[mraugustwest]

hello everyone,

so i was reading a collection of posts that i was searching and a common theme throughout them was the mythical and amazing bag-o-tricks that jerry developed over them many hours/days/years of practicing. i was searching for different practice suggestions and had decided to develop a collection of tabbed out exercises and tricks that i could put together into a decent practice routine. it occurred to me that others might be interested in putting together their favorite tricks/riffs/runs that they have found particularly insightful as to how jerry played and approached the use of different musical weapons, so to speak.

so what are your favorite jerry-esque exercises? how about little riffs that he seemed to use? anyone want to share them with the greater community?

i was thinking that this thread could be a dump for tricks and exercises that would be nice to have all in one place. tabbed out stuff would be great. a good thing to try and include would also be any music theory that'd go along with the bit (i.e. mode info, scale info, where you found it and how it could be used...that kinda thing).

anybody into the idea???



there could be a bobby bag and a phil bag too if folks are into it...

[strumminsix]

IMO, the #1 trick of Jerry's was to play the melody of a song. Then after a couple go arounds play something nothing at all like the melody but equally awesome.

[mraugustwest]

I 100% agree on the melody. What about some other tricks?

Regarding the melody, that is a huge trick that really makes the music accessible to everyone. For me, learning any song is:

1. Listen to it
2. Learn the melody
3. Learn the chords
4. Roll around in the melody

[caspersvapors]

heres one type of scale pattern Jerry used ALL the time

I present this using an A major scale, but its a pattern you can use anywhere

e|---12--10--9---------10--9-----------10---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-----------------12-----------12--10------12--10--9--12--10--9------10--9----------9--------------------------------|
G|----------------------------------------------------------------------11---------11--9-------11--9------11--9----------|
D|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12----------12--11|
A|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

I ran out of room but you get the idea

[mraugustwest]

that's cool. thanks! yeah, this is what i was thinking. some exercises, scale patterns, little tricks and riffs that seem to repeat frequently.

it's a gigantic bag-o-tricks...

[rkubik]

Getting back to the melody, that is for me the most important. To me Jerry is by far the most interesting guitarist that can sing the song with his guitar, if that makes sense. It goes far beyond just hitting the chords.

As stated earlier major scales and chromatics would be pretty essential to practice and learn. For me if I am trying to get something down I have to practice while listening to his timing otherwise it just goes to hell pretty fast. I have heard it said here before but the more I practice the better Jerry gets