Jimi Hendrix - Hey Joe (drums by Jouxplan) Video

This is my attempt at covering the incredible 'Hey Joe' by Jimi Hendrix, whose drummer, Mitch Mitchell, was just absolutely phenomenal. Mitch and Jimi were made for each other, the two of them combining in a way that has rarely if ever been matched in the rock world.

The only reason I even attempted to learn this drum part was because my band decided to cover it - its now a regular part of our live set. Otherwise, frankly, I would have stayed well away from it! I find Mitch's style extremely difficult to copy - there is a beautiful swing to his playing, lightning fast fills and a busy'ness that never detracts from the song. The guy never sits still, and the drums just soar with Hendrix's guitar and lyrics in a way that few other drummers, in my view, have ever matched. It's wonderful.

Watching other YouTube drummers doing this cover has been fascinating. Very few seem to be playing the 'swing' style, and most seem to play improvised fills throughout. This is a shame. There is an awful lot of subtlety going on in the original, and timing is very, very tough.

As I sat down to learn this, with my band, I initially thought that all I needed to do was to just improvise and play whatever fills I liked, all over the song, and it would be ok, so long as I kept time. Wrong! Very wrong! In fact, the drum part builds and sits with the lyrics and guitar part beautifully from the opening bar until almost 3 minutes have passed! The drums do not 'plateau' until close to the end! And if you overplay the opening few minutes, it just don't work.

So, I gradually noticed that every fill for the first 2'45 mins or so was absolutely perfect for that moment in the track, and that in fact, if I wanted my band to play this with any degree of accuracy and 'feel', then I was going to have to memorise as many of the fills as possible, and play 'em in the right order! Aaaarrrgggghhh! Suffice to say, what you see in this video is me trying to play the same fills for the first 2'45 - I do not start to improvise until after that point, and even then, there is a certain structure to adhere to.

The opening bars / cycles are really, really tough, if like me you are NOT a jazz player. Also, notice that he plays the loose hi hat and snare linearly to start with. Awesome. Getting that swing feel on the hi hats is a nightmare, with the snare part moving around. The opening four fills are all awkward, and there are some great accents and fast snare work snuck in. Then we move into the triplet bass / tom fill, and then the super-fast massive fill that is just ridiculous!!!! Having recovered from that moment, you are then faced with the snare fill designed to sound like gunshots - linking perfectly with the lyrics at this point - and this moves across the bar and hence is difficult.

The next big fill involves playing 'eights' on bass drum at the same time, except these are in a 12/8 feel - brilliant!

Anyway, you get the gist. The whole thing is incredible to drum to, and is not to be under-estimated. My effort is by no means 100% accurate, but it at least gives an idea of what is going on!

I have posted two videos, back to back, of this. One is with yellow sticks, which is of little use given the yellow wall behind! However, I play the opening minutes reasonably fluidly, and so I wanted to post it. The second video has pink sticks you can see, but is less fluid to start. However, I think it is better than the first vid in the second half - you will have to decide for yourselves!

Hope you enjoy!

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calumwl: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE have a go at 'hot for teacher' i'm begging you

jouxplan: But I just said I can't play it!!!!! I have no idea what the hell is going on! I mean, has the guy got like 3 arms and four legs or something?!!!!! Seriously, that type of drumming is something that I really do struggle with. As you can see from all my vids on here, I do try and play lots of different styles, but 'Hot For Teacher' is just a beast. Just to please you, I will listen to it again a few times, to see if I can begin to understand it. But that don't mean my arms/legs will do it!

calumwl: Thnaks man, i know u can do it

johnstonutd: both takes sound shit hot to me! amazing drumming, as ever! by coincidence i saw a documentary last night about hendrix, in it it said he didnt write "hey joe", id allways assumed it was his song, but he made it his anyway! like "all along the watchtower"! also roger daltrey said in the documentary that he was with clapton when they both saw hendrix play for the 1st time, at the end of the gig, clapton turned to daltrey, and all he said was "im off home to practice" then walked out!

jouxplan: Ha! Ha! I thank you! I'll ask the singer/guitarist in our band about those two stories! He is a Clapton / Hendrix know-it-all, so it wil be interesting to see if he knows about them! For my part, I am only just learning about these guys, having been more of a Genesis and The Police type drummer for my whole career!. Whatever - I love the idea of Clapton walking out and going home to practise!! That's wild!

