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About This Lesson
In today’s lesson I’m excited to return to Hey Joe, one of the first songs I ever learned on guitar! More than 20 years later, it’s been a blast to return to this song and put together this step-by-step guitar lesson.
I always assumed this song was a Jimi Hendrix original, but a recent request from a Song Notes member turned me on to this 1962 acoustic version from Billy Roberts. Hendrix released his own version in 1966, and was one of many artists playing this song in the early 1960s.
I love that the Roberts acoustic recording sounds enough like Jimi’s famous version, but never gets too complicated. You can hear every note cleanly, and this makes the song so much more accessible to us mere mortals. Sign me up!
My guitar lesson will walk you through everything you need to play Hey Joe… whether you’re after the intro, strumming tips, licks & fills, or the bassline runs. I teach all of those things on my acoustic guitar, with plenty of helpful exercises & step-by-step tips to help you build up to the full version.
- 0:00 Lesson Overview
- 2:02 Chords & Strumming
- 4:58 Add’l Strumming Tips
- 6:51 Licks & Fills: E
- 10:18 Licks & Fills: A, D, G
- 14:46 Bassline Runs
- 18:30 Intro Riff
- 25:54 Playthrough with Practice Track
Quick Links
Practice Notes 5 pages
Lesson Discussion
Play-Along Jam Track
Here’s a video practice track that you can play along with when learning any part of this song. After a count-in measure, this goes through the intro sequence (3 measures of E) and then repeats the verse section multiple times. After all this, the whole thing repeats. Chord changes are shown on screen, so you always know which chord is coming next. The track lasts around 8 minutes, which makes for a nice little practice session.
Related and Recommended
If you’ve never heard it, give Billy Robert’s acoustic recording of this song a listen! This was ~5 or so years before Jimi Hendrix recorded his cover. I’ve based my lesson off this version, for the most part.
If you’re curious about the key this song is in, check out this video. Adam Neely is the best. In this video he does his usual great job uncovering the various nuances in answering this question.
If you’re looking for the exact tab Jimi Hendrix plays, check out this video from Mr. Tabs:
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