In honor of Days Between, here's another Jerry Garcia themed post.
Melody
Jerry's playing is very melodic. Yes he is a master improviser who is always aware of the chords of the moment which is informing his note choices. But, you can almost always hear the foundation of the song's vocal melody line in any of his solos, even as he builds and builds to a higher crescendo with each chorus. I know of no other guitarist quite like this. When I finally chose to start playing music, I chose a style(s) of music such as Irish trad that was all-melody, all-the-time.
Choice of Instrument
If the text-book definition of guitar flatpicker means Tony Rice, Doc Watson, or Norman Blake, then I don't know if you'd strictly call Jerry a flatpicker, per se, but he definitely used a pick to pluck solos and melodic lines. He wasn't just a strummer or finger player. He was a picker. And before he was a guitarist, Jerry was an accomplished 5-string banjo player, a role he reprised in the early 70's while a member of the short-lived yet highly influential traditional bluegrass band Old and In the Way. When you look at it this way, my choice to play tenor banjo makes a little bit more sense. It's an instrument that's tuned like a mandolin, flatpicked like an acoustic guitar, but is indeed a banjo.
Play By Ear - Be In the Moment
Jerry was not an illiterate musician by any means. He would peruse guitar theory books as they came out, and I'm pretty sure he could read music if he needed to, but Jerry was by and large an ear player. If he could sing it or hum it he could play it and that was his preferred way of going about it. It's taken me a long, long time to come around to this way of thinking, but I'm starting to embrace that same philosophy and I'm trying to do the ear training to get there. I don't like sessions where people are looking at sheet music because there is no interaction between the musicians and nobody is listening to one another. I like sessions where people are active and engaged, listening and adapting that day's version of the tune, even if it is a tune like Out on the Ocean that you've played hundreds of times before. What's something new, some new intention, that you can bring to that tune today? I think that's the approach Jerry would take.
Never Play the Same Setlist Twice
The Grateful Dead, and to some extent The Jerry Garcia Band, were famous for never playing the same show once, let alone twice! Jerry was well practiced (he knew his scales which we'll get to in a moment), but he was refreshingly under rehearsed and ready to take chances even if that meant pulling out a song that he may or may not be ready to play. I'm kind of the same way in sessions. I don't like the same old sets of three tunes back to back for all time, although the Dead did have their own dependable "medleys" such as Scarlet/Fire and China/Rider. I also like to mix it up and I'm just as likely to call a tune that I don't really know yet as one that I have down pat. Fortunately, Irish sessions seem to have this spontaneity built into their format. There's never like a setlist for an Irish session. You never quite know what you're going to play or how you're going to fill the two or three hours. Even making one change, such as changing Morrison's > Kesh > Swallowtail to Lilting Banshee > Kesh > Swallowtail can breathe new life into a tired set of tunes. Like when the Dead would do Mississippi Half-Step into Franklin's Tower.
Scales and Modes
Jerry knew his scales and modes inside and out and was especially fond of the Mixolydian and Dorian modes found in the folk and traditional music that was a big influence on him. I also like dwelling in these worlds and fortunately the repertoire of tunes that get played in Irish sessions has a generous dose of Dorian and Mixolydian. I know that this is partly because of the limitations of diatonic instruments like the flute, whistle, and pipes, which dictates that a lot of tunes have to conform to the notes of the D-major and G-major scales like E-Dorian, A-Dorian, D-Mixolydian, and A-Mixolydian. Hey, I'll take it!
Less Is More - Be a Feel Player Not a Shredder
I strongly dislike the type of guitar playing known as shredding. I guess Jerry could shred too when he wanted to, but to me he's more a taste and feel player. Why play three notes when one note will work just fine? Jerry was more about having a musical conversation, letting the notes flow and tell a story. He wasn't just regurgitating licks and riffs. With that in mind, I try to approach "Irish" tenor banjo from a similar perspective. So much of what is mistaken for good banjo playing is just pyrotechnics and rapid fire notes. That doesn't appeal to me. Part of it is that I don't have the skills or technique to pull that kind of playing off. But another part is I don't like the sound of it. Sure a well played, well placed triplet sounds great, but you can quickly overdo it. Rather than wonder "how would a banjo player play this?", I sometimes think more along the lines of "how would a flute player play this?". A flautist has to take breaths, so their version of a tune is going to likely be more sparse and less notey by default. I think you can potentially make more beautiful music from a less is more approach. Leaving space between the notes. The space between.
Fun fact: This post was originally titled "Six Ways That Jerry Garcia Has Been An Influence on Me". When I finished writing the post I counted and it came out to six. I didn't even have to go back and revise the title.
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