[Joshua MaxeyParticipant @joshuamaxey]

Ruby Waves, thoughts and analysis for Phish Guitar Heads by Josh Maxey

🪵🐕

 

0:00-2:40 Song

2:40-4:35 RW, A, G D, Lots of A Pedal Notes

 

4:50 A Minor

5:40 Mike: C A D / C A D Riff over A- (equals A-11 vibe)  A Love Supreme-ish, Aso this riff (Key?) is very similar to the main peak of the Mohegan Beneath A Sea Of Stars improvisation

7:20 That riff has morphed into a similar

Ruby Waves, thoughts and analysis for Phish Guitar Heads by Josh Maxey

🪵🐕

 

0:00-2:40 Song

2:40-4:35 RW, A, G D, Lots of A Pedal Notes

 

4:50 A Minor

5:40 Mike: C A D / C A D Riff over A- (equals A-11 vibe)  A Love Supreme-ish, Aso this riff (Key?) is very similar to the main peak of the Mohegan Beneath A Sea Of Stars improvisation

7:20 That riff has morphed into a similar theme with rhythmic variations

 

7:20 D Major

Mike playing around D and A or the Root and 5th of D with envelope sound

8:30 Trey with Octave + Envelope D Major scale themes (not D7 yet)

 

9:10 D7

Mike A C A D similar to the above A-11 feel but this time over D

 

9:20 Settles to a -3 making it D-7

 

10:00 F Major

Trey F Major scale begins repeated phrase emphasizing the Major 7th note (to indicate they are squarely in F and not F7 or key of Bb?). This begins a section of Theme & Development

10:58 Repeated phrases settle down into chords from the lines

11:25 Repeated Phrase #2 in F

11:42 Repeated Phrase #3 around the C note, the 5th of the chord

 

12:00 F Minor

12:20 F- Pentatonic Hot Trey Licks

12:40 F- Riff around the -3 to R and the 4th to Root

12:50 Repeated Riff

13:00-13:48 Riff continues as band moves along a bit. Unison bend on F screams out from Trey.

13:48-14:40 Guitar Badassery in F- Pentatonic. (TRANSCRIBE). Then uses unison bends to frame the phrasing, then melodic theme and development.

 

15:15 C Major

15:52 Trey plays descending C triad, E C G on 12th fret then C F, C F triads in the same location.

16:06-16:16 Repeated notes R to 3, then C F chords

 

16:21 C7

First Bb note from Trey playing Octaves in F or C Mixolydian over the C chord making it C7.

16:30 Mike with G Pedal note, could be saying we are now squarely on C7 without the previous F chord influences, emphasizing Root and 5th of C7.

17:39 Trey Bb C G repeated phrase, Mike joins/responds briefly

17:50 Bb C E Mike repeated phrase

18:16 Trey double stop (G and C 8th Fret) and begins building energy with bends on mix of C Mixolydian and C- Pentatonic/Blues.

 

19:05 a short loop/delay of a G note airs out the feel and they head into my favorite transitional moment so far in the improvisation. It’s really dense for only lasting a moment.

 

19:15-20:02 Is my favorite section so far. It uses an F Melodic Minor scale over C (or C to C# triads) which, together, is C Mixolydian b6.

19:30 There’s a C to C# triad vibe as Trey goes between the #5 and the P5, at first over a C pedal from Mike

19:36 Mike changes to the Ab Bb Ab G riff, and settles

19:45 There’s a back and forth between the 5 to #5 and the Ab Bb Ab G riff, while page plays some single notes from F Melodic Minor, shortly after Trey is in the lower register with a octave down pedal engaged

 

20:03 G Minor – Reggae Feel!

21:05  There’s a nice moment on the video where we can see where Trey is playing (with the Octave pedal engaged again, but the octave up), he is playing G Dorian over the G- feel (though there is maybe a Major 7th note mixed in as a passing tone for a moment).

 

21:26 G Minor Tritone riff number one begins to develop

21:56 The riff has settled and is being repeated and by 22:19 there is a second version that is less intricate that gets repeated up to a peak.

22:50 Trey hits the delay on some G- chords

 

24:18 It’s still G- (without the tri tone riff) the time settles down to an atmospheric, free vibe (reminding me of the Mohegan Beneath Sea of Stars again).

24:50 Page is playing a bit of C to Bb triads over G-, Fish as kept the vibe going throughout with an understated groove.

25:18 Trey with a big G- chord with delay creating momentum and rhythmic hits

25:32 Oh Lord, Trey tears into the G- with some searing nasty stuff, it changes between what could be G- Pentatonic and G dorian.

