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Great show! - but how come Weir sang castrato that night?  Or why did Garcia slow this song down to yawning speed and Lesh's bass disappear below aural threshold?  Seems so long I felt this way, time sure passin' slow.  Possibly - but the likeliest answer is that your tape is travelling at the wrong speed.

The problem may be in the master tape: it seems that even the speed of good masters can vary within one show.  More likely, your cassette wheels don't turn at the same speed as your trading partner's.  More likely still, your tape has travelled at different speeds in its recording history, and the fickle finger of fate has not cancelled them out.  Unsurprisingly, tapes are rarely dead accurate and in my experience more play fast than slow.  While small variances are easily tolerated, it's not that unusual to find tapes up to one semitone out of tune (approx +/-6%), occasionally more, which can present a greater aesthetic and toe-tapping challenge than mere sonic imperfection.  Lord! The band kept us so busy we forgot about the time.

The solution is easy, but requires that you have one cassette deck with variable speed (pitch) control on playback.  So, if you're upgrading your system, look for a deck with variable pitch control, and low wow and flutter in the specification:  a few manufacturers make them though they cost a few euros more.  (You should not need more than around +/-6% variation.   Beyond that I would query whether the motor will run reliably at a consistent basic speed.) 

Once armed with pitch control, anyone with access to a musical instrument and able to bend their ear can play the tuning game.  An electronic keyboard, or piano or guitar tuned against a pitch-fork or other objective source, are best since they permit the construction of chords which makes tuning slightly more easy than against a single note.  But string, woodwind or brass instruments will do the job.  (Incidentally, beware of wind instruments - sax, clarinet - which are tuned to different keys - Eb, Bb.  And make sure than an electric keyboard's pitch is not adjusted or transposed.)  Once the music on tape is in tune with the instrument, you can be confident that the tape speed is correct.  (Even in the early years, the band's guitars will have been tuned to the organ.)  You can then listen to the music at the right tempo and pitch, and make tempo-accurate copies for trades.   If you're re-recording into the digital domain, you need to get the speed right first time since commercial digital equipment does not provide for subsequent playback pitch adjustment.  And, of course, if you're a musician, once in tune it's even more fun filling in behind the songs and stretching out into the improvisations.  Excuse me while I just help Keith out on this one......

What you have to know, however, are the keys in which the Dead played their songs.  A selection is listed below, with emphasis on those which do not have complex or rapid key changes in the intros.  The key given is the root chord - for this purpose, that in which the first line of each verse begins.  Normally the intro will start in the same chord too.  (The comments show where these rules of thumb are not a reliable guide.)  If you do not have a piano, guitar or other multi-note instrument, just work on the tonic, ie. the underlying note for each chord (A for A major or A minor, etc).  All chords below are major unless shown as minor.  

Few songs have changed key over time.  An exception is Bird Song, which originated in D.  It was abandoned from August 71 to July 72.  My first tape of it after the break (12 Aug, Sacramento) has it playing in E, where it has stayed ever since.  Maybe Garcia felt more comfortable singing it a tone higher or was happier with the guitar chord structure around E (though since it was then ditched for 7 years from 1973, perhaps he was plain uncomfortable performing the song).  Meantime, Cassidy featured on Ace in F#, was scored on sheet music in F, yet has always been played live in E. 

(Developed from an article originally published in Spiral Light magazine, issue 35, May 1996, and subsequently reprinted in The Deadhead's Taping Compendium, Volume 2, 1999. )