How to play the blues according to Allan Holdsworth
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- Опубликовано: 13 окт 2024
- Allan Holdsworth, Alan Pasqua, Chad Wackerman & Jimmy Haslip walk into a bar... and start playing Blues For Tony.
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If you're interested in the harmonic side of things: the Allan Holdsworth Method is out now!
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Thanks for posting this. I have heard a fair amount of Holdsworth but this sounds more looser and more abstract than anything I've heard him play and I like it for that reason.
I remember reading somewhere “Allan has the dubious ability to play all around the right note without ever hitting it.” Incredible stuff
Guitarist magazine around the time of None Too Soon. 🙂
very likely I read that, so that makes sense thanks@@polbecca
@@petewelsh9978 I'm pleased that someone else actually remembered that description of AH as well.
It's a great description of his playing! Really captures the sense of tension and anticipation I fell listening to his improvisations. Sadly missed @@polbecca
miles said something about no wrong notes in jazz. it also helps to have the best guitar tone, ever. i saw allan in 2010 in LA and was five feet away from him when he botched a solo over the super easy 'fred'. he was justifiably angry at the drummer who was an hour late, who was playing the song with one hand while texting the girl he was fighting with, and the reason he was late. allan finished the solo, looked at me and said 'sorry'. lololol . he literally hit no good notes for any of the chords to that song, E lydian to E mixolydian, to that G mixolydian bridge and then the A sus end of the bridge. He was just playing random notes, glaring in anger at the young drummer, ronald bruner, jr
love it or hate it, Holdsworth had the soul of a mighty sax player inside of him. An absolute master of melody.
He originally wanted to become a Sax player but got into the guitar because he couldn't afford one.
@@superslayerguy once I learned that and started listening to Allan with that in mind, I started getting so much more out of his playing - I could hear the soul of a mighty sax player in his music
He's always reminded me of Albert Tyler for some reason. Must be the phrasing. I wonder what kind of sax players Holdsworth was into.
Exactly my thoughts 👍
@@MisterNiles He was into Coltrane, often covering him in later years
A post modern musician with a convincing argument. Incredible. RIP Allan.
amazing how allan comes up with so many bonkers ideas and then follows them though....permutating them, cycling them, creating patterns out of them and he never trips up or gets "lost". such an amazing command of the instrument.
Amazing command of his mental facilities, even before anything flows to the instrument!
Lol how do you know he’s not lost? On the inside bro could be overboard in the ocean without a life vest for all you know 😂😂😂
@Sam Croff I think it's pretty damn easy to tell he's not lost
"he never trips up or gets "lost""
How can he? it's just noise.
@@jimbeam-ru1my lol just because you can't hear it doesn't make it noise.
I've seen the scale diagrams with his symbols that Allan created in one of his videos. He clearly wanted to establish his own tonal language and harmony from the ground up, and he not only did that but made it sound interesting and intelligent. Amazing.
This sounds like shit. Nice cope.
❤Allan. Blues for navigating an congested asteroid belt.
this is just about every color except blue, but god damn I love it
??? It is 100% blue ! in and out on blue sheet
I learned long ago that I do not possess the musical or mental skills to comprehend Allan Holdsworth, rest in peace. I also learned long ago to greatly appreciate his music and talent despite this. Much, much respect.
you comprehended them perfectly. it just took you a long time to convince yourself to view noise as music.
12 tone master!
I'll always love and respect Page, Hendrix, Gilmour, etc etc - but thank the Lord for mighty Allan, who courageously took the electric guitar into something a bit more harmonically ethereal. R.I.P.
No one can deny Allan had a sense of humour
It's the joy of having your audience made up of jazz fans. If you're good enough at Jazz, you can basically play absolute dogshit and the fans will be clicking their fingers and saying "groovy!" 😂
@@peterclarke7240 you have no idea
@@peterclarke7240 kinda true lol
@@paveantelic7876 I'm a jazz fan, so I like to think I can recognise when someone's going a bit meta with their genius. 🤣
@@peterclarke7240 me too haha i love jazz
I saw him with this lineup in Chicago and I was blown away. Just an amazing one of a kind talent and sorely misy😢 Such an original with that legato melodic technique and gorgeous chords in his originals. I miss him.
Literally like music from another planet.
I make full disclosure I don't really enjoy AH music as a listener, but I am in complete awe of it. Insane technique, and a fully realised concept of harmony that is to my knowledge pretty much different from anything on earth.
I couldn't have put it better. I do sometimes wonder whether, if I listened to it more or was more musical, I might come to enjoy it.....
