Grateful Dead Music Forum

Well I just came back from New York after not playing guitar for a week and realized I had nothing to play and not knowing what to practice. Clarifying skill level usually limits the answers that people give, so Ill just say im not a beginner. List songs your playing by ANY band, techniques your working on, warm ups you use etc. Thanks a lot, I know youll list only good things.

after not playing for a while i run through all diatonics then jam on some intensely melodic songs like ship of fools, or peggy-o, if you can make those sound good you're warmed up

:(

Since you frowned and I get to see my new avatar i'll give it a go. For playing by yourself I would go with the following:

Dead tunes:
Ramble on Rose, check out Jdarks for loads of riffs. Great chord progression with tons licks that follow the chord pattern.
Gamorah
Terrapin (ending part after they sing Terrapin!)
Ripple
Brown Eyed Woman
Deep Elem Blues
Loser
Deal
Morning Dew

Learn to fingerpick and no better way then playing Gary Davis/Jorma tunes at:
http://perso.orange.fr/idj/tablemat/tablemat.htm

Hesitation Blues
Death dont have no mercy
I know you rider
Embryonic journey
That will never happen no more
Water song

Blues stuff:
Key to the highway
Thrill is gone
Stormy Monday
Red House

Other stuff:
Honkey Tonk Woman
Dear Mr. Fantasy
Over the hills and far away

I would pick any tune from the above and check out utube for videos and the net for tabs and listen to it and play. They are all tunes that sound good with one person playing with or without singing.

Utube is a great place to learn techniques, check out ebicks and jdarks stuff. Much easier to pick up new things by video opposed to reading a tab.

I'm not one for finger training and memorizing a bunch of scales. I find it tedious and no fun. I can go to work if I want that. I do highly recommend learning the caged system for being able to play leads and chords all over the neck as it open up a lot of possibilities to change and add to tunes.
Hope this helps

Thanks a lot. that really helps Ive also never been able to find Jorma tabs.

I've been working on Divided Sky by Phish a lot recently, and it's a fun one to warm up to because it's pretty diverse. I also like to play Little Sadie, Sittin' in Limbo, Loser, or Black Peter when I pick up my acoutic for the first time in a while.

Also, Mississippi Half-Step has been on my cycle of "first plays" when I pick up my guitar for practice. Fun song to play, and lots of spots to do little riffs/fills throughout, so it's a good mix of chords & fingerwork.

Besides the basic stuff to be learning - picking styles, rhythm and timing and forming solo's etc.
It helps to learn different guitarists styles. Take some of the blues like Albert King, when Jerry played the blues I often hear a lot of Albert King thrown in there. It's no bad thing, always have your own style but take other bits and different tricks and mold them into one.

You can't do wrong by studing Hendrix and one thing to look at with Jimi was the way he played rhythm - which is often overlooked because of all the flashy solo stuff. Same with the GD look at Weir's style, an awful lot to be learned there.

I'm not talking about copying them, just looking at their ideas and seeing what you can do with them in your own style and ideals.

Pigpen wrote:Well I just came back from New York after not to play guitar for a week and realized I had nothing to play and not knowing what to practice. Clarifying skill level usually limits the answers that people give, so Ill just say im not a beginner. List songs your playing by ANY band, techniques your working on, warm ups you use etc. Thanks a lot, I know youll list only good things.

I feel the same way after not playing for at least 2 weeks. What songs would be best for me to practice. Back then I was playing classical songs.

I will almost always start with finger exercises. Here is one of them I found on the web a while back:
1234 1243 1342 1324 1423 1432

Play that on each string. Use a metronome, alternate pick and gradually increase your speed. Once you've mastered that pattern, move on to the next.

2134 2143 2314 2341 2413 2431 and then...

3124 3142 3214 3241 3412 3421 and then..

4123 4132 4213 4231 4312 4321

I've found this has helped my fingers be more independent for lack of a better term. It kind of broke me out of the same old major scale patterns I was using.

Good luck!

John in San Diego

I like to play along with Dead Concert DVD's. I also play along with an Allman Bros DVD. I keep the remote handy for rewinds of good technique close ups.
YouTube is a great resource for technuque ideas, too.