Old Curmudgeonly Question

[GADonis]

Why do so many people play Voodoo Chile incorrectly? Don't get me wrong, I'm not a "note for note" guy and I appreciate it when a musician puts their little spin on a song but changing the chords? That seems a step too far. I go to a fair amount of open jams and invariably someone plays Voodoo Chile. It would be me but I can't sing it and play it at the same time so my go to's from Jimi are the equally invariable Red House and Hey Joe. And I'm sure there are plenty of songs I don't play correctly.

Anyway, it seems that quite a few people play G to A for the prechorus and often also play G to A for the chorus. Some reason this change really ticks my boxes. Like the title suggests, guess I'm becoming an old curmudgeon. If someone stood on my lawn and played it that way I would definitely yell at them to get off my lawn.

 

[jxe]

a lot of blues guys focus on tone alone and never get even relative pitch. maybe bring them a chord chart - that would be so funny.

 

[Herr Squid]

You put your finger on the reason your very own self when you said "open jams."

Jam night guys mean you never know what you're gonna get. Some will be great. Some will be fresh out of their bedrooms and totally out of their depth. I remember one Jam Night Guy who I'm pretty sure only knew "Crazy Train." He got a tiny bit better every time he played it, and he was on a long, long journey. I never heard him play anything else. Ever. Another time I listened to three Jam Night Guys play "Takin' Care of Business" in three totally different keys. And they never even heard that they were wrong and never fixed it. That was actually so transcendentally bad that it was glorious.

And Hendrix is nowhere as simple as it often sounds.

 

[GADonis]

You put your finger on the reason your very own self when you said "open jams."

Jam night guys mean you never know what you're gonna get. Some will be great. Some will be fresh out of their bedrooms and totally out of their depth. I remember one Jam Night Guy who I'm pretty sure only knew "Crazy Train." He got a tiny bit better every time he played it, and he was on a long, long journey. I never heard him play anything else. Ever. Another time I listened to three Jam Night Guys play "Takin' Care of Business" in three totally different keys. And they never even heard that they were wrong and never fixed it. That was actually so transcendentally bad that it was glorious.

And Hendrix is nowhere as simple as it often sounds.

Yeah, Hendix used some really cool chord inversions that you don't really notice how much they add to the song until they aren't there.