Hendrix chord

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Hendrix chord, G7#9:G B D F A# (A#=Bb) Hendrix chord A Hendrix chord as arpeggio then simultaneouslyProblems listening to the file? See media help.
Hendrix chord, G7#9:
G B D F A# (A#=Bb)
Hendrix chord
A Hendrix chord as arpeggio then simultaneously
Problems listening to the file? See media help.

While jazz had used the sharpened ninth and other complex voicings built on the dominant seventh, the guitarist Jimi Hendrix is reputed to have introduced this chord to pop music (as it was known in the '60's). Now known by some as the Hendrix chord, or a Purple Haze chord[1] it refers to an extended dominant chord using the sharpened or augmented ninth, the dominant 7 # 9 chord, named for guitarist Jimi Hendrix[2].

Hendrix songs built around the 7#9 chord include "Purple Haze" and the chord is implied throughout "Foxy Lady[3][4], both from his 1967 album Are You Experienced?. Though the technique is one of many that contribute to "the dirty, raw, metallic, angular sounds of...many other Hendrix songs"[2] the earliest recorded evidence we have of his use of the chord is on the Isley Brothers "Testify, Parts 1 and 2" (1964), one of the few known recordings he made in the years prior to his discovery in 1966.

The chord is harmonically ambiguous, as it effectively is a major and a minor chord simultaneously (the augmented ninth being in effect a minor third above the tonic) and is thus similar to the chord referred to as a mixed third chord. It may also be found in the tonally ambiguous octatonic scale. It is an example of how Hendrix would embellish chords "to add new colours to the music, often derived from his own roots in black music"[2]. "In essence," one author has written, the Hendrix chord is "the whole of the blues scale condensed into a single chord."[4]

Hendrix chord, G7#9, as an uncommon pentatonic scale on G
Hendrix chord, G7#9, as an uncommon pentatonic scale on G

Hendrix later used the sharpened ninth not only on the tonic pedal, E, when performing "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" live, but also on C and D as well[4] which would give eleven notes rather than five. The chord may also be considered jazzy[5] rather than bluesy. As such, dorian may be the scale most commonly used for the 7#9 but the mixed third allows flexibility[6].

Though the augmented 9th dominant chord was a favorite of Jimi Hendrix, it was not his exclusively and had been used as far back as the bebop era of the 1940s, notably on the Rachmaninoff-inspired introduction to Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker's arrangement of the popular standard "All the Things You Are." Instances of the augmented ninth chord appear with some regularity in blues and rhythm-and-blues of the 1950s and 1960s, but guitarist Billy Butler’s use of the chord in Bill Doggett’s "Hold It" (1958) proved so memorable that musicians began referring to it as the "Hold It" chord, at least until Hendrix "appropriated" it through "Purple Haze." The chord had also been used previously by Hendrix's contemporaries in songs including the Beatles' "Taxman," the opening track of Revolver (1966), and "I Feel Free" from Cream's 1966 debut album Fresh Cream; both songs predate the release Purple Haze. It is also used in the opening of "Kid Charlemagne" from the Steely Dan album The Royal Scam, released in 1976.

The chord is favored by Pixies lead guitarist Joey Santiago, with D7#9, reminiscent of the opening to "Hard Day's Night", opening "Here Comes Your Man" and F7#9 featured on the chorus to "Tame" against the three chord rhythm guitar part's D, C, and F[7].

Hendrix chord, C7(#9), as it may be played on a guitar
Hendrix chord, C7(#9), as it may be played on a guitar[8][9]

[edit] Further reading

  • Hanford, John. "With the Power of Soul: Jimi Hendrix in Band of Gypsys" Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, 2003.
  • van der Bliek, Rob. “The Hendrix Chord: Blues, Flexible Pitch Relationships, and Self-standing Harmony,” Popular Music 26:2 (May 2007), pp 343-364.

[edit] Source

  1. ^ (2007). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Rock Guitar Songs, p.58. ISBN 0739046284.
  2. ^ a b c Shapiro, Harry and Caesar Glebbeek (1995). Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy, p.144. ISBN 0312130627.
  3. ^ Roby, Steven (2002). Black Gold: The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix, p.32. ISBN 082307854X.
  4. ^ a b c Perry, John (2004). Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, p.120-121. ISBN 0826415717.
  5. ^ Munro, Doug (2001). Jazz Guitar: Bebop and Beyond, p.58. ISBN 0757982816.
  6. ^ Gill, Danny (2001). Practice Trax for Guitar[sic], p.13. ISBN 0634026216.
  7. ^ Sisario, Ben (2006). Doolittle, p.82 and 90. ISBN 0826417744.
  8. ^ Christiansen, Corey (2006). Mel Bay Rock Guitar Photo Chords, p.45. ISBN: 078667458X.
  9. ^ Aranjo, Karl (2000). Guitar Chord Guru: The Chord Book, Your Guide for Success!, p.5. ISBN: 1569221596. Gives the chord also in first position one semitone lower with root on B

[edit] External links

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Chords
By Type Triad Major · Minor · Augmented · Diminished · Suspended
Seventh Major · Minor · Dominant · Diminished · Half-diminished · Minor-major · Augmented major · Augmented minor
Extended Ninth · Eleventh · Thirteenth
Other Sixth · Augmented sixth · Altered · Added tone · Polychord · Quartal and quintal · Tone cluster · Power
By Function Diatonic Tonic · Dominant · Subdominant · Submediant
Altered Borrowed · Neapolitan chord · Secondary dominant
With Names Elektra chord · Hendrix chord · Mystic chord · Petrushka chord · Tristan chord · So What chord