Experiencing Metal Fatigue? Sinking in quick Sand? Then join Charlie Griffiths as he unlocks the secrets of the master of Wardenclyffe Tower.
Allan Holdsworth was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1946. An early member of bands like Soft Machine and UK, in the 80s he released a slew of masterpiece albums that changed the landscape of jazz and fusion guitar. His style was so influential that his name is mentioned by the likes of Van Halen, Satriani, and Vai as one of the greatest guitarists to have walked the planet.
Allan had a linear melodic style that defied tradition. He also possessed a unique self-taught perception of theory and and the guitar fretboard, quite removed from the more formulated structures we are used to today. His approach was idiosyncratic and his music sounds almost alien. Although he would use jazz-inspired ‘outside’ harmony, he would also often use typical scales and modes, albeit heavily disguised.
Our first three examples use the Lydian mode, the Minor Pentatonic and the Dorian mode, with no passing notes. Allan’s use of legato, string skipping, and his skill at finding patterns within scales gives the music its otherworldly dimension. Add to this his smooth legato technique and large hands and the result is something that enables wide stretches and a flow of notes not naturally available to most players. With practice we can achieve this sound by making each note the same volume and blending in softer picked notes to disguise string changes and create seamless links between notes across the entire fretboard. Allan enjoyed finding symmetry and patterns that could be applied to different strings. Example 4 is based in the Half-Whole Diminished scale, constructed in half and whole tones to create an eight-note pattern. It offers a great deal of scope for creativity and has many elements to explore, which of course Allan did to its limits.
Example 5 is built around another symmetrical scale, a repeating ‘tonesemitone-semitone’ sequence. Start from any root note and repeat this pattern and the nine-note result is: 1-2-b3-3-#4-5-b6-b7-7. The pattern repeats every Major 3rd, which lends an Augmented flavour to the proceedings. There is also a blend of Lydian and Aeolian modes for an interesting simultaneous Major and Minor sound. In his 1992 inst