ba2734: First off, great cover, it sounds amazing and I'm learning it currently, and it's very difficult to learn. Are your crashes a little too tight? They sound like they aren't getting the full sound they should be getting, especially with those brilliant zildjian's you have. Maybe that's just me.. Last thing, how do you get your sound on videos? I don't see any mics, are you just getting it from the camera? If so, can you tell me the name of the camera because it sounds great.

jouxplan: Thank you! Crashes - it's more to do with the fact I am not using wooden sticks, but Flix Sticks, and I try and play quietly. Flix are bundles of nylon. Details on my channel and jouxplan website (link on my channel). Correct - no mics. I simply play along to a cd with my quiet flix. The camcorder is a Panasonic NV-GS300, it's about 4 years old I think. Don't know what equivalent model is today, but it is a fairly decent one. And yes, it does well on these vids!

Gooders45: Love the new Bass 'reso' head. Looks great! is it back to the future styling you have sort of gone for? Whatever, i really like it! Alex

jouxplan: Glad you like it! No, it was not meant to be 'Back To The Future' styling, but now you mention it, I can see what you mean! :-)

jouxplan: Yeah, we just do covers - Clapton, Hendrix and things. Have a look at our website - address on my channel. Funnily enough I have been thinking about doing some kind of video that shows how I approach learning a new track. Might be interesting for some of you, but difficult to film and edit for me! The gig went very well, cheers! Except for Hey Joe :-( we had huge problems with the monitors on that track and could not hear ourselves playing. I am not posting THAT vid!

m1bug: Good job Sir.

Kubiakmimi2: awesome

acmalone1977: this dude ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jouxplan: Ha! Ha! I thank you!

socomate: this is absolute quality. i see what you mean about the fills being perfectly conceived for each part. ever thought of doing jimis all along the watchtower

nappyroots81: are your fills single strokes or paradiddles? This is an extremely hard song to play. Great job though! Mitch would be proud

jouxplan: Many thanks! Yes, I think each of Mitch's fills is perfect for the moment - I love how he basically improvises so 'perfectly', it is incredible. 'Watchtower' - No, not so far! My band plays Hey Joe, Redhouse and Little Wing, which are the ones I've learned. There is a vid of my band doing Little Wing on my 'Other' Playlist. But Hey Joe is one of two songs in our live set that scares me to death! Always tough to pull off :-) (The other song is Radar Love - also on my Channel)

jouxplan: That's very kind of you! All the strokes are singles. I don't know if that is how Mitch did his, but I learn my stuff by ear, and play what I think I hear - which means I am often wrong on the fine detail! Yes, this song has taken me months to get 'semi comfortable' with. It is very, very hard. My band play it at gigs, and it scares the crap out of me! Still, audiences always cheer this song and appreciate my drumming, which is nice. Or perhaps they are cheering my facial expressions!

nappyroots81: I was trying to learn the song and bought a Hendrix book and they have the fills notated as paradiddles which is really hard. I gave up, needless to say :-P Your timing is excellent so singles, doubles, paradiddles, it doesnt matter. EXCELLENT JOB!

jouxplan: Jeeeeezz! If I thought I had to play the fills as paradiddles, I would have given up too! Godam books - they have a lot to answer for!!! I have to say, I cannot really see why they should be paradiddles. Seems to be making it far more complex than it needs to be. I guess there is that ONE massive fill, just before "I shot her down!", where it could be a paradiddle. However, super-fast singles get the same effect, if you ask me! Certainly, it is THAT fill that is the hardest in the whole song.

ssd88130: all i can say is WOW. This is one of those song that is often overlooked. and you killed it great job.

jouxplan: Thank you! Glad you liked it!

simoxnirvana1: why you play with brushesh?...good

jouxplan: I like 'em! Have not played with wooden sticks for 25 years. Also, I do not mic my drums for these vids, just play along to background music - wood sticks would be way too loud, especially on Hey Joe!!! More info about my reasons on my jouxplan website - link on my channel :-)

Monarchist111: PPL,WHERE I CAN DOWNLOAD mp3 of hey joe drum backing???plz heeelp

Author: jouxplan; Uploaded: Jun 27, 2009; Duration: 7:51; Views: 3335

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