@@danguee1 Watch some Evan Marien covers of his stuff, its modernized in a great way, and he played with him so its really true to the music. It took me a while to get into it I dont think you have to be more musical though, its just new language. I tried years ago but also probably didnt try the stuff that was more suited for me. I guess its like anything, you gotta get familiar with the language a bit before starting to dig it? Something like that but idk it might just not be your thing lol. Some holdsworth is especially hard to get into because of its 80s aesthetic haha. I dont think producers knew what to do with his music and it often sounds a bit out of place even the big 80s stadium drum sounds on some of the albums. 16 men of tain album is what got me to really dig into it. That and the song Ruhkukah
Listen to his solo on Zarabeth
@@traderjoestar Thanks, Trader J. I will give that a listen. Any other tips would be welcome...
@@danguee1 "The Sixteen Men of Tain" is perhaps his most "jazz" sounding album, which features a bit of stand-up bass by Dave Carpenter, and the fluttery, dynamic drumming of Gary Novak.It's an incredibly ethereal and beautiful record. It's a good starting place, but very different from any of his other records.
His solo on "Nostalgic Lady" is incredible. Also his solo on "Point of No Return". Since Zarabeth was already stated... The entire Secrets album... Man, I don't even know. It's hard to pick favorites.
I think a Blues player has no business up on that stage. This is next level!
If you look at the transcription or listen to which notes he stops on, he's actually addressing the chord progression.
I'm blown away. Met him once in a pub in Dudley - lovely bloke. Holdsworth did some videos ages back and he mentioned that he'd spent decades working out music (kind of) from first principles.That's why he doesn't sound like anyone else - he did his own thing. But this solo and transcription, and understanding Holdsworth's choices could keep me busy for ages.
Allan ❤ the GOAT for me
Although, when I saw Allan play with 'Stanley Clarke's Jazz Explosion' in Toronto circa 1989 he did an actual nod to the blues when ending his solo in 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat'. Yup, about 1/2 a measure was 'the blues'.
I remember hearing from an old interview Allan did before he properly got into fusion and studied jazz harmony he was basically a Clapton blues dad, just playing the same old min pent blues licks. There's hope for us all!!!
I love how this blues is 10 bars
Blues, but "alien" blues. Great work on the transcription! Thanks
Many considered allan holdsworth as a genius when it comes to playing guitar, but inspite of that my limited mind cannot digest what he was doing ir appreciate his solo's melodically but i respect the genius of this man eventhough i did not understand the musical structure and harmony of his solo's
I'm astounded at how Alan could just pull off something like this, and at this level! He really knew the fretboard and saw things like no one else.
Emperor Joseph II : My dear young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?
I have played for over 40 years. still cant fully grasp it but its great. crazy fast and complex.
Sounds weirdly playable! So grateful for you sharing this as usual.
Holdsworth is awesome and Chad Wackerman is killing it too
I heard once he approached guitar as a jazz sax player. Definitely he did!!!
What a player!
I like other styles, but it's fair to say Alan was out of this world!!!!
Thanks for the video! That tune was written and presumably named by Pasqua. I always heard it in the meaning of "Lament for Tony", so I would go easy on the bar jokes 🙂. Tony took old forms and shook them up himself. Not sure the bar patrons would recognize this as a blues, and neither would I if it wasn't for that Bb7 to A7 turnaround!
Man, I love this solo!
It sounds like a combination between genius and somebody who has no idea what they are doing
You just described a savant
The difference is that the genius has more confidence on each and every note they're playing.
I always think of that Salvador Dali quote - "The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad".
You're right about the genius. But you're wrong about the other part: Allan knew exactly what he was doing. Every note here is in a meaningful relation to the chord, and to the notes that come before and after. If it doesn't make sense to you, then it is you who has no idea what is going on. And there's nothing wrong with that.
@Allan Holdsworth Archives - Fanpage lol. You sound like an angry fanboy. You realize people can have different tastes and still understand what he is doing.. Just because something is theoretically sound doesn't make it objectively good.
slonimsky blues...blues just sounds better if there are off notes. doesn't even matter if you're playing fast. for instance, an Eb major triad sounds super cool over an Ami7 chord, esp if you resolve it to cmaj for that upper part of the Amii7. Dominant 7th substitutions are fun 7th riffs or arpeggios against A7 - C7 - Eb 7 - Gb7 riffs all sound cool over the root of A, if you're playing dominant blues. here, allan is just messing with chord stacks, Gmi/E is an alt chord, of course, and so on. heavier voicings for dom7 chords make it more interesting, you known b9,#9, #11/b5 , b13, stacked triads like E over Bb, and so on. allan outlines all of those concepts in his playing.
Master Improve Guitarist of all time.
