Devour Music

H O L D S Y....!! I hate prog rock. I abhor British bands playing prog rock. I can't stand English blokes singing prog rock. Love Allan Holdsworth's soloing though. So what els to do but to suck it up, take it up the ass and plow through countless measures of inorganic odd metres (5/4, 6/4, 7/4 and even 11/4 !) and artificial chord progressions eagerly awaiting for that moment when His Master's Voice appears on the horizon and you hear those first floating notes emanating from his magic fingers.....and aah, it was worth all this prog pain. Fantastic note choice from Allan and here's how he does it.... the whole solo constantly switches from E major to E minor: it's basically an E bass pedal with some very busy melodic keyboard sequences played on top of that. Holdsworth chooses to play E Aeolian/natural minor over the Em part but then - in a stroke of genius - he selects the E Mixolydian b6 as his main scale to play over the E major parts: this is the 5th mode of the (A) melodic minor scale. Let's compare their respective formulas: E Aeolian = 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 E Mixolydian b6 = 1 2 3 4 5 b6 b7 Blimey....they're exactly the same except for the 3rd ! So, all Allan has to do is switch between the b3 and the natural 3rd over the appropriate chord and he's all set !! First time I heard this solo it sounded as if he was using the harmonic major scale which has that similar mysterious, eerie but magically enticing mood but that scale would imply a natural 7th and Allan clearly wasn't doing that. Another highlight is when Allan starts infusing some blues licks into the proceedings (from 0:39 to 0:48) : I love it when he plays this stuff !! Just like Tony Macalpine he plays his wholly original style of blues phrasings and licks but of course this never gets mentioned anywhere..... everybody rather be talkin' 'bout those boring blues farts rehashing century old pentatonic drizzle. I started practicing this solo two weeks ago on a daily basis, carefully going through it slowly and accurately at first and then gradually building up to speed. Somewhere along the way the notes seeped into my brain and while I've always been a terrible sleeper it got to the point where I kept waking up to the sound of this solo going round in my head. Me laying in my bed humming the notes to this solo...now there's a picture! ;-)))) Totally mesmerizing, hypnotizing sublime solo. There never was and there'll almost certainly never be a better guitarist than Allan Holdsworth. An enigma: affirmative - in every meaning of the word. A profound and complex mind/musician: sure. A totally melodic and very much an "inside" player: affirmative. 'Cause while Allan surely weaved intricate melodic lines using all kinds of advanced scales he always played taking into account and inside the underlying chords. I do wonder how long it took Allan to come up with this: did he improvise it in the studio? Was he given the tapes beforehand so he could practice a few days? Would be interesting to know. Here's a possible scenario: - Allan, fancy doing a guest solo, old chap? - Sure, I'd love to mate! - Need to prep? - Nah, I'l whip something up just just give me a minute to finish my beer. I posted 3 clips of this solo: one at half speed and two different sounding full speed versions - different because I changed my pedal settings and the angle at which I recorded it resulting in one take sounding more rock and the other one showcasing a slightly warmer and thicker Holdsworthian tone. These two takes sound more "rock" than Holdsworth anyway because first and foremost that's what I am: for one, my vibrato is definitely more outspoken than his, my general playing style more aggressive nor do I possess Allan's velvet tone. A Big "Thank You" goes out to my fellow countryman and devoted Holdsworth disciple Timothy Pedone from Sharp Eleven Music (check out their website!) for providing me with a most accurate transcription of this solo. Now you shred, Peter. Allan Holdsworth - best albums (in order of personal preference) : 1. Hard hat area 2. Wardenclyffe tower 3. Secrets