I am struggling to understand how the 'Dead (and anyone else who does it) SMOOTHLY changes keys from one song to another or within the song. Whenever i attempt it, it sounds like i am "grinding gears". Here is one an example- if you are jamming along in G how do you then move over to jam in D?

thanks..
Yitsi80.

Sometimes "jams" are more structured than they appear. Though it's still loose and improvisational, there is a idea of something like "when I give the non, shift to D" or maybe "We play 16 bars of G, then go to D" Or if you get really slick, you can have a "lick" or "riff" that suggests that there are x amount of bars left until we shift keys.

My band King Bowman has a song like this, when the drummer does a huge fill, we have a key shift. But it is a planned cue.

A common way to shift keys, at least in jazz, is to play the II and V of the new key in the measure before the key change. For instance, if you're in G and changing to D, the measure before playing D, which is the I of the new key, play Em7 (II of D), then A7 (V of D). This is the II V I progression that is so common in jazz. I believe it will work for most genres of music.

Throw your shoe at the guitarist. If you're lucky he'll start playing in D without realising it.

But I also agree with Matt. Jams are often more structured than they appear. But as for the technical side of changing? I find just finding a common chord that both keys share is simple enough and works in most cases.