Grateful Dead Guitar Lesson: 7-4-89 Deal Solo – Lesson 6

Part 6 of a 12 part course on how to play Jerry Garcia's awesome solo from the 7-4-89 Deal with the Grateful Dead. For the free & printable tab of this whole solo, keep scrolling down.

In this lesson, you will learn the guitar techniques that Jerry Garcia uses when improvising. You'll also learn the music theory behind why his licks sound so good.

Jerry Garcia's 7-4-89 Deal Solo with the Grateful Dead – Lick 6 of 12

Lick 6

• This lick brings us into the second solo.  Jerry starts us off with a killer lick that is based on the A major blues scale.  This lick sounds very different than any other of the licks we’ve heard so far, and that because Jerry suddenly incorporates chromaticism.

• Specifically, he uses chromaticism to connect some of the chord tones.
  • Wikipedia: Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale.
  • All that means is that we are using connected sequences of notes that are outside of the scale.

• Over the C#7, Jerry combines this use of chromaticism with another technique – borrowed chord tones.  We start the second half of this lick on the B note (19th fret, E string).  B is the 9th of the A chord, and B is also the 7th of the C#7 chord.

• Jerry chromatically connects this note to G# (16th fret of E string), which is the 5th of C#7.

• That means that jerry connects the 9tth of the A to the 5th of C#7. He then goes back up the chromatic scale from the 5th to the 7th.

Gear Used for This Video

Video Recording:

• Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G7 (G7KS) DSLM Mirrorless 4K Camera with 14-42 mm Lens Kit (Silver)

• AmazonBasics 50-Inch Lightweight Tripod with Bag

Performance:

• Custom 50th Anniversary Tiger Guitar by Lieber Guitars 

• Original 1966 Fender Deluxe Reverb Amplifier with
  • Celestion Classic Lead 80 guitar speaker, 8 ohm

• Pickboy Pos-a-Grip Jazz Classic Tortoise Shell Cellulose 1.50mm Picks
  
• Planet Waves Custom Series Right Angle Guitar Cable

Audio Recording:

• Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB Audio Interface

• MXL 990 Condenser Microphone with Shockmount (vocal capture)

• LyxPro Balanced XLR Cable Premium Series Cable, 

• Sennheiser E609 Silver Super Cardioid Instrument Microphone (guitar capture) 

• Audix CABGRAB1 CabGrabber Mic Clamp for Guitar Amps/Cabinets (holds Sennheiser e609 to guitar cabinet)

PDF Tab for Jerry Garcia's 7-4-89 Deal solo with the Grateful Dead: