BRAND NEW ALLAN HOLDSWORTH LESSON - DAY OF THE DEAD SOLO!!!

great stuff....I jsut noticed that Charles did the transcription....his "devil take the hindmost" transcription was great too. I'll take a more in depth look at this later tonight.

I will mention though, that with the lesson stuff like this, you should probably put it over in the musicians corner. People get bitchy here when you eat up this page with musician-exclusive stuff. Don't worry though, we're friendly over in the musicians' corner:)
 
Im not sure what you guys mean exactly... but, Allan does KNOW exactly what he is playing over each chord (or static vamp)... and does understand it from the perpective of "what sound am I playing over which chord"... having said that, he has totally different names for each scale, his own nomenclature... not sure that really makes a difference though, it still doesnt mean he DOESNT know what he is doing...

In fact, Allan indeed does know exactly what to play to imply which "sound"... he has his own names for each sound, usually calling scales by variations of alterations to the intervallic structure (as that column does)... but, he names them from a different perpective (watch his REH video)...

However, Allan when playing is approaching everything from an aural stand point, and he will play what he understands to be appropriate to a given chord (for a given sound)... it doesnt mean he is thinking "NOW I WILL PLAY THIS D PHRYGIAN DOM"... he simply chooses something from his date bank of information, and executes it (phrases it)... as he wishes.

Most players on that level, they simply PLAY, and what they have in their vocabulary will come out as they choose to imply a certain sound over a certain chord... to answer:

Allan does KNOW what he is playing, and is thinking of the possible things he wants to hear on each chord (or static chord)... but, he probably does not play and THINK aloud... "now this, now that..." It comes out naturally, through the years of playing, and the natural gravitation towards a sound...

Still, that changes nothing, the things FRAN has labelled is what he IS playing... in "our" musical language... and so, the theory works, Allan would know it all undera different name, but that doesnt really change anything... as "our" theory, and "his" theory... are the same things under different names.

If you were implying that he just plays by ear, and doesnt understand WHAT he is playing at all... then, NO... you would be wrong under that assumption. He does indeed know, and its simple... if you ask him what to play over a chord, he will give you countless scales which he would use... all of which come out of which alterations each would add to a given chord.
 
"However, Allan when playing is approaching everything from an aural stand point"

That's what I meant....he's not sitting there thinking "ok...looks like we have a V/iii coming up, time to play Phygrian dominant" (for example), but rather from an aural perspective built from years of experience.

Everything I've read about or from him though leads me to doubt that he would would ever go through and analyze his own solos like in this lesson for example. I would never criticize his approach or his system a)because I respect him so much and as long as he plays the way he does, he can think however he wants and b)though his system isn't exactly a standard, universally functional thing, it works for him and that's what matters for his purposes.

Not sure why you felt compelled to go on such a rant, but whatever:).
 
Well, because we are still not on the same page I feel.

You see, just because he isnt thinking about things as he plays in the sense of actually breaking things down step by step... doesnt mean he isnt doing exactly that on another level alltogether.

There is no WAY Allan plays that Phrygian Dominant line and then NOT knows what he has just played... the phrygian dominant line came out because of a choice, of what to play over a given vamp (or changes, or whichever scenario)... it was not a concious process, yet the result is one Allan immediatly understands. He doesnt sit BEFORE hand and choose his scales to play or scales to superimpose per se... but, awhile he is playing is HE concious of what these notes are yielding against said chord/vamp/etc...

So, he knows exactly what he is doing, even if its not a pre determined planned out approach.

To say something like "I bet he didnt think of any of that" is slightly misleading to me, because awhile he may not have sat down and planned that out... the real time event is one where he is playing with information and sounds he knows and understands... he would not look at a line afterwards and say "I WONDER WHAT I PLAYED THERE"... he would know, he just ptobably would not sit before hand and think through every superimposition that he would like to tackle...
 
Also, like you said... all of this is a moot point...

Because breaking down things in a way readers can understand is the point of the analysis... it IS what he played, and so, its valid as a learning tool.
 
Of course he knows what he's playing and of course analyzing it is a valid exercise, as well as learning it is a valid tool for anyone's arsenal...I was kinda making a joke about the depth of the analysis being likely much deeper than Holdsworth's own during the actual execution. Meedles got the joke.

Sometimes the analysis is misleading...it's obviously improvised and of course he's conscious of the changes...I'll bet Holdsworth would read that and say..."oh, yeah...I was doing that, bully for me, I am good!"

It's amazing stuff...no one is saying it isn't.
 
Great analysis, but the transcription seems to be slightly incorrect in some parts. Good stuff, nevertheless.
 
1by4by9 said:
Great analysis, but the transcription seems to be slightly incorrect in some parts. Good stuff, nevertheless.
Click to expand...

Yeah. there seemed to be a few off notes but that's expected I guess. The string skipping parts are really tough. I use it all of the time but not like this. Jeez.:cry:
 
Meedleyx10 said:
great stuff....I jsut noticed that Charles did the transcription....his "devil take the hindmost" transcription was great too. I'll take a more in depth look at this later tonight.

I will mention though, that with the lesson stuff like this, you should probably put it over in the musicians corner. People get bitchy here when you eat up this page with musician-exclusive stuff. Don't worry though, we're friendly over in the musicians' corner:)
Click to expand...

Loved his work on The Nanny!:lol:
 
ok,

We did mean the same thing then... ive heard alot of people tell me that Allan just plays random notes, and has no idea what he is doing... and that playing "outside" to him means playing chromatic scales... Just trying to say that isnt real, I thought you might have been implying that Allan knows nothing and just plays "whatever"... I see now what you meant.

no worries.
 
Bet23 said:
ok,

We did mean the same thing then... ive heard alot of people tell me that Allan just plays random notes, and has no idea what he is doing... and that playing "outside" to him means playing chromatic scales... Just trying to say that isnt real, I thought you might have been implying that Allan knows nothing and just plays "whatever"... I see now what you meant.

no worries.
Click to expand...

No...of course not. Just saying that if I were to lay down an improvised solo, and someone analyzed it and transcribed it, I'd probably be surprised at some of what I saw...so much is feel and not cerebral.
 
Thanks for checkin out the lesson! I'm glad you guys dug it. :headbang:

Apologies for not putting it in the right section! I'll post in the musicians corner for lessons from now on!

Coming up: Interivews with Joe Bonamassa and Mark Tremonti (Alter Bridge)

Ivan
 
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