think the problem is I thought I could attack the song off the bat because I've become pretty quick at learning new songs, but Jimi's style is such a departure to what I'm used to that I should have started from the bottom and worked my way up.

Definitely worth seeing it through though, as it has really given me a glimpse into a completely new way of playing which hopefully, like BahHumbug says, will be absorbed into my own palette.

nickp

looked at the intro last week - what @grunfield said.  work out the chords for each bar and what hendrix is doing to embellish then go for getting to the chords and doing something similar.  he'd probably never play it the same twice but was more than likely re-circulating broadly the same ideas 

cosmiccarrot

I found this guys vid pretty useful...

Modellista

cosmiccarrot said:

I found this guys vid pretty useful...

That's pretty cool.  I've been "busking" this one for years after a glance at the chords, but it's never been properly right.

That's just the sort of playing I like - essentially fairly easy to play (no flashy technique or shredding), just an attempt at melodic perfection.  Will have a crack at nicking that, definitely.

Plectrum

I think Tim Pearce has a Little Wing lesson on Youtube.

mike_l

Take parts from Jimi, SRV, Hammett, Skid row Clapton and anyone else who's done a version, and mould your own version.