Guitar Sessions 34: What would Jerry do?
Jerry Garcia was, no doubt, one of the greatest rock guitar improvisers ever—and not because of chops or speed, but because of his imagination.
In the Grateful Dead and his own solo projects, Garcia had the ability to spin out solos that kept uncovering new ideas. Rather than a showcase of licks or pyrotechnics, his solos were like stories with endless twists and turns and surprises.
You can learn about his style through transcriptions of recordings and trying to re-create passages note for note, but to me a more interesting and productive question is to ask: in a given song or situation, what would Jerry do? What is the underlying approach he would take?
Through performing Grateful Dead music in my acoustic collective Dead to the Core, and through teaching Dead songs to guitarists in videos and workshops, I’ve thought a lot about these questions. And this episode of Guitar Sessions lays out what I feel are four secrets of Jerry’s lead guitar style.
Watch my video lesson above and download the tab/charts on Patreon.
More
Watch a previous Guitar Sessions episode on Garcia’s solo in “Touch of Grey.”
Learn Grateful Dead classics for acoustic guitar in this Homespun video series.
Read my complete 1993 interview with Jerry Garcia and David Grisman in the book Rock Troubadours.
Learn more about Dead to the Core: An acoustic celebration of the Grateful Dead.
Join Patreon for chord/lyric charts and guitar tab for every episode of Guitar Sessions, plus live guitar workshops every month.
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