This month Jon Bishop delves deep into the techniques of one of the most influential blues, rock and folk guitarists of all time, aiming to unlock many of his playing secrets.
Welcome to this month’s main feature, which focuses on the guitar styles of Jimmy Page. Page started his career in the 1960s and quickly became a sought-after session guitarist on the London recording scene. In 1966 he served his apprenticeship in R&B supergroup The Yardbirds and in late 1968 he formed Led Zeppelin with fellow members John Paul Jones, John Bonnham and Robert Plant.
In this article we aim to identify many of Jimmy’s key techniques and innovations from his Led Zeppelin period, with a view to incorporating these ideas in your own style.
Page’s early recordings featured him mostly using a Fender Telecaster. However he is arguably most associated with the classic combination of his sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul (named Number 1) plugged into a Marshall stack. Other guitars such as the black Danelectro 3021 and the doubleneck Gibson EDS-1275 are also iconic additions to the arsenal.
Jimmy’s vibrato and string bending technique are very much at the heart of his style. His fiery approach often puts the emphasis on feel and attitude over clinical precision. However, the overall effect sounds exciting, evocative and musical.
Jimmy often includes large string bends in his solos (tone-and-a-half and even two-tones!). He also often bends all the Minor 3rds in the scale slightly sharp. These quarter-tone bends help the notes to fit and also adds a dirty blues-rock flavour. If you then incorporate his finger vibrato and bending styles with shape one of the Minor Pentatonic, the results will immediately start to sound very 70s blues-rock.
To give you a chance to try out some JP flavoured ideas we have recorded four jam tracks complete with tabbed performances. Our first jam is a fast-paced romp that draws inspiration from the band’s first two albums. Jimmy was a master of riff writing and these were often built from Pentatonic scales and the Blues scale with its b5 note. The soloing is frenetic blues-based rock and showcases some of Jimmy’s favourite concepts such repetitive phrases and large, ear-grabbing string bends.
The second track is a slow blues number inspired by songs like I Can’t Quit You Babe and Since I’ve Been Loving You. Page had an authentic sounding blues approach, very much in the Peter Green vein, yet still left plenty of room for his own unique approach and interpretation to shine through.
Page is an accomplished acoustic guitarist too, and both six and 12-string acoustics are put to good use in Led Zep’s back catalogue. Therefore our third jam
