Hendrix Style Jam Track

The synth rock jam solidified your foundations — now we stretch them. This is where the concepts from the whole level come together. We take the exact chords of All Along the Watchtower — C minor, B flat and A flat — and turn them into a full Hendrix-style rhythm-lead workout. But be clear: this isn't just about playing like Hendrix or Frusciante. Chord-specific licks are usually treated as an advanced topic, and here you're learning them inside a basic three-chord jam — which makes this essential material for any style of playing from Grade 4 onwards. There's an audio jam track and a tabbed examples video below. The goal isn't to copy licks: it's to improvise your rhythm parts and vamp on this for five minutes at a time.

What you will learn:

• The chord progression: All Along the Watchtower's three chords as barre shapes

• Step one — little chips and stabs, not strums, with the thumb-over mute

• Step two — hammer-ons and flick-offs, done differently over minor and major chords

• Step three — slides, especially on the thinnest strings of the five and four chords

• How to practise it: improvise, vamp, and where to go next

The Chord Progression

Three chords in a progression of four: C minor, B flat, A flat, back to B flat. One small shape change does most of the work — the minor chord drops the middle finger, the majors bring it back. You can also work in the major seventh shapes from earlier in the level, particularly on the A flat chord, which instantly takes the progression somewhere more summery. That contrast is worth hearing: the same three chords can be a chilled playlist vibe or pure Hendrix, depending entirely on how you attack them.

Step One: Chips and Stabs

Rule one of this style: little chips, not big strums. Short stabs with the root note underneath, keeping the barre finger in place, exactly as we built in the muted rhythm lesson. The thumb over the top of the neck is really crucial here — it mutes string five and frees the rest of the hand. If you've seen this thumb-over approach before and still had questions about why players do it, this progression is the answer: it's what makes the whole style physically possible.

Step Two: Hammer-Ons and Flick-Offs

This is where the chord-specific thinking comes in, because you decorate minor and major chords differently. Over a minor chord like the C minor, think minor pentatonic position one — the classic lick is pick, hammer on, flick off, hammer on, pick, and it could not be more Hendrix. Entire Chili Peppers songs are built on that one move — Snow is a perfect example. Over the major chords, the trick is to free up your little finger by changing which barre shape you use; the added note always sits at the same fret as your third finger. Work each chord one at a time before joining them up.

Step three: slides

Slides are what make the style breathe. The easiest ones to get are on the thinnest strings, particularly over the five and the four chords — wherever your first finger sits on those chords, there's a slide available into it. This is genuinely something to play about with rather than memorise: once the stabs and the hammer-on licks are comfortable, slides are the seasoning you add by ear. For a masterclass in restraint, listen to the first pass of the Under the Bridge progression — notice how little Frusciante is actually doing: single strums, then just a little more each time round.

How to practise it

It might seem like a lot, but there are only three things to get under your fingers: stabs, hammer-on and flick-off licks, and slides. Put the jam track on and improvise your rhythm parts — not solos, rhythm parts — and vamp for five minutes. Then have a go at some lead over the top; my All Along the Watchtower tutorial shows how to solo over these three chords. We've also got a full course on this style with Mike Bradley if you want to go deeper — but this lesson puts it in context for the general guitar player. If you want to reach Grade 5, this is a style you have to study.