Grateful Dead Music Forum

What's up Icecreamkid?
Love the Ice cream kid graphic btw - use it on my youtube page. Well yours is the question of questions - unfortunately I'm not too much of a Bob guy though improvisation is pretty much the same whether you're aiming for bob or jer or just about anyone for that matter.

I'm not the most technically proficient guy so I'd say searching out this board using the search function is a good idea - using keywords such as modes, scales, improvisation, theory, caged approach etc.

Getting your fingers and head wrapped around the major scale (Ionian - Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do) up and down the neck is the most important place to start - all the modes work off of the major scale. From there the Pentatonic Major and Minor (so called "no wrong note") scales should be learned - again up and down the neck. Learn to play chords up and down the neck as well.

Once your fingers are able to work these scales up and down the neck in the various positions you'll then be able to not think about it as much and you'll think more about adjusting scales, modes and keys within chord progressions to add color and emotion to your playing. To use a running analogy, it's not a sprint - it's a marathon!

As far as bob goes it's pretty much the same approach but through chords, though he riffs single note lines a decent amount along with chords and chord fragments. If you have a good ear check out some of the soundboards at the archive from '73 or so - some really clear bob from that era. As I said the Bob thing isn't really my thing but you can also play chords and chord fragments in the form of scales.

Hope this gets you started!

Bill