Little Wing Deep Dive The Missing Manual For Jimi's Greatest Ballad

We’ll start at the very beginning. Little Wing is more complex than a blues song. The progression is longer, it has more chords, and it mixes major and minor chords together in a beautiful (but potentially confusing) way.

In Section 1, I’ll teach you about major and minor scales, how they line up in parallel and “relative” configurations, and explain how the chord progression for Little Wing is derived.

Did you know that before he was setting guitars on fire and smashing them on stages around the world, Jimi Hendrix cut his teeth by playing rhythm guitar for R&B artists? These experiences shaped his approach to rhythm guitar for the rest of his career.

In Section 2 of this course, I’ll teach you about the R&B feel that Jimi brought to Little Wing and compare that to the slower, more deliberate feel that SRV showcased in his interpretation of the song.

Next, we’ll start building your chord knowledge, beginning with the CAGED chord forms in Section 3.1. You’ll learn how these chord forms connect together up the fretboard.

Next, we’ll start building your chord knowledge, beginning with the CAGED chord forms in Section 3.1. You’ll learn how these chord forms connect together up the fretboard.

All those chords can seem overwhelming, so in Section 3.3, we’ll divide the chords into four groups based on where they are on the fretboard. You’ll learn how to play the entire Little Wing progression inside each group of chords.

We love Jimi’s playing because he didn’t just strum chords; he made them dance. He added notes, jumped forward and backward, retraced his steps, and made each chord sound alive.

In Section 4.1, we’ll review the CAGED chord shapes, and I’ll show you which notes around each chord form can be used for embellishments. Learning these notes is the first step towards decoding Jimi’s style of playing.

In Section 4.2, I’ll show you how to flow between overlapping chord shapes using embellishments to smooth the transition. I’ll show you every place in the Little Wing progression where overlapping chord forms can be used, and the embellishments you can use for each combination.

In Section 4.3, I’ll compare and contrast how chord embellishments sound at different tempos. Playing Little Wing at a slower tempo (like SRV) allows for more elaborate chord embellishments. But at higher tempos (like Jimi Hendrix), your chord embellishments have to be concise, with a focus on keeping that R&B feel.

First, I’ll explain why our regular soloing shapes, primarily based on Minor Pentatonic scales, don’t work in Little Wing. Then, I’ll show you a simple set of shapes based on the Major Pentatonic scale that will allow you to solo correctly.

Next, I’ll teach you the secret to making your solos sound perfect. You’ll learn about target notes. These are special notes that you need to target at each bar of the progression. Learning these target notes is the secret to playing great-sounding solos in Little Wing.

With 3 primary target notes to choose from at every bar, there are thousands of possible combinations to choose from. So, how do you choose which target notes to play?

Introducing Soloing Paths. I’ve chosen 10 unique combinations of target notes. Each combination forms a path that can be played at several places on the fretboard.

You’ll have an animated guide video for each path that highlights which notes you should play at each bar. As you become comfortable playing the target notes, you can fill in the gaps with slides, bends, and short licks.

Reference Solos

I’ve also recorded a reference solo for each soloing path at multiple places on the fretboard. You’ll get tablature for each of those solos. That’s 43 solos in total, each comprised of intermediate-level licks that connect the target notes of each soloing path.

• 10 Unique Soloing Paths
• 43 Different Placements
• 43 Reference Solos With Tablature
• 43 Guided Soloing Paths Over A Backing Track

In Section 5.4, I’ll teach you a few soloing techniques that don’t fit the “Target Note” approach that was taught earlier. Combining these techniques with target note soloing will give you a more polished, professional sound.

Finally, to put a cherry on this sundae, I dissected four recordings of Little Wing, extracting each unique chord embellishment that Jimi played. There are 66 different chord embellishments, and they’re all taught note-for-note in Section 6 of this course.

The embellishments are organized by bar, which makes them much easier to remember and study. You’ll have tablature for each and backing track loops to practice over.