Anyone who ever had the chance of learning how to play the guitar would have probably heard of Jimi Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix is considered as one of the most influential electric guitarists in rock music history. He was known as an innovator with his distinctive style of playing the electric guitar and was hailed as an excellent virtuoso of the instrument even by his contemporary peers.

He achieved worldwide fame in 1967 while playing at the Monterey Pop Festival in Monterey, California. Later, Hendrix further gained international prominence when he headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival where he played his own version of the Star Spangled Banner with his electric guitar.

James Marshall Hendrix was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer. A self-taught rock guitarist, Hendrix was the first guitarist to exploit the sonic tool of feedback as well as the sound of overdriven amplifiers to an extent that previous guitar pioneers have never been able to achieve.

He built his guitar innovations on the influences of blues guitar stylists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Buddy Guy. He was also able to derive some of his guitar style from rhythm and blues and soul guitarists Curtis Mayfield, Steve Cropper, and Cornell Dupree. Traditional jazz was also considered as one of Jimi's varied musical influences. It was rock legend Little Richard who inspired Hendrix to form his own rock group in 1966.

The music of Jimi Hendrix combined a blues, jazz, or funk driven rhythm accompaniment with the high-pitched psychedelic sounds of his guitar play. Hendrix was also one of the first musicians to ever make use of the recording studio as an extension of developing his musical ideas. In the recording studio, Hendrix was able to experiment with the stereophonic and phasing effects during the recording process and made use of it to enhance his musical experience.

It was in England that Jimi Hendrix first achieved some sort of success as a guitar player. Although he was already known as a guitar player in the New York circuit, it wasn't until Hendrix went to the UK. It was in UK that Jimi formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience along with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell.

They toured around the club circuit where the name of the band slowly spread around the music community. His virtuosity and unique showmanship on stage made him a popular draw and was able to release a number of critically acclaimed albums around Europe.

Despite being popular in Europe, Jimi Hendrix wanted to break into the American music scene. His chance came when he was asked to play at the Monterey International Pop Festival where the US audience first witnessed his amazing guitar virtuosity. It was also in this festival that the American audience first saw his iconic burning and the smashing of his guitar to cap his performance.

It was on this festival that Jimi Hendrix finally achieved US stardom which was further established when he played at Woodstock. Just when he was just about to achieve further success as a musician, Hendrix suddenly died of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills on September 18, 1970 in London.

What made Jimi Hendrix great was his unique and innovative style in playing the guitar. He developed a number of styles in trying to create his musical voice. He was a prolific recording artist and left behind more than 300 unreleased recordings prior to his death.

His musical influence and innovations sparked further development of the electric guitar and how it was played. His guitar playing style moved the instrument into a whole new level, giving it a more versatile function than just as an amplified version of the acoustic guitar.

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