The electric guitar intro of Little Wing is probably the most famous and inspired solo guitar composition of the 20th Century. In my 30 years of giving guitar lessons almost all of my students make it known that they would like to learn guitar in the style of Little Wing purely on the basis that it is beautiful.

The chordal embellishents of Little wing are derived from simple diatonic harmony. Jimi Hendrix was major in introducing dynamic chord embellishments to guitar music as opposed to static chord playing. His innovative chord style was literally unequalled before his arrival on the world guitar scene. The fluidity of his guitar technique is now a standard to be reached in contemporary electric guitar performance. If you want to learn guitar to a professional standard then this idiom of embellishment is now the norm for all electric guitarists.

Contrary to popular belief Jimi Hendrix was a master of Music Theory. Though not acquired academically his implicit and innovative use of music theory was on the par of great composers like Bach and the like. Little Wing demonstrates his beautiful watery use of intervals and understanding of orchestral spread. More amazingly, of all the renditions of the song, he never played it the same twice, always tapping improvised dynamic chordal harmony, the roots of which was based in jazz.