Those are unreal runs.
Holdsworth, what an Alien.
I agree 100%. Insane.
Allan's track Insomnia is very similar. Love it. Genius
I have this DVD, Allan didn’t open my eyes but my ears and eyes at the same time. The four on the stage were “on point”. You folk’s should loop “Fred” if it’s not illegal!
this is all just fun! I found that sometimes I would overanalyze one's art and question why someone (in this case a musician) would make certain choices. Yes, sometimes it's a good way to get ideas, but I believe it can also take away the beauty of it when done too much or too often. listening to music for what it is without ego and without judgment is such a beautiful experience. As long as a person genuinely expresses themselves with music and love the art, what else can I really ask of them?
Utter genius improvisation - and really great to see the transcription like that. Thank you!
And somebody actually transcribed this.😮
Beautiful accurate transcription - but I'd like to see you use 8va when it gets above 3 ledger lines.
This is nuts!
WOW, nobody will ever make music like that
I will one day
I play like this all the time when no one is around...
Oh, thanks for this, and what a badass band too... great job!
Allan kills me like no other, however, there are moments of his where he sounds like someone tapped him on the shoulder, and he woke up into a solo... but after a bar or two of testing the atmosphere, Allan the Alien decides he can breath Earth oxygen, then proceeds to show you why other guitarist look at him playing with that "this does not compute" look... speaking a language that---while widely copied or drawn upon these days by 100s of great players, was if his own design---he was particular to his own self.... a true original who also had mind-boggling chops AND a novel way to look at the instrument....and that says a lot
so sick
This is bonkers , even for Al. At times, it reminds me of one of those parody videos( which are masterfully done, btw), like the one of BB King playing Yngwie Malmsteen. It sounds quite similar in certain places.
...more than a blues is a unipolar depression...🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣...good work Sharp Eleven!!
Another awesome one!
Have you checked our Brett Stine's new book about Allan's musical language?
I just bought it, but there's so much info in it. I think it will take me a long time to get through haha
Oh yeah. I like this nerdy sounding stuff.
Guys, let's take a step back and just listen to this objectively for a second...
Nice drums!
Didn't I see B.B. King play this back in the 90s?
Great title hahaha. So good.
Very authentic, sounds just like some locals sitting by the Delta jamming on some acoustic instruments.
Great sustain, some strange scales. Like Zappa, it's obvious there is mechanical skill and theory but what they do with that ability is not very Musical. @gnulen got it right.
too good for me
The is never an insult towards Allan Holdsworth that can 'diminish' his playing more than Allan did.
Lad appreciates a flat five, no doubt about it.
Just picture it as a weird rollercoaster.
The guitarists guitarist....the one that other guitar heroes whisper about .
One could say somebody plays in the pentatonic box is very boring One could also say somebody adventures so far out into left field The music sometimes is not very friendly to the ear. Don't get me wrong I love Alan Holdsworth he is simply amazing and one of a kind
Nyetnyet
Hah! Based on the notes on paper it should sound like jam session where new guy comes w/guitar tuned to Eb and says to himself ”blues at 12 fret box, I can do that”. Holdsworth, on the other hand, makes it sound like genius, like he indeed was…
I love those 5 note pentatonics that Allan is playing 😂😂😂
as opposed to 6 or 7 note pentatonics? 🙃
so is Dm | E a D minor triad and an E major triad? so D-6 9 #11?
Exactly
Not reading the comments is self care.
Thanks to Allan. The blues are totally re-dressed. Holdsworth is a treasure of humanity.
I sounds to me he loved using diminished and harmonic minor tones.
whole tone scale
Such incredible understanding of melody. The skill to avoid even the slightest hint of melody takes years of diligent training.
Allan Holdsworth is so funny sometime. 😂 a true genius can do whatever and people still takes everything they do too seriously
Blues guitarrist: *plays blues with pentatonic scale*
Me, an intellectual:
Alternative Video Title:
How blues was intented to be played
allan was doing star wars cantina music before it was cool
0:43 what the stretch?
Is it in C or Am? Neither. Its in the key of chromatic. (I don't think I have ever seen a transcription with that many accidentals!)
Dminor
Well, that happened
Sounds like a cat chasing a mouse on the keys of a piano
Allan was from outer space.
Terrific! But, 'blues'??
12 bar blues progression
Playing " The Blues " after eating a handful of Magic Mushrooms.................
A bit like if Michael Brecker played guitar.
it looks like he is constantly trying to take a path that has not been taken by anyone (including himself)
Is it me or is this a bit King Crimson-esque?
