Author: richard

Jerry’s first solo from China Cat, 5/19/74, Portland Memorial Coliseum. This solo is short and sweet and every note fits perfectly – nothing wasted, it’s punchy and it follows the chords perfectly.

Jerry kicks things off with a really tangy bend over the G chord, from the 5th of the scale to the 6th (this bend is reprised right before he heads to the D chord in measure 4).

The little rhythmic phrase in measure 3 is really catchy and would be a great lick to lift out of this solo and plug in just about anywhere. It should be pretty easy to transpose it to other positions as well.

Over the D7 chord Jerry gets a little spicy, as usual, with a nice little run up the flat 7 of D before he starts to climb the neck again, winding his way up to the 15th position before laying it down for a soft landing over the C to D chord transition that takes us back to the verse.

Crazy to think that such a perfectly constructed solo was fully improvised!

Here is a fantastic Jerry Eyes solo from 8/6/74, Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, N.J. This solo is the first solo, so that means it is over an Emaj7 -> Bm chord progression.

I suggest taking this 4 bars at a time. Each 4 bar section (2 bars of Emaj7 followed by 2 bars of Bm) is a coherent statement. So no need to learn the whole solo, just take one of the 4 bar sections and incorporate some of the contained phrases into your vocabulary.

This is a passage from the China Cat -> Rider transition from Portland Memorial Coliseum, 5/19/74. I start the transcription with a gnarly 8 bar bluesy, mixolydian passage that builds to a climax, dropping into a beautiful Feelin’ Groovy solo from Jerry.

Here’s the Tennessee Jed solo from the famous “Close Encounters” show: 1/22/78 at the McArthur Court gymnasium on the University of Oregon campus.

This solo really builds from a mellow onramp low on the neck to an absolutely bonkers climax way up high. Getting the timing right on the ending phrases took a while. One of my favorite Jed solos.

The second chorus from Jerry’s Bertha solo from the great 5/7/77 Boston Garden show (one day before the legendary 5/8/77 Cornell show).

Lot’s of great licks to be grabbed from this one, and a great example of how Jerry primarily played out of CAGED chord shapes on songs like this.

This is a SUPER funky electric piano solo by Ozzie Ahlers on Positively 4th Street. Taken from a fantastic Jerry Garcia Band show: 12/21/79 at the Keystone in Berkeley CA.

Ozzie is mostly playing out of G major pentatonic with a healthy sprinkling of flat 3s. And it is heavily syncopated, just really funky. I wish Ozzie had stayed with the JGB for longer. He gave them a really great, different sound and wasn’t afraid to stand toe-to-toe with Jerry on solos.

Here’s a quick lesson on a couple of nice reusable – and very Jerry-ish – licks I grabbed from his first Scarlet Begonias solo from the 5/21/77 show in Lakeland Florida (Dick’s Picks 29).