For the session on improvisation in my course on the Grateful Dead this semester, I have made a twelve-minute-long MP3 set of four sample passages of Grateful Dead improvisation, one each from "Dark Star", "The Other One", "Space", and "Playing in the Band". I have asked the students to listen to the passages, pick one sequence of twenty to thirty seconds that they enjoy, and try to describe what is going on in the improvisation. I've also asked them to share that sequence with someone else who's not in the course and ask them how they would describe it. The idea is to develop our own language to discuss improvised music. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 5 April 2026)
1. Dark Star, Dick's Picks, volume 7, 10 September 1974, Alexandra Palace, London, UK (0:00 to 2:43)
2. The Other One, Dick's Picks, volume 30, 28 March 1972, Academy of Music, New York, New York (3:00 to 4:52)
3. Space, In and Out of the Garden: Madison Square Garden '81, '82, '83, 12 October 1983, Madison Square Garden, New York, New York (5:00 to 7:51)
4. Playing in the Band, Dick's Picks, volume 31, 6 August 1974, Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, New Jersey (8:00 to 12:32)