Allan Holdsworth fingerings for scales and arpeggios

[Christian Miller]

Having a lot of fun working on Holdsworth's solo on Nuages (from 'None too Soon') which I think to be some gorgeous ballad playing (with some absolutely blazing licks of course)

it's fun to see what Allan played on a very functional jazz standard and great fun working out what's up with his fingerings. Here are some typically idiosyncratic Allan fingerings. While there’s no shortage of legato jazz fusion monsters these days, I don't really know anyone else who uses unisons in this way (although EVH popularised some of his overlap stretch fingerings in rock, for instance on Beat It.)



There will be more on this - video in the pipe (once I can play the bloody thing)

[Cunamara]

I watched one of those "guitar teacher reacts" videos in which one of his Patreon supporters totally sandbagged the poor guy and requested one about a Holdsworth video. Of course, within seconds it's far beyond what almost anybody can analyze on the first pass; the teacher was quite frank about that and gave up on trying in about 30 seconds. But he noticed in the fingerings, right away, that there were many overlapped or unison notes and he was puzzled as to why anyone would pick fingerings that do that. Given how deliberate Allan Holdsworth was about everything he did in music, I'm sure that was his choice to exactly do that.

[Christian Miller]

A difference between genius and mere virtuosity in my opinion….. what is a bug for most of us was an endlessly fertile ground for someone as creative as Allan.

(It’s taken me so long to slough off a lot of this received ‘wisdom’ myself… I wonder how much easier it might have been in some ways to create in a world where one was not told the right and wrong way to play the electric guitar.)

One of the simplest examples is the unison
’shout chorus’ riff in Fred. Superficially a simple pentatonic figure it’s made uniquely allan by incorporating those repeated notes.

[RJVB]

I have no idea how to read the diagrams above so I'll just ask what's meant with "overlap" or unison fingerings. Ones where you play the exact same note on 2 different strings (and hope they're indeed the same ) ?

[Christian Miller]

I have no idea how to read the diagrams above so I'll just ask what's meant with "overlap" or unison fingerings. Ones where you play the exact same note on 2 different strings (and hope they're indeed the same ) ?

just like chord boxes bro

Unison fingerings feature unisons between strings

Overlap fingerings feature notes lower on the next string so, for our double dim arpeggios

String 4 - C Eb F#
String 3 - F Ab Cb
String 2 - A C Eb

[JazzPadd]

Valuable material! A simple idea with a lot of potential mileage. Thanks for this!

[frabarmus]

We all know that Allan was inspired by Coltrane (and saxophones and oboe etc.). His phrases with repeated notes, I reckon, came from that inspiration (and, of course, his huge hands with long fingers!).

[frabarmus]

P.S. Repeated notes, in unison, on different (adjacent) strings, that is...

[JazzPadd]

What a weird and wonderful instrument is our beloved guitar!

[Christian Miller]

I do hear Kurt Rosenwinkel using repeated notes possible under Allan’s influence. However, he’s picking those, his fingering is much more conventional, actually favouring mostly three fingers.

[pamosmusic]

just like chord boxes bro

Unison fingerings feature unisons between strings

Overlap fingerings feature notes lower on the next string so, for our double dim arpeggios

String 4 - C Eb F#
String 3 - F Ab Cb
String 2 - A C Eb

It’s funny because this is genius on guitar and weird and cool but also super analogous to false fingerings on saxophone. Which is advanced but kind of standard on a saxophone. So I like that genius is also just sometimes as simple as having the determination to solve a problem.

Yotam Silbertstein’s “stock” scale fingerings are set up to include doubled notes between the G and B strings too.

[frabarmus]

weird and cool but also super analogous to false fingerings on saxophone. Which is advanced but kind of standard on a saxophone

Exactly!

[RJVB]

just like chord boxes bro

Exactly. I don't have that many fingers and kinda doubt I'd manage to play 2 notes on the same string at the same time

[Christian Miller]

It’s funny because this is genius on guitar and weird and cool but also super analogous to false fingerings on saxophone. Which is advanced but kind of standard on a saxophone. So I like that genius is also just sometimes as simple as having the determination to solve a problem.

this is true.

Yotam Silbertstein’s “stock” scale fingerings are set up to include doubled notes between the G and B strings too.

aha there is another... I’ll research and mention in my vid….

[Christian Miller]

Exactly. I don't have that many fingers and kinda doubt I'd manage to play 2 notes on the same string at the same time

You don’t have to do that haha

[yebdox]

As mentioned above, the "false fingerings" sound is so cool rhythmically.... Allen Hinds does a bit of this as well... makes for a way to flip accents around in the middle of a line. Also dig the alternating half step trill that some use (not sure that I have heard Holdsworth incorporate it, but there are a few million notes he produced that I have not yet examined closely.)

Hard for me to imagine that some folk accuse AH of being only technically proficient. I love everything about his alien way of playing. So sad that he was never at all satisfied with his own work.