Mark (cube) and I were emailing recently about an amazing guitarist, and here is an example of how jaw-dropping this guy is.

The melody starts off pretty plain, it's a fifth-second-root thing over a G to D# (maybe Eb) progression (the underlying harmony? Don't even ask!) but then goes (within about 10 seconds of the track starting!) to some some out-of-this-world string skipping mega stretching (not) nonsense that's just baffling (well to me anyway!).

Just thought I'd share it as an informational post, and maybe some of you guys will go on to want to know more and learn from this master.

His name's Allan Holdsworth. He's from Bradford, he loves a drink, and EVH thinks he's God. The track name from which this clip comes is City Nights. It's the first track on the Secrets album. REH did an instructional video with him and it's very cool. There are books you can get too.

Enjoy, drop your jaw, Google, learn, and perhaps be influenced! :)

audio clip

and here's the TAB for this clip


------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
---5/7--------------------7---------------------------------
-----------7-----5------------7-----5-------8---------------
-------------------------------------------------8-----6----
------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------19---------
---------------------------------------------16------16-----
----6/8----------------------------------14--------------14-
--------------8-------6-----0w/bar---12---------------------
------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------14h15p14---------------------------------
----------------15----------15----------------------------19
-------------16----------------16----------------------17---
----------14----------------------14-------12h16p14h17------
-15p12h15----------------------------15p12------------------
------------------------------------------------------------

-17h22p17--------------------17h21/24p21w/bar---------------
----------17--------------17-----------------------15-------
-----------------------17--------------------------------14-
--------------17-14h17--------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------

ive known of Alan for many years...you didnt?
hes been around i think since the late '70s...hes played with many greats but i never really was a fan....cool clip

wow....that WAS amazing!!!

I'd heard of him back in the mid 80s, then got a couple of albums toward the late 80s, but never really paid much attention. Lately I've been trying to expand my horizons by listening to new things. Allan came up in an email conversation with Mark and I decided to make the post in case any of the whippersnappers around here might like to check him out ;)

Have you heard un -merry go round? or metal fatigue?

I went through a big holdworth phase early on in my learning to play.
and some how my legato still sucks.

I used to have Metal Fatigue, not heard of the other one.

ah, your in for a treat then.

saw him in a club. he played a lot of long solos, much more than on those albums. thats why i went o see him , because i was listening to a lot of van halen, thought i should check it out . the club was only a few blocks from my house.

Look at those hands float across the strings!! Like most people I heard of Holdsworth from hearing EVH talk about him. I have always enjoyed an occasional listen, but I never became a big fan. He is an amazing talent though.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OPI7zTqh4oY

Thanks for the vid link! Excellent!

Like you, I wouldn't call myself a "fan" but I love his playing and (especially after watching his instructional video) I'm intrigued, enlightened, and most of all inspired by his approach.

It made me get a s**tload of John Coltrane CDs, for example! ;)

hows his fingers move so close to the fretboard like that :(

THanx phry that was awsome, the only other place i heard this guy was the carvin dvd i got and i thought he was awsome, but this is amazing the melody is just....yeah fucking awsome.

I'm trying to learn it and the sweeping is pretty dang hard it's gonna take a while before my fingers get used to that shape as i never use it. thanx again.

Interesting you mention "that shape". Allan's approach is probably as unique as his playing. He basically created his own scales (which incidentally he later learned were already-existing scales but he never knew it at the time), mapped them out all over the neck, and then used his mind and fingers to try and join the fretboard locations together. No scale patterns, no box positions (and probably everyone knows I'm a big fan of that!).

This is how he gets such unique phrases and especially chord voicings. His work is very interesting to study. If any of it rubs off on you, I reckon it's probably a good thing ;)