I was just over at the Guitar Player Magazine site reading this nice Allan Holdsworth interview. Allan is 62 years old and he’s still learning, still practicing; looking forward. As I sit here, I’m trying to think of another player came up with a totally different physical technique and a totally different cerebral approach. Nobody really comes to mind. Physically, he is able to execute left hand finger stretches that are impossible to most. On the mind side, he’s got a unique way of thinking harmonically. Listen to the chords he plays, everybody talks about the solos but, he has these great chord voicings; the solos are an extension of that, I think.
He said some interesting stuff about improv.
Usually the beginning of a solo is easy, because I’ve got an unlimited selection of different things that I can play for the first note. But once I’ve made that choice, then it goes to an unconscious place, and I’m not really thinking about it at all. I’m hearing this note, and then I hear the harmony, and sometimes I see the chords. It’s like looking at a Rolodex or an abacus. I can recognize distances between intervals. Then it’s just a matter of navigating from one place to another and squeezing in lines in interesting ways. All this stuff is just happening in real time, like instant composition…
Of course, we can all get trapped, and when that happens to me, then I don’t feel so good about playing. But sometimes I get loose of all the chains, and it seems like almost anything is possible.
That little bit at the end is similar to things I’ve heard a lot of great improvisers express. Miles talked about “playing over your head”. That’s why you do it. You want to get to the place where you are loose of all the chains and anything is possible.
Smooth jazz. Those guys need to grow a beard, man. There’s a five-o-clock shadow on that stuff.
That’s funny, good one AH.
If you don’t know Holdsworth, and you like music, check him out. His music transcends guitar; guitar is just the vehicle. And, while your at at it, grow a beard.
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Tags: allan holdsworth, cerebral approach, Guitar, guitar player magazine, improv, improvise, intervals, Music
Sans Direction wrote,
My Allan Holdsworth story is less about Holdsworth than about how record stores suck. I read in guitar mags that Eddie Van Halen was influenced by AH, and because it was the 1980s and I was way into EVH, I decided I wanted to get Metal Fatigue, so I went to the record store and special ordered it, saving my money so I could buy it. The record store sent me a postcard saying they couldn’t get it, so I bought something else. Then, next time my head was in the jazz section, I saw Metal Fatigue staring back at me.
I finally found it on a download site. It’s been played, but I haven’t given it the focus I really should.
Sans Direction’s last blog post..Lou Reed’s New Guitar
Link | May 5th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Pribek wrote,
I thought “Metal Fatigue” was a good record. I remember being just blown away by it the first time I heard it. The first I heard of AH though, was when he was with the band UK (KSHE again, Sans). The first Holdsworth record I bought was I.O.U., it still sounds fresh.
Link | May 5th, 2008 at 10:38 pm