Jimi Hendrix - The Wind Cries Mary - Solo & Outro - Guitar Lesson

About The Wind Cries Mary - Solo & Outro

Few guitar solos reward slow, careful study quite like the one Jimi Hendrix plays on "The Wind Cries Mary." Written and played in F major, the solo and outro sit at a relaxed ballad tempo, which can fool you into thinking they are easy. The real challenge is feel: every bend, vibrato, and sliding phrase needs to breathe at exactly the right moment. Hendrix leans heavily on vocal-style string bends, hitting a note and letting it hover before resolving, and matching that phrasing takes more patience than speed. The outro in particular is full of small ornaments, grace notes, and behind-the-beat phrasing that only reveal themselves when you slow things down. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the outro at reduced speed and listen for exactly where each note lands against the pulse. Once the timing and the bends feel comfortable at slow tempo, bringing it back up to speed is straightforward. Pay close attention to how little is actually played: the space between notes is doing as much work as the notes themselves.

• The solo relies almost entirely on expressive string bends and vibrato rather than fast runs, making precise pitch control the main technical demand.
• Playing in F major, Hendrix centres his phrases around bluesy pentatonic shapes with chromatic passing notes added for a vocal, singing quality.
• Looping the outro slowed down is particularly useful for catching the subtle grace notes and off-beat phrasing that are easy to miss at full speed.