Jimi Hendrix's and a few others' Guitar Techniques.

trotskyismyniece posted this on Jan 19th, 2010 at 03:01:08 pm:
"The thing that always sort of blows my mind is how much guitars just look like toys in his(Jimi Hendix's[Albert King's/Stevie Ray Vaughan's]) hands. He's always holding the neck at such a weird angle almost up near his shoulder, and his hands are just too huge." Trotskyisnyniece is speaking about Jimi Hendrix but the same is true for Vaughan and Albert King, though they all held their guitars in different playing positions.
I agree with the Hendrix hands/playing technique mystery thing. When you see footage of him playing, it's not like you see him playing the notes. His hands just make a big swathe of movement about the guitar neck. Jimi, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King all seem the same in this respect. You watch a video of them playing and no matter how closely you watch, they seem to play the most amazingly exact riffs while employing this un-definite, unclear, "broad swathe" fingering technique(like an actor "playing" guitar in a movie with fake guitar playing movement). You watch other players and you can see what they are doing visually in relation to what you are hearing. Not so with guys like Vaughan, King and Hendrix. I played with both BB and Albert King; I have sat there and WATCHED Albert CAREFULLY at rehearsals and jams. I could hear and mimic what he did, but to WATCH him, I couldn't tell what the fuck he was doing on the guitar neck!
Albert King tuned his guitar to a 6th or 11th chord(depending on mood and material), like a steel or "Hawaian" guitar.
Stevie tuned normally, albeit a half step down from "CONCERT" tuning.
Neither of those facts have any bearing on being able or NOT being able to determine by observation what they were doing as far as fingering technique.