[Guyute24]

In my band, I play lead, but i also lend alot to rhythm too. i guess my strong points are some of the "bassy" riffs that jerry does, like in alot of their countryish tunes (cumberland, minglewood, maggies farm, etc) my best solos are in It's All Over Now, They Love Each Other (73 style), Good Lovin', Women R Smarter, Dire Wolf. I feel like I can really get into the bass parts and countryish drawl that jerry was really into. I also can get some of bobby's percussive chunky rhythm style down. i'm a little drunk. what's everyone else's strong points, and how do you feel you really emulate the dead's sound through your playing? peace, mike

[bucketorain]

for the most part I play rythem cause I'm not in a band, but I also run the solos between verses...

[tigerstrat]

I think that when you hear "chunky" rhythm being played, that's usually Jerry, especially if it's mid-tempo and one of his vocals like Eyes Of The World, Scarlet, Brown-Eyed etc

[Chuckles]

Our other guitarist sings most of the tunes, so he usually plays a straight conventional rhythm. Leaves me trying to be fleet of fingers and feet to switch between pups and pedals as the moment dictates. To answer the question of which I do best...

neither!

[tigerstrat]

I can do a fair bit of Bobby's Weather Report Prelude, and I usually will throw in a serviceable "HAH!" amongst my Weirist compadre's howlings on such tunes as Sat Night or Estimated....

[CaptainTrips]

I think that when you hear "chunky" rhythm being played, that's usually Jerry, especially if it's mid-tempo and one of his vocals like Eyes Of The World, Scarlet, Brown-Eyed etc

Man I love that chunky rhythm . . . . I find myself practicing it all the time cause I love the way it sounds. Bouncing off the bass notes and then chunking, then bouncing again . . .

[pappypgh]

I'm the only guitarist in our band, so I try to do as much of BOTH parts as I can manage....it is not easy. PLUS, I think I struggle a lot on some tunes. It is tedious to say the very least. China Cat's probably my best....I start w/ the Garcia riff, then pluck a little Weir in there...then do the fullout Weir riff, then go back to the Jerry riff when I start singing (I WISH I could continue the Weir riff whilst singing, but NO WAY). I give the first solo to the keyboardist (which is very UN-GD-like, but it really sounds good), then back to singing over the Jerry riff, then I do a solo > the bridge, continuing to play the Garcia riffs, then back to singing over the Garcia riff. After the 3rd verse, I tend to start the jam off with licks more along the lines of Weir 71-74...as he used to basically take the jam...I will try & intermingle some Garcia riffs, but my soloing tends to sound more Bobby-like sometimes, just naturally....as I'm not a natural lead player.

It is a lot of fun when I'm on my game. There are many songs where I make the conscious effort to try & bounce back & forth and there are also many songs where I make the conscious effort NOT to sound like EITHER of them and just flow as myself. Something I'm trying to do more & more - especially w/ the vocals.

[old man down]

Pappy, interesting, your way of doing China Cat. Mine is similar. For solo acoustic guitar, living room stuff, Garcia low notes to usher it in, followed by Bobby riff, but the Bobby riff stops when the lyrics come in and then it is all Jerry, all the way to the Bobby transition segment leading into I Know You Rider. (There, Jerry lays back on the chords, letting it run out to see what the backdrop can provide, and then he starts in after Bobby's final "chords.")

But for playing both of their stuff, I used to play only Bobby stuff, with an occasional lead. My rhythm was more full bodied than the other guitarist; it just filled the void, almost difficult to hear, but take it away and the high wire act would fall. What was cool about playing Bobby's stuff was that in trying to emulate his style you push yourself toward playing that style, and before you know it, if you don't do it exactly the same way, you at least get a very similar result. After a few years you think the same way, too, which is a fringe benefit that will last you a lifetime. Your rhythm will always have a heightened aspect. Rhythms within rhythms.

Bobby's stuff is harder to learn than Jerry's. You need to get into his head. He's already playing rhythm the way he does, natuarally, so in trying to mimic that style of play you have to get up to speed somehow, to be on his level, to then study what he may be doing. But chords alone have little context to support them and your attention drifts away when trying to learn chords and chord rhythms. With Garcia right there in the learning mix it is a wonder that anyone gets good at playing the way that Weir does.

Jerry is my focus these days. I'm working on Cumberland Blues which is extremely fast paced. Jerry amazes me in where he is coming from. When he takes the reigns of the song, he doesn't just begin playing the lead, he launches into playing the lead. By throwing himself into the leads they immediately ratchet up to an autoresponse hearing/picking technique as he unconsciously mental counts the central beats of the measures. To do that you have to have complete confidence in your playing and really understand what you're doing, which Garcia had for Cumberland Blues. I'm more and more convinced that it must have been his banjo playing that taught him autoresponse things to allow him to master his lead techniques of this song because the lead riffs have a banjo-like quality to them.

The hard part of learning Jerry's style involves believing that you can play masterly like him. The slightest doubt on your part and your playing falls completely off the chart, reduced to playing a melody, but lacking sparkle. But if you are in a learning session, you're listening to slowed down playbacks of his stuff, then trying it yourself, and repeating this process over and over, eventually you can actually play small segments with the same authority, even though slowed down. My hope is that exposure to this "feeling of authority," that of complete command of the obstacles in front of me, that this feeling will wear off on me and my playing will improve a slight amount with each session. Then, cumulatively, over time, a noticeable improvement will come about and when it all clicks finally, then I'll be able to speed up to whatever speed I can and I'll still be comfortable. Seems to be working fairly well so far.

Which do I do better? Probably Jerry. I'm a student of Jerry Garcia these days. Several lifetimes of material out there from Jerry to study.

[tigerstrat]

So does the keyboardist do the Bobby figure during the China Cat verses?

In the days of the "classic" lineup of Zen Tricksters, Rob voiced a lot of Bobby parts, as does the keys guy in a Seattle semi-GD band In Lak'ech

[deadguise]

My rhythm guitarist sings most of the Jerry songs so I have to do Bobby stuff (when he sings) as well as attempt the Jerry parts.