China Cat Sunflower 2nd Guitar Solo – Video Lesson

Let's examine Jerry Garcia's 2nd guitar solo over the instrumental break on the "Europe '72" version of China Cat Sunflower.

Once again, we are going to examine Garcia's playing over the 9 measure chorus section from the Grateful Dead classic, "China Cat Sunflower". This solo section occurs between the verses (or main guitar solo as happens after the 2nd guitar solo) and always features some great playing by Jerry Garcia.

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Song Form

For more ideas on what to play over this section, be sure to check out my post which takes a look at the 1st guitar solo from the "Europe '72" version of "China Cat Sunflower". The 2nd guitar solo is played over the same chords and form as the 1st solo as shown in example 1. As we can see from the chart, it begins with four bars of G, followed by three bars of D in 4/4, then one bar of D in 2/4, and ends with a bar of 4/4 that alternates between a C (for 2 beats) and a D (for 2 beats). This gives us nine bars in total.

The instrumental break (or chorus section) of "China Cat Sunflower" is shown in example 1. As we can see from the chart, it begins with four bars of G, followed by three bars of D in 4/4, then one bar of D in 2/4, and ends with a bar of 4/4 that alternates between a C (for 2 beats) and a D (for 2 beats). This gives us nine bars in total.

Note Choice

Much like the first four bars of the 1st guitar solo, the first four bars of Garcia's 2nd solo consists of notes from the G major pentatonic scale. Unlike the 1st solo, Garcia's licks over the G chord in the 2nd solo contain notes outside the major pentatonic scale. However, it is still very useful to know your pentatonic shapes and to be able to visualize these shapes on the fretboard as you play this solo. Check out the diagrams below of the G major pentatonic G and E shapes (ex. 2). By understanding how the licks from the first four bars relate to two G major pentatonic shapes below, you should have a better understanding of how you can approach playing over the G chord in this solo section.

In bar 5, as the harmony shifts to a D chord, Garcia also shifts gears, and instead of working mainly out of the G major pentatonic shapes, he works out of D chord shapes. Look at the following two diagrams below. Example 3 outlines the CAGED shapes of a D chord between the 7th and 17th frets. Example 4 outlines the main intervals Jerry targets in this second solo. As you work through the transcription, see if you can see how his lines relate to the two diagrams.