He gazed out over 30,000 people who had been waiting all night for him to take the stage. He was the headliner of the biggest concert the world had ever seen. His fingers touched the strings and a shock wave shook Woodstock, making rock ‘n’ roll history….

Unless this sounds like the way your concerts usually go, it may be time to turn back the clock and cop some licks from legendary six-string slinger Jimi Hendrix. He cast a long shadow over today’s guitarists, but his cool factor is due to an imagination that went beyond mere guitar playing.

His famous rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner,” performed at the quaintly named 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair, has been imitated, but never duplicated.

Wahs work wonders for the slow slides when you can put the pedal to the metal and wail high notes.

Yet during the past nearly 40 years, it’s inspired everyone from Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and the thrash-metal band Exodus to mondo-banjo player Béla Fleck and classical cellist Matt Haimovitz.

If Hendrix’s style could electrify a soggy rain-soaked crowd that had spent the night ankle deep in a muddy field, think what it could do for you!

The Gear

His performance of the “Star-Spangled Banner” began with that rock ‘n’ roll sound—big, thick, and distorted! Before modern distortion pedals, fuzz pedals recreated the classic ’60s tone of an overdriven tube amp with torn speaker cones.

Players had used screwdrivers and razor blades to slash their speakers before shows.

Hendrix preferred to destroy his speakers, amps, and guitars during his shows, sometimes driving the headstock of his guitar through the speaker cabinet grill, so for the most part he stuck with a Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face unit you can still buy today (it’s now manufactured by Dunlop).

Any distortion or multi-effects unit with a fuzz setting will work nicely for your electric violin, giving an even richer high E-string sound than is possible with other distortion pedals that stores sell.

But avoid using that shrill high E.

Hendrix actually tuned his strings down a half step, and guitar strings are an octave lower than violin strings to start with.

Let’s Get Rocked

When it comes to gutsy power, violists and cellists do have the edge. Forget about vibrato, but dig into those portamento slides! The fast stuff is just going to be a blur, so make every note count.

Your classical teacher may have told you to play with a singing tone, but imagine what it would be like if you showed up with a Vox Wah-Wah pedal. Hendrix literally kicked one into gear about a minute into his performance, working the vowel sounds between bass and treble resonances like a scream.

Wahs work wonders for the slow slides when you can you put the pedal to the metal and wail high notes. They let you create sweeping rhythms or contours over fast stuff, too.

The soaring melody of his “rockets’ red glare” also shimmered with a Uni-Vibe effect, like an old Hammond organ. The Univox Uni-Vibe came out in 1969, just months before Hendrix played Woodstock.

Hendrix used that effect more than just about anybody else, but that means if you plug one in next to a fuzz and wah, it could sound more like imitation than inspiration.

So what should you do?

Express Yourself

Learning from Hendrix means learning to be yourself. Check out Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner” on YouTube, rent a copy of Woodstock—3 Days of Peace and Music on DVD (Atlantic/Wea), or watch my own electric-violin interpretation on Youtube (youtube.com/watch?v=5X62ycnb1XQ).

Apply to your own playing these priceless lessons:

1. Be a musician first, “Wild Thing” second. While performing the first notes, Hendrix was delicately sneak-tuning his strings—before bending them beyond recognition.
2. Don’t just play with pedals, let them play you. Check out the awesome feedback he gets out of his pedal effects without fingering a note.
3. Use your imagination. How many different kinds of sirens/explosives can you hear in this rock ‘n’ roll masterpiece?

Hendrix? Imagination. ‘Nuff said!

—GREGORY WALKER