[Jon S.]

My band is adding this song - we're gonna do it as a medley with He's Gone, believe it or not! - so I went back to "re-learn" it (last played it in a band decades ago). What I found is that, just in my head, I'm hearing the opening chord leading into "A spanish lady ...," etc., as an Em, yet every transcription has it as an E. So I found some YouTube examples of the Dead playing it, closed my eyes, and darn if I could not hear either the 3rd or the flat 3rd in the chord. So I'm now playing it ambigously as an E5.

Am I on to something or just losing my hearing?!

[Rusty the Scoob]

I always jam E minor pentatonic all over (or in my case under?) that tune with no problems.

I can see this working with He's Gone... really it works with any other tune, especially ones in E.

The Birdsong>Other One>Birdsong that Keir sat in on a few weeks ago and is proudly posting to every one he knows is a good example. O1 wasn't on the setlist but it just sort of started bubbling up from the drummers during the monster Birdsong jam. I started going along with them but Mike said we'd already played O1 to the same crowd last week. The result was a few minutes of really cool tension where I hit every G# on the bass trying to drag it back to Birdsong before finally giving up and playing the G natural.

http://www.archive.org/details/Fennario ... ir.Anzelmo

[Stevo123]

I'm pretty sure that an Emajor chord is technically right when approaching the vocal section. However, during the jam you can do all sorts of weirdness with the chords and play the major and minor third against each other like a mother. A lot of times I even drop the third and play a 9th instead. The seventh and even flat 5 work in nicely sometimes if done right as well.

Btw, well done Fennario.

[strumminsix]

I've dug and dug through this tune over and over again and had many good chats with many smart guys and we landed on this:

It is mostly E major
Jerry solos using a minor 3rd
When Jerry is soloing keep the rhythm more to an E5 (omit any 3rd)
When the chord accents come use a full E major
In the verses/chorus use E major
In the "abyss" play around E5, with E major (lightly), Esus2, and Em.

[tigerstrat]

My band is adding this song - we're gonna do it as a medley with He's Gone, believe it or not! - so I went back to "re-learn" it (last played it in a band decades ago). What I found is that, just in my head, I'm hearing the opening chord leading into "A spanish lady ...," etc., as an Em, yet every transcription has it as an E. So I found some YouTube examples of the Dead playing it, closed my eyes, and darn if I could not hear either the 3rd or the flat 3rd in the chord. So I'm now playing it ambigously as an E5.

Am I on to something or just losing my hearing?!

You are onto something, my friend. Major/minor ambiguity is a major pillar of Grateful Dead jams, particularly the two granddaddies, Dark Star and Other One. It's like moving the ball around in that old wooden "Labyrinth" game.

[willmusic]

"It's like moving the ball around in that old wooden 'Labyrinth' game."

Well put!..

[bobbyo1986]

I know I'm a little late on this but topic but I always use a full e chord leading into the verse, the instrumental and lead I play in a minor mode e dorian, also Bm natural works nice. I usually move around rhythmically with double stops based around e min scales when playing rhythm. There are some chords such as E5 or A 6/9 G 6/9 (notice by 1980 in bird song the first 2 chords bob hits is what im referring to, high e string - 12thfret b string- 12th g string-11th for the A 6/9 move that back a full step for other chord, these chords leave opportunity for someone to hit a major note or transition the mixolydian mode for a jam or song like birdsong. If you play rhythm guitar and use double stomps frequently You'll notice you have a lot of voicings that allow for freedom in transitions in jamming