what are the most user friendly books out there?
"Mama said, don't go near that river."
A place to talk about the music of the Grateful Dead
Last likes
-
By mkaufmanRe: Last night's show: the National Symphony Orchestra plays the music of Jerry Garcia Tue Sep 08, 2026 9:41 am -
By tdcrjeffRe: Last night's show: the National Symphony Orchestra plays the music of Jerry Garcia Tue Sep 08, 2026 7:35 am -
By TacosauceRe: Last night's show: the National Symphony Orchestra plays the music of Jerry Garcia Mon Sep 07, 2026 11:57 am -
By Jon S.Last night's show: the National Symphony Orchestra plays the music of Jerry Garcia Sat Sep 05, 2026 8:39 am -
By Darkstar860Re: Searching for a JBL K-120 Fri Aug 14, 2026 7:41 pm
by best i guess i mean a book with the lyrics all on the same page. i am good with tabs and stuff but i can never get the verses correct. short term memory thing i guess
"Mama said, don't go near that river."
I think the two best tab books are Authentic Guitar classics Vol. 2 and Very Best of Grateful Dead Authentic Guitar Tab Book, but neither one has lyrics all on one page. You can't fit tab and lyrics all on a single page. What I do is learn the tabbed parts and then print out a lyric sheet (usually from this site) and a separate tab sheet and go back and forth. There's also a Garcia songbook that is in Word form that many of us have and if you pm me with an email, I'd be happy to send it to you.
"The only funeral you should ever try to interrupt is your own, and that should be a full-time job." -Kinky Friedman
It's pretty tough to find a practical GD tab book. For what you're asking, you may consider the Grateful Dead Favorites to Strum and Sing. The songs are in text with chords over the words. Has 26 songs. 24 of them are on two facing pages making it easy to do the whole song without a flip. 14 of them have a line or two of tab for the main riff.
It's actually 27 songs because gdtrfb is medlied onto nfa
I'd recommend this book to a beginner/intermediate learning the songs or to anyone using a music stand needing to see the words and chords without flipping the page.
It's actually 27 songs because gdtrfb is medlied onto nfa
I'd recommend this book to a beginner/intermediate learning the songs or to anyone using a music stand needing to see the words and chords without flipping the page.
Stumbled across this site- it's that GD book that was being sold in the lots in the early 90's! Can't speak to its accuracy for chords OR lyrics but it was a pretty user-friendly format... too bad all of the pages are reproed in jpeg form- makes it tough to do your own editing in Word.
http://members.tripod.com/malfalfa1/mainroom.htm
http://members.tripod.com/malfalfa1/mainroom.htm
"There, in huge black letters, was 'The Grateful Dead'. It just... cancelled my mind out."-Garcia
I have the entire Deadstein songbook in Word. It's awesome. Send me your e-mail address and I'll get it to you.
Deadstein is cool and helpful but there are a few inaccuracies on some tunes.
i guess i should have worded the post a little better. between this site and others the tabs are there and are great. lyric sheets are what are needed i guess. thanks for the reply and the info. that is why this site rules all. can't wait for the shows.
"Mama said, don't go near that river."
I have word files of many of the tunes with lyrics, chords, and tabs of key intros, riffs, and some solos. Most of the songs are crammed onto one page (as I also hate turning pages), sometimes I have a second with just solos tabbed out but the lyrics are always on the first page. Tabs are what I feel are the best ones taken from various sources including ed, bill, jdarks, strummin, pete, trecking, postings to the song discussions, etc (thanks all). PM me if interested and I'll send an email of the zipped word files.
tigerstrat wrote:Stumbled across this site- it's that GD book that was being sold in the lots in the early 90's! Can't speak to its accuracy for chords OR lyrics but it was a pretty user-friendly format... too bad all of the pages are reproed in jpeg form- makes it tough to do your own editing in Word.The guy who put that book out is named Arjay and he's from Cincinnati.
http://members.tripod.com/malfalfa1/mainroom.htm
I have a little story about that book and him. I joined my first GD cover band in Feb.1993 named Left For Dead and started to learn the repetior (sp) one song at a time....kinda a painful process without any book, website, ect.
I was at the 3 Cap Center shows in March 93 when they broke out Loose Lucy and BTWind and I come out after the show the first night and immediately saw some kid selling those books for 10 bucks. I took a look at a couple songs I already knew and saw the chords were basically correct so I bought one. There were some incorrect chords in some tunes, but I fixed errors as I learned more amd more tunes and added a lot of other tunes we played in there too. It is quite a compilation at this point.
In 94, I ran into a guy selling the same book only a newer edition. Started rappin with him and it turns out he's the guy who put it all together. We (LFD) had just figured out Lost Sailor>Saint (not in his book)and I was telling him about it. Anyways, I traded him the chart which I sent to him in the mail for a new book which seems to be what's you get on that link from TS. Turns out that book has been invaluable over the years. I still have it and it gets used constantly for lyrics at practice to this day. I then proceeded to run into him at almost every show I went to til the end. Last time I saw him was Pittsburgh 95 in a grocery store before the show. I'm guessing he's still out there and maybe I'll see him in April. He never did put LostSailor>Saint in there even though I gave him a very detailed chart. I do see though that he has St of C in his list and that it's not entirely right. I guess he didn't use the chart I gave him.
Last edited by mttourpro on Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
mttourpro wrote:That's awesome! I believe I met him in Chicago (94?) and remembered his name as AJtigerstrat wrote:Stumbled across this site- it's that GD book that was being sold in the lots in the early 90's! Can't speak to its accuracy for chords OR lyrics but it was a pretty user-friendly format... too bad all of the pages are reproed in jpeg form- makes it tough to do your own editing in Word.The guy who put that book out is named Arjay and he's from Cincinnati.
http://members.tripod.com/malfalfa1/mainroom.htm
They used to sell this book at a head shop in Evanston called "The Parking Lot".
One of the dudes working there said the guy was local in a stoned voice!
