Grateful Dead Music Forum

bucketorain wrote:bob is more complicated. jerry once said in an interview, i beleive in guitar player, that there is no real reason to play chords with more than 3 notes, everything esle is just filler and makes the chord sound muddy.

not verbatim, sorry.

i don't agree with that, i mean, you can perfectly make a song with threenotechords, but that doesnt mean more complex chords are worst, or unnesesary, or "muddy", or "just filler"

I don't think it he is sayign that he doesn't use chords with more than 3 notes, but that he rearely voices them with more than three since there are a few other players involved (when playing with the dead). Like whn playing a 7th he may only play the 1 3 and 7 omitting the 5th as to not get a "muddy" souund when those notes are added to those of another guitar, keys, and bass.

If he were playing in a smaller group like trio or something he would likely play more notes, but not when accompanied by so many other instrument. Guitar players in large jazz bands often keep this in mind too.

i didnt say he didn't play them

but that doesnt mean more complex chords are worst

I don't think it was his intent to compare chord structure to german sausage.

bucketorain wrote:bob is more complicated. jerry once said in an interview, i beleive in guitar player, that there is no real reason to play chords with more than 3 notes, everything esle is just filler and makes the chord sound muddy.

not verbatim, sorry.

uhh so that totally disregards jazz then huh

strumminsix wrote:

bucketorain wrote:bob is more complicated. jerry once said in an interview, i beleive in guitar player, that there is no real reason to play chords with more than 3 notes, everything esle is just filler and makes the chord sound muddy.

not verbatim, sorry.

Ya, read it too. You are as close as I can remember.

But every time I think of that quote I think of chords that have 4 notes or more?! I can totally see his point with regards to playing in a very full band like the GD with 3 midrange instruments but I always wondered if Jerry really lived by that statement...

He also said somethin like a full chord on one guitar is like 10 notes on any other instrument. And yeah he said it was 3 note chords. And I definitely hear it from him.

I read the interview too, but I understood it like this:
for example A7:
full chord: 3 Note Chord:
E|--5-- E|--5--
B|--8-- B|--8--
G|--6-- G|--6--
D|--5-- A|--7--
E|--5--

That's the same chord, but it hasn't the thick tone of a full chord. So that doesn't have anything to do with jazz or so...You can play jazz chord on 3 strings too.

fuck that, don't know what I'm doing wrong here^^
the A strig on the right belongs to the full chord, I hope you understand what I want to say.

I'd agree with most folks here, that Bobby wrote more complex chord changes. That said I think the vast majority of what Jerry wrote was simple, be it chords or melody. Aside from a few obvious exceptions like H>S>FT or Terrapin, or the previously mentioned Crazy Fingers, Jerry was a pretty straight forward composer, which I think comes from his strong folk roots. Where JG's complexity came in was in his solos & improvisations, regardless of who wrote the song Bobby, Phil or the man himself.

I think some of his most memorable melodies are some of the most simple, Black Peter or the intro melody of BEW or Bird Song, NSB, Loser, TLEO, etc. None of these songs are overly complex in melody or chord structure. Again where the complexity comes in is in the improvistation. This may start some shit, but it's just my opinion.

The simple riffs he comes up with arent complex persay but damn how do you come up with that? Like TLEO I could nevvvverrr come up with somethin so new like that.

Mr Weir always said that he wrote those chords with the off notes in them so it wasn't predictable adn it was his "signature licks"

So for me Bobby is more complex