The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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    I don’t remember seeing a thread on this
    Magnum Opus. It is over 5 hours long (!) but there’s a lot here that’s fascinating. It’s really good. Also, no ads, which is a mercy!



    The guy doing the analysis is I think more from a shred/instrumental rock/prog background but I do think a thorough analysis of how Allan mechanically operated the guitar ends up being surprisingly relevant to his improvisational langauge

    one theme that comes up again and again is how Allan effectively used the ‘bugs’ of the guitar and standard tuning as features. This led to a language that was very rooted in the possibilities of the guitar while at the same time sounding like no other guitar player.

    As as I see it every great jazz guitarist has found a way to work with the instrument rather seeking to overcome it.

    Anyway I can see aspects of the transcribed examples that are not discussed in the video such as Allan’s phrasing, articulation and so on. There’s an awful lot I could discuss here from a jazz perspective too.

    And he doesn’t even touch Allan’s chordal vocabulary.

    It’s crazy I could easily imagine another two or three videos of this length just to cover the basics elements of his style.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
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    Quote Originally Posted by Christian Miller
    one theme that comes up again and again is how Allan effectively used the ‘bugs’ of the guitar and standard tuning as features. This led to a language that was very rooted in the possibilities of the guitar while at the same time sounding like no other guitar player.

    As as I see it every great jazz guitarist has found a way to work with the instrument rather seeking to overcome it.
    ... this is as I suspected, having listened to his playing a great deal as well as looking at transcriptions: idiomatic albeit unique playing (and unique despite and because of the idiomatic-ness).

    I saw this video posted a while back but I admit I procrastinated watching it!

  5. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Christian Miller
    I don’t remember seeing a thread on this
    how Allan mechanically operated the guitar ends up being surprisingly relevant to his improvisational langauge.

    His mechanics really are a huge part of what he plays. I like to think of it as his "math". By that I mean the way he takes the three finger combinations he tends to use most, and turn them into fours, or sixes, using different physical patterns. Then moves those patterns around. To the dismay of my wife, I’ve listened to a fair amount of his stuff on half speed, to "ingest" it. And once you can hear those physical patterns, you notice them everywhere.

    A lot of the time, he is thinking physically, rather than "what note goes here".



    And yes, to the creator, it’s a huge amount of work. Much thanks.

  6. #5
    I saw this a while back, some prog-metalhead (i.e. metallers who think they are too cool to listen to metallica) made an hour long video about Allan Holdsworth transcriptions only to say things like "He mostly uses the major scale!" and "It's like he plays dissonant notes only to resolve it", like it is some incredible realization or something , and then ends it by saying that his synthaxe noise was edited in post or just made that way. His entire channel is dedicated to transcribing Holdsworth licks and voicings, so I guess you can commend the effort, if nicking Holdsworth licks note for note is your thing.

  7. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Wensleydale
    I saw this a while back, some prog-metalhead (i.e. metallers who think they are too cool to listen to metallica) made an hour long video about Allan Holdsworth transcriptions only to say things like "He mostly uses the major scale!" and "It's like he plays dissonant notes only to resolve it", like it is some incredible realization or something , and then ends it by saying that his synthaxe noise was edited in post or just made that way. His entire channel is dedicated to transcribing Holdsworth licks and voicings, so I guess you can commend the effort, if nicking Holdsworth licks note for note is your thing.
    that’s a a little unfair.

    I mean, it’s five hours.

  8. #7

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    Not sure if anyone here follows the AH Archives on facebook, but they brought to my attention this:

    https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=...xAOpkZyiMacc3Q

    ... a new Allan Holdsworth album, comprising the audio of the Live at Yoshi's DVD along with some previously unreleased live performances.