25:52Next there is a nice descending theme in G Dorian with bends and melodic use of the descending scale. (Transcribe)

26:16 The first TRILL of the improvisation! Trey often, like often, uses this as a bit of a signal that they are building up and/or moving on in the improvisation. Miles Davis did something similar where he would trill a high note to indicate a change to the time (either brining it into a hard 4/4 swing or sometimes up to double time and beyond). Trey uses this often enough that I know it isn’t a secret language, but it is a musical communication with the band to get together and build or change.

26:30 Trey has just played an ascending scale with three attacks per note to build up to some bends, next he plays up the scale in groups of four to some bends to bring that section to it’s highest notes.

26:48 he plays a low notes descending and moving down into

 

27:00 C Major

This begins the next spacious and free section. It’s a bit free of time, euphoric and searching. The sounds of the guitar are abstracted and bounce around the C Major tonality mixing that light with a bit of uncertainty and darkness.

 

28:01 Trey introduces C Minor

Is it going into the GotF title track? The effects are the same and there’s a descending C- triad. It doesn’t go there.

28:44 Mike is using the drill. This blurs the lines again between the beautiful swirl of C- and has an introspective, reflective or contemplative feeling.

28:50 Trey is playing a few licks that descend and land in the next area for the improvisation.

 

29:00 Bb Major

 

29:00 Bb Major? It’s Bb Major, after just hearing C- for a while it’s almost like the Major third is implied.

29:27 When Page first quickly starts introducing the Ab note it sounds to me like Bb7 or Dominant, maybe a bit on the Sus side, as Trey might only be playing a P5 (Bb F Bb power chord shape) at that moment.

(Between 28 mins to 30 mins we have a quick succession of changes from C- to Bb and next to Bb-)

 

30:00 Bb Minor.

Trey plays a riff, all P5s more or less.

| Bb    Db| Bb   Db| Bb   Db| Bb    Ab|

He will alternate this riff with the Rhythmic playing sonically augmented by the Delay for the next section of the improvisation.

30:18 There’s the beginning of the Delay pedal creating a circular fan like rhythmic effect. There’s a moment under it where page plays F, Ab, Bb repeated phrase. This kind of on the beat, then off the beat three note phrase is a theme of this jam (as well as appearing at the end of the Mohegan BASOS).

30:56 Trey is alternating between the chord/5th riff sequence and the Delay on just a Bb chord/5th.

31:11 Trey starts single notes. NOTE how he has gone back and forth with just rhythm and the Delay a couple times before even playing the first single note idea. This is classic conceptual Trey. Many of my favorite moments of his over the decades share this characteristic of developing an idea from almost precognition up to peak.

31:30 Trey goes back to riff, then back to single notes with Delay

31:55 Sans delay!

32:11 Trey settles back to just the Bb 5th or power chord shape. Again, this is one of those moments of pivoting conceptually, back to what he was doing an entire section a couple minutes before. To me it’s a moment of reconnecting to a previous idea to spring board into another area, having just developed from that same spot for a few minutes.

32:40 Begins to build AGAIN using the Octave Down and the Wah for some nasty.

33:00 Page hinting at Db and Eb over Bb, making it minor blues like.

33:28 FISH! Big fill sliding into the next section. Trey responds with rhythmically echoing what Fish just played. They’re steady, maybe even a hair behind the beat, unrushed 16th notes on Bb. Still with the Wah.

32:52 Big Bend! Nasty phrases and The TRILL (Again, this almost always says ‘C’mon fellas, to the next big moment and section). Side note: How f’n musical is that? A signal that might only be for one beat of 16th notes  that has an understood meaning and everyone hears it.

34:00-34:30 Lots of Dorian and minor pentatonic moments

34:38 The F and Bb double stop (Chuck Berry style). This is another great Trey and Phish tell. It’s also an, ‘Ok, Here We Are’ moment of climax and peaking out together. There are more and more little Trills being thrown in. Page stretches at 34:52ish with some in and out harmony behind Trey screaming licks.

35:52 Badass Trey ascending shapes (TRANSCRIBE)

35:37 Mike plays F Ab F Bb – the actual A Love Supreme riff with the rhythm.

36:00 Gentle landing and come down. Fish’s high hat and Trey Rhythmic figure are both either wrapping it up or settling for something new.

36:22 Mike lays down a big ol’ Db which he’d been hinting at. Is it Db Major or Bb minor? A bit of both for a moment.

 

36:44 Page settles on Db Mjaor

37:10 Swirling Db, and we’re free of time. It’s pretty glorious really. Phish sound church.

 

38:00 G Minor to END. The first chord of Twist, the next song, is G-. So I assume Trey changed to G- from Db with Twist in mind.

 

I used the LP app rather than this video, but times should be similar:

 

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