The drummer borrowed Lars's snare
Any real blues man will tell you that blues is all about expressing pain through your music...they never said it had to come from a pentatonic scale, or contain a certain chord progression.
Love Allan, Blues my ass?
He may have all the melodic and harmonic sophistication but HOW ABOUT THAT FEELING? If he doesn't do looooong vibratoey bends with a stank face, is there even a feeling?
Better than Clapton for sure.
yup...way better than CRAPTON
that's like seeing a F35 and saying that "it's better than the montgolfier balloon for sure"
you don't fucking say?
I may be strange but it seems to me that he only did very fast exercise...
Allan Holdsworth is an enigma to me as many of my favourite players cite him as being the greatest, yet this sounds bloody awful to my ears, as well most of everything else I've heard from him,
Ok. Public vote.
How many of you can hear 4/4 ? Ignore the transcript. Just listen and count. I’m genuinely interested in how people are hearing this. No time signature is an option. Thanks
I pretty clearly hear 4/4, there is occasional play with the meter/displacement of the downbeat, but at no point in this recording does it lose the underlying 4/4 to my ear. Especially if you listen and key in to where Allan is implying phrases/changes in the harmony (as blurry/dense as it can be) it makes it easier to hear the 4/4, at least in my opinion.
I hear pretty clear too. The "1" of any bar are syncopated by the cymbal, in 1:30 starts the displacement but you only has to be focused on the 4/4 pulse, not on the accents, because if you distract one second on the strange accents you will be confused inmediatly.
Let's see if ChatGPT can come up this!
Blues sure, but the scariest melodies of all time you bet your ass
The song is in 7/8, which makes the whole notation business in 4/4 pretty though to follow.
I think it’s in free time. If you can count 7/8 you’re a better man than me.
It's pretty clearly in 4/4 lmao
@@solstice871 When drummers play like this I find it impossible to feel/count the time. If it’s in 4/4 then it’s so heavily disguised only a select few can identify it. To my ears it’s sounds totally random and disconcerting. This is music for academics obsessed with complexity. No one else is interested.
Pretty sure Chad hits his snare consistently on the 3 when I count in 4/4. They do play kicks anticipated (so on "4 and") which makes it sound like it's in 7/8.
I listened again 3x
I hear the snare on various beats including anticipations. He hits 3 sometimes but not constantly. I can count 4/4 but actually 1/4 is probably more like what I am hearing. That’s possibly wrong but it doesn’t matter. The fact that it’s so obscure is both interesting and annoying in equal measure. @@SharpElevenMusic
12 notes on a guitar. At least 7 of them will be correct, the others can just be chromaticisms. Welcome to fusion, you can't play anything wrong.
But he did it SO WELL...
Very bluesy.
I really like how Allen Holdsworth ignores all the idiomatic qualities of the guitar.
On that day, not a single root note was hit.
That is not blues. He is amazing but this cannot be considered blues in any way.
Listen to the bass or pay attention to the chord symbols. The tune is very clearly a 12-bar blues in D minor.
@@JXter_ no. This is not blues. 12 bars does not make it so. I can write a classical piece using 12 bars if I choose to.
The title of the video is merely a play on the title of the tune "Blues for Tony" and it's a little running gag I had with the titles of a couple of other videos.
@@SharpElevenMusic ah gotcha. I wasn't aware when I commented.
Not blues.Just jazz....
I hate the whole step scale.
how tf u supposed to solo when there’s two whole chords at the same time
For instance, the chord below dominate the harmony. For example: E/Dm is essentialy D, F, E, G# - the only notes that matters for building these chords. So, you end with a bunch of names. Then you can call E/Dm, Dm9(#11), Ddim9...
Impressive… don’t like it
It's 10bar, for f$#@s sake! :)
Donkeys years ago I saw AH play in a London pub called The Phoenix in Cavendish Square. It was a jazz night with some of Londons up and coming session/jazzers. He was unknown and still getting his playing together but already making waves.
Although I was into his early recordings I lost interest. Complicated/difficult music is not automatically good music. Once you get over the impressive technique of Olympic athlete performance you just end up with a pile of notes and it becomes dead boring and instantly forgettable. Sorry guys
I could replay some of his solos in my head, and quite a few of his pieces are slow and incredibly melodic. have another go at some of his later albums!
@@reubennb2859 He was a one off genius. He went a bit too far out into the left field for me but I’m sure he’s produced music well worth listening to.
@@reubennb2859 one of my favorite Allan clips on RUclips is him just volume swelling some chords with an ambient synth type pad on his guitar... no shred, no legato playing even, just brilliant ethereal chord harmony.
@@t3hgir it's one of my favourite aspects of his playing too. All the live versions of Above and Below are just stunning