LESSON } JAZZ
Allan Allan Holdsworth rth John John Wheatcroft Wheatcroft looks at the soloing style
of a lege legendary ndary and a nd totally unique guitarist: guitarist : the phen phenom omen enal al Yorks orkshir hirem eman, an, Allan Allan Hold Holdsw swort orth. h.
Holdsworth has access to a sophisticated vocabulary that is steeped steeped in the tradition tradition of jazz but is undeniably his own. We’re We’re looking at his soloing style here; we’ll leave the other huge components of his playing to a later date. Our nine examples should form the basis of your research into his style. They are mostly in common time signatures and based around relatively conventional sequences. His compositions are often hugely polyrhythmic, polyrhythmic, so removing this aspect from our studies allows us to concentrate on note selection, their groupings and the articulation articulation required to execute them cleanly. Your challenges are timing, projection and intonation. Allan employs a largely legato approach, so avoid rushing and any sloppy rhythms, especially at fast tempo. As his technique employs lots of hammer-ons and pull-offs, you’ll need to balance the volume volume of picked picked and and slurred slurred
IT TAKES MAYBE A CO COUPL UPLE E OF YEARS BEFORE SOMETHING I’M WORKING ON NOW WILL FIND ITS WAY OUT NATURALLY NATURA LLY Alla Allan n Holds oldswo worth rth
Allan Holdsworth with his Carvin Fatboy signature
notes. You might need to de-emphasise the pick volume, although Holdsworth has developed this skill to a degree that he can place an accent at any point, on any nger within a urry of notes. notes. The The nal nal consideration is intonation, especially with regard to the use of light strings and performing pull-offs. pull-offs. Make sure you’re not unintentionally unintentionally bending as you pull, as this will drag the notes notes undesirably undesirably sharp. NEXT MONTH John MONTH John looks at the jazz playing of another legato master, Tim Miller
ABILITY RATING
Advanced ✪✪✪ ✪ ✪ Advanced Info Various Key: Various Key: Various Tempo: Various Tempo: CD: TRACKS 73-90 CD:
Will improve improve your… your… Fluency and articulation Technique and timing Melodic sophistication
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appa and Shawn Lane loved him. Frank Gambale calls him the ‘Grandmaster’ and other famous guitarist fans include Eddie Van Halen, Kurt Rosenwinkel, John McLaughlin, Greg Howe, Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen. Holdsworth is a special artist, with a unique approach to music and one of the most recognisable sounds from the late 60s to the present day.
Born in 1946 in Bradford, Yorkshire, Holdsworth’s pianist father encouraged him to practise and, with remarkable discipline, he set about learning to play entirely by himself. Inuenced by artists such as saxophonist saxophonist John Coltrane, he determined to sound entirely like himself and worked out a personal approach to creating music, with improvisation improvisation and harmony at the core. Allan’s illustrious illustrious career career began began with with jazz crossover groups such Tempest, Igginbottom’s Wrench, Gong, Soft Machine, Jean-Luc Ponty, Bill Bruford and Tony Williams’ Lifetime. This led to a career career as as a bandleader; each new release release awaited by his his fans and live performances performances attaining almost mythical status.
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Holdsworth’s overdriven lead tone is full bodied, with a smattering of reverb, more recently delay, and with a pronounced mid-range bias. Go easy on the gain, as the fluidity of his tone is a product of his accurate legato technique and too much distortion adversely affects both dynamics and changes the vowel sound of a sustaining note.
TRACK RECORD Tales From The Vault, a compilation of unreleased tracks funded by an online Pledge campaign is awaited with baited
breath. I.O.U (Enigma 1985) features breathtaking playing and beautiful compositions; The DVD, Allan Holdsworth and Alan Pasqua – Live At Yoshi’s (Wienerworld 2008), featuring Jimmy Haslip and Chad Wackerman, is great too, as are Sand, Metal Fatigue and.
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S E G A M I Y T T E G / L L A C N O T Y A L C
ON THE CD
LLAN HOLDSWORTH
TRACKS 73-90
LEARNING ZONE
EXAMPLE 9 STRAIGHT 16THS OVER A SWING GROOVE
CD TRACK 89
Another Eb9 chord backing but this time some snakey 16th-note action on the top two strings (bars 4-5 especially). With harmonically varied playing like this, see what ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ notes tie in with the Eb9 chord. Most interesting!
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