Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix (Intro + licks)

An embedded YouTube video is missing from here because you have video cookies disabled.
Accept Free Trial

In this video

How to play the intro and a few riffs to Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix using your E minor Pentatonic scale! This is a little more advanced than the previous 9 riff in this series, but shows the potential of this one scale!

Click here to get the chords, lyrics and accurate TAB for this lesson as part of Andy's recommended electric songbook for beginners! 

Neck diagrams for intro

See below neck diagrams to help you understand the intro, which goes between position 1 and position 2 of the E minor pentatonic scale - essential knowledge for improving lead guitar players!

E minor pentatonic position 1

Higher octave in red, numbers indicate intervals proportionate to the E note, shown as 1.

E minor pentatonic position 2

Higher octave in red, numbers indicate intervals proportionate to the E note, shown as 1. These are all the same notes just in a different position!

Basic chords - tutorial

Get more help with this simple chords version on this page

An embedded YouTube video is missing from here because you have video cookies disabled.


What Key Is 'Hey Joe' In? with Adam Neely

Here's a great video by my buddy Adam Neely, which talks super in depth about the music theory behind what key Hey Joe is in. (Spoilers, It's in E!)

An embedded YouTube video is missing from here because you have video cookies disabled.


'Hey Joe' - Original Jimi Hendrix recording

An embedded YouTube video is missing from here because you have video cookies disabled.

Your choice regarding cookies on this site
We use video cookies to embed videos, audio cookies to embed music players, analytical cookies to improve our website, marketing cookies to improve the relevancy of advertising campaigns you receive, payment cookies to process payments, and necessary cookies to enable core functionality.