Grateful Dead Music Forum

OK - This'll be my 2nd and last thread for tunes I post to YT. I plan on puttin up a bunch so I don't want to clutter up the joint.

I don't think you are cluttering up the joint at all with these. As a matter of fact, I've made it easier to add youtube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i80_uuf6C7c
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Since you're that wizard guy hangin out behind the curtain, I knew you'd come up with something. You da man.

Keep a postin' the updates. It helps a total space cadet like my self remember to practice and learn something new!
Thanks great stuff

really cool! quite a nice job here. id never attempted to play this song before and you inspired me to. i pretty much got the gist (with the help of your intro instruction), just curious about a few finer points.

can you explain what you're doing after "i sing the blues nearly all night long"? are you switching back and forth between A and D or just playing with suspensions on A? I can get it sounding ok but i definitely like the way yours comes out better.

also, it sounds like you are playing mostly major chords (except the Bm of course) with just occasional 7th thrown in. Is that right? When do you like to spice it up with them?

Rev_Roach wrote:can you explain what you're doing after "i sing the blues nearly all night long"? are you switching back and forth between A and D or just playing with suspensions on A? I can get it sounding ok but i definitely like the way yours comes out better.

Hey Rev,
Yea, pretty much back and forth between A and D though no D bass, just strings 2-4 for the D. What you might be missing is the hammer in the A chord. I'm hammering 1/2 step from the flat 3rd to the 3rd (g--5h6-). My index finger is barring the 1-3 strings.

Rev_Roach wrote:also, it sounds like you are playing mostly major chords (except the Bm of course) with just occasional 7th thrown in. Is that right?

Yes. Much of it is either a 7th or a 7th with the 1 and 4 as well. At -2:29 I start a little chord work with the E7 and then 2 different inversions of A7. At -2:18 I'm hitting the 7-4-1 over the E chord. That's E7 -A -E.

So a succession of chords (a run) could pack some pop.

At -3:13 I'm sorta doing the same thing over the A chord except I'm picking it out instead of strumming it, A7 -D -A with an added hammer to the third on the A.

During the verse I'm hitting the A7 at times at about the last beat or so of the A as a transition to the E. You'll find this in a lot of tunes.

Rev_Roach wrote: When do you like to spice it up with them?

The 64K question. The dom 7th chords are so versatile, in a structure where they work at all, you can use them just about anywhere.

I think of them as packing some power, having a little funk, working as a transition in a phrase or chord change, possessing a cool combination of pending resolution yet having enough juice to stand alone.

It's not so much where it's put as much as what is going on in conjunction with it. What's going on before and after.

I suppose the real answer is I use it when I feel it fits according to my sense of the role it plays and where I'm trying to go.

I'd say just start plopping in different inversions here and there within your lead and see how it works for you. After a while you'll develop a more natural flow of where it makes the most sense for your sense of what role it plays.

Thanks for the tips, I was hoping you would be nice and thorough and you exceeded my expecations. Time specific examples and everything. That first part about the A-D was exactly what I needed. Rock on and thanks for sharing.