A Hendrix question to the Forum guitar players

I am a big fan of Jimi's and always had a question about his technique. Since I am not a guitar player, I can only give what seems like a reasonable answer rather than a complete explanation.

Were his large hands and unusually long fingers major contributors to his status as one of the greatest guitarists ever? Jimi often played with his thumb draped over the top of the fretboard acting as a fifth finger and/or extended his fingers beyond the typical range of frets/strings. To me, that would make a huge difference in Jimi's ability to express the genius of what he heard or saw in his mind. It also would differentiate Jimi from many other guitarists. That is a layman's opinion, though. What do the Forum guitar players think and (from a technical standpoint) why? See pics below for examples of what I mean:

 

large hands and long fingers certainly don't hurt, but they don't make you a genius either. hell, i've read that david gilmour can't play barre chords!

 

If you look at the improvisation in the Woodstock film, you can see Hendrix actually doing sort of a walking bass line with his thumb while still fretting chords... that's pretty tough to do with small hands. He isn't the only player using his thumb to fret (this is considered a no-no in classical guitar, but many jazz guitar players do it as well), but the way Jimi does it is pretty tough to copy for a lot of players.

 

I'm by no means a guitar player, but it has indeed been commented in the past that his large finger-span gave him a technical advantage. It's not unusual, though, for a guitarist to fret with the thumb (although it's frowned at in classical style) and as Kevin J points out, the advantage of having large hands was as nothing in Jimi's case compared with having a good musical imagination (and working at it with incredible dedication!).

 

yep, as a mediocre guitarist, I agree that long fingers don't hurt. I wish my fingers weren't so stubby and little.

On the other hand (ha!), Django Reinhardt only had a couple working fingers on his fretting hand.

You make use of what you have. In the case of both Django and Jimi, their fingers - or lack thereof - are part of their overall sound and technique - the individual touch that makes all musician's unique, whether they are blessed with genius or not.

 

Jimi's fingers don't look as long as Robert Johnson's:

 

More to do with his brain than his hands

 

It is all in his effect pedals

 

Er...that is incorrect.

 

Wasn't there other factors, such as his playing an upside down right handed Strat vs. playing a regular left handed Strat?

 

Just kidding of course

 

I would say that the way he uses his thumb play a very little part in his style, as far as what we see in that picture is concerned. The way he is holding his thumb there has nothing to do with what is playing in that case, he is not fretting any stings, he is just using his thumb as a "counter force" (sorry, don't know what proper word to use) while doing a bend. As has been suggested, holding your thumb like that is frowned upon in traditional guitar teaching, but it is standard in blues playing since it adds strenght when doing bends. Also the way he plays a bass line in the Woodstock "Vilanova Junction" is more of a novelty thing. But the way he uses his thumb does play a part in the way he plays chordal rhythm guitar on a song like "Little Wing", freeing up his other fingers to do hammer-ons and pull-offs and other embelishments to the chords, while holding down the bass/root note with the thumb, however this is not an uncommon or unique technique.

But having long (and also thin) fingers and large hands is definetely an advantage, especially when doing large bends and unusual stretches, such as he employed. It also gives greater flexibility as far as fretting certain things. Myself, I have relatively shorter fingers and rather thick fingertips, which makes some things other guitar players can do impossible for me. However I don't think this has much to do with his status as a guitar player either (remeber Django Reinhardt managed to become one of the most celebrated guitar players ever using only two fingers), I think it had mostly to do with the music he had in his head and his imagination, that's where the important aspects of his playing originated.

Edit: Saw the Django example had already been used, and the "it's all in his head" aspect as well, sorry...

 

Tal Farlow had very LARGE hands, which helped him using unusual chord voicings.

 

Wow. Never noticed that...

 

Touch and feel. An instinct for the "right note". A vision.

I'd put appendage shape/size waaay down the list of what made Jimi great ...

 

I think that's one reason why Jimi favored the Stratocaster, it has a more rounded fretboard than say a Gibson electric. Large hands can be helpful, but I think having strong hands and strong fingers is even more helpful.

 

The thumb made a huge difference in his playing style, especially when he was vamping involving a heavy strum like on Killing Floor. It comes into a play a lot also when he is alternating between low and high strings, like in Castles Made of Sand. I can tell you this from years of trying, and mostly failing, to play like him.

 

Allan Holdsworth has huge hands.

 

Lots of guitar players get uppity if you complain about large handed people having an advantage (and it is likely a common fig leaf used by people who are just hitting a practice/ability wall), but large hand size relative to guitar definitely lets you do some interesting things.

You'll note I say relative to guitar; the guitar John Lennon used in his early Beatles career was the Rickenbacker 325, which fits 21 frets into just under 21 inches of neck, while the stratocaster fits the same number of frets into a 25.5 inch neck. I saw an excellent video a few years back of someone reproducing Beatles sound on matching period hardware, and he talked about how, when playing rhythm on rock and roll numbers, John would form a barre chord, then walk his little finger up as many as two frets and back for that rock and roll dunka-dunka-dunka-dunka sound. Roll Over Beethoven demonstrates this, from memory.

So, if you have small hands, you can always get a small guitar! Good luck affording a Rick, but Squier do passable mini-Strats which can apparently be pretty good with some setup and gear replacement. I play short-scale (30") bass which I find infinitely preferable to standard (34") scale, and is a good tonal match for a lot of 60s/70s stuff (Jack Bruce, McCartney and Trevor Bolder all used shorties, amongst others).

 

Jack White does too

 

His hand look like those of a giant and the guitar looks like a toy! But one would think having big fingers like that would also be a hindrance in some cases. I noted above I have rather thick fingertips, which means they have a tendency to touch adjacent strings in an unwanted way. But it can also be used as an advantage, I sometimes fret several strings with the same fingertip while holding a chord (like an open A), not very orthodox.

 

John McLaughlin... Wes Montgomery... Pretty big paws too!

Frank Zappa, small hands... fantastic player! I guess you do with what you have...

 

A quote from Roger Mayer, a man who knows . .

"When you flip the guitar, the actual cavities in the guitar now appear on the bass strings, right? Because the volume control and all that is facing toward your head. So the actual resonances of the cavity do change. What happens then, of course, is that now you're faced with the fact that the actual string length on the bass string is now the other way around and conversely, on the treble strings.

"So yeah, that will make the guitar feel slightly different because the actual string length affects the kind of strength needed to bend the strings. That's one of the reasons we used to tune the guitar down a little bit."

 

What made Jimi Hendrix different is just his personality that you hear in his playing. Even with smaller hands the result would have been pretty much the same.

 

Concepts like guitar genius are debatable, especially with Hendrix. He had a somewhat strange style and feel for guitar playing. Sloppy and loose, but holds together and reflects a soulful touch, and there is a bit of sea-sickness in his playing, which I believe takes a bit of sea-legs to get used to -- something his bands had to contend with. He also wrote good songs and was quite experimental in the studio. In my opinion, his playing never gelled with Mitch and Noel, two musicians who's playing I truly loath. Then again, Hendrix never had a good band behind him -- just competent or semi-competent players, or in the case of Mitch and Noel, two players that were a complete mess.