Uploaded June 2009 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
This is my attempt at covering the incredible 'Hey Joe' by Jimi Hendrix, whose drummer, Mitch Mitchell, was just absolutely phenomenal. Mitch and Jimi were made for each other, the two of them combining in a way that has rarely if ever been matched in the rock world.
The only reason I even attempted to learn this drum part was because my band decided to cover it - its now a regular part of our live set. Otherwise, frankly, I would have stayed well away from it! I find Mitch's style extremely difficult to copy - there is a beautiful swing to his playing, lightning fast fills and a busy'ness that never detracts from the song. The guy never sits still, and the drums just soar with Hendrix's guitar and lyrics in a way that few other drummers, in my view, have ever matched. It's wonderful.
Watching other YouTube drummers doing this cover has been fascinating. Very few seem to be playing the 'swing' style, and most seem to play improvised fills throughout. This is a shame. There is an awful lot of subtlety going on in the original, and timing is very, very tough.
As I sat down to learn this, with my band, I initially thought that all I needed to do was to just improvise and play whatever fills I liked, all over the song, and it would be ok, so long as I kept time. Wrong! Very wrong! In fact, the drum part builds and sits with the lyrics and guitar part beautifully from the opening bar until almost 3 minutes have passed! The drums do not 'plateau' until close to the end! And if you overplay the opening few minutes, it just don't work.
So, I gradually noticed that every fill for the first 2'45 mins or so was absolutely perfect for that moment in the track, and that in fact, if I wanted my band to play this with any degree of accuracy and 'feel', then I was going to have to memorise as many of the fills as possible, and play 'em in the right order! Aaaarrrgggghhh! Suffice to say, what you see in this video is me trying to play the same fills for the first 2'45 - I do not start to improvise until after that point, and even then, there is a certain structure to adhere to.
The opening bars / cycles are really, really tough, if like me you are NOT a jazz player. Also, notice that he plays the loose hi hat and snare linearly to start with. Awesome. Getting that swing feel on the hi hats is a nightmare, with the snare part moving around. The opening four fills are all awkward, and there are some great accents and fast snare work snuck in. Then we move into the triplet bass / tom fill, and then the super-fast massive fill that is just ridiculous!!!! Having recovered from that moment, you are then faced with the snare fill designed to sound like gunshots - linking perfectly with the lyrics at this point - and this moves across the bar and hence is difficult.
The next big fill involves playing 'eights' on bass drum at the same time, except these are in a 12/8 feel - brilliant!
Anyway, you get the gist. The whole thing is incredible to drum to, and is not to be under-estimated. My effort is by no means 100% accurate, but it at least gives an idea of what is going on!
I have posted two videos, back to back, of this. One is with yellow sticks, which is of little use given the yellow wall behind! However, I play the opening minutes reasonably fluidly, and so I wanted to post it. The second video has pink sticks you can see, but is less fluid to start. However, I think it is better than the first vid in the second half - you will have to decide for yourselves!
Hope you enjoy!
This is my attempt at covering the incredible 'Hey Joe' by Jimi Hendrix, whose drummer, Mitch Mitchell, was just absolutely phenomenal. Mitch and Jimi were made for each other, the two of them combining in a way that has rarely if ever been matched in the rock world.
The only reason I even attempted to learn this drum part was because my band decided to cover it - its now a regular part of our live set. Otherwise, frankly, I would have stayed well away from it! I find Mitch's style extremely difficult to copy - there is a beautiful swing to his playing, lightning fast fills and a busy'ness that never detracts from the song. The guy never sits still, and the drums just soar with Hendrix's guitar and lyrics in a way that few other drummers, in my view, have ever matched. It's wonderful.
Watching other YouTube drummers doing this cover has been fascinating. Very few seem to be playing the 'swing' style, and most seem to play improvised fills throughout. This is a shame. There is an awful lot of subtlety going on in the original, and timing is very, very tough.
As I sat down to learn this, with my band, I initially thought that all I needed to do was to just improvise and play whatever fills I liked, all over the song, and it would be ok, so long as I kept time. Wrong! Very wrong! In fact, the drum part builds and sits with the lyrics and guitar part beautifully from the opening bar until almost 3 minutes have passed! The drums do not 'plateau' until close to the end! And if you overplay the opening few minutes, it just don't work.
So, I gradually noticed that every fill for the first 2'45 mins or so was absolutely perfect for that moment in the track, and that in fact, if I wanted my band to play this with any degree of accuracy and 'feel', then I was going to have to memorise as many of the fills as possible, and play 'em in the right order! Aaaarrrgggghhh! Suffice to say, what you see in this video is me trying to play the same fills for the first 2'45 - I do not start to improvise until after that point, and even then, there is a certain structure to adhere to.
The opening bars / cycles are really, really tough, if like me you are NOT a jazz player. Also, notice that he plays the loose hi hat and snare linearly to start with. Awesome. Getting that swing feel on the hi hats is a nightmare, with the snare part moving around. The opening four fills are all awkward, and there are some great accents and fast snare work snuck in. Then we move into the triplet bass / tom fill, and then the super-fast massive fill that is just ridiculous!!!! Having recovered from that moment, you are then faced with the snare fill designed to sound like gunshots - linking perfectly with the lyrics at this point - and this moves across the bar and hence is difficult.
The next big fill involves playing 'eights' on bass drum at the same time, except these are in a 12/8 feel - brilliant!
Anyway, you get the gist. The whole thing is incredible to drum to, and is not to be under-estimated. My effort is by no means 100% accurate, but it at least gives an idea of what is going on!
I have posted two videos, back to back, of this. One is with yellow sticks, which is of little use given the yellow wall behind! However, I play the opening minutes reasonably fluidly, and so I wanted to post it. The second video has pink sticks you can see, but is less fluid to start. However, I think it is better than the first vid in the second half - you will have to decide for yourselves!
Hope you enjoy!
