The history of Allan Holdsworth's tunings w/ examples
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
- Hey all. I tried to make this video as short as possible and it was still an hour long! But that isn't because of me, but because there is just so much info. I go thru all the different tunings and techniques Allan Holdsworth used to spice up his tunes.
Tom Penaguin - ALLAN HOLDSWORTH - Gone Sailing
• [cover] - ALLAN HOLDSW...
My Allan Holdsworth book and lesson material PDFs:
holdsworthpdfs.e-junkie.com/
0:00 - Intro
0:50 - "Gone Sailing": ~1974
3:22 - "Last May": ~1976
5:50 - Harmonizers: 1983
11:17 - 5ths
14:56 - 5ths chords
18:35 - My opinion on Allan's outside playing
23:11 - 5ths lines
25:52 - Allan's use of 5ths lines live
26:58 - April 16th, 1986 5ths zone lines
29:39 - 4ths: ~1985
31:41 - 4ths lines
33:00 - Octave displacement: 1988
37:52 - "EDB" strings Octave Up
39:20 - "EDB" strings Octave Down
39:48 - "AGE" strings Octave Up
41:33 - "AGE" strings Octave Down
42:45 - "GBE" strings Octave Down
47:23 - "Reverse" tuning
51:52 - "Reverse" tuning live!
55:48 - May 2nd, 1989 Reverse tuning live!
56:31 - Baritone / Piccolo guitars
58:55 - C Baritone "Natasha"
1:00:16 - Bb Baritone "Boris"
1:03:37 - A Baritone "Gonan"
1:04:37 - A Piccolo "Igor"
1:05:20 - Roland VG99: ~1996
1:07:30 - Outro - Zábava
Thank you so much for this - it very much helps to illuminate the wicked genius of Allan that was light years ahead of everybody (and still is!) - amazingly propelled by his own mind and imagination!
That was the point 🙂. Glad you enjoyed it!
Incredibly deep insights into incredible deep music. It's mind boggling to think about the time you've spent figuring this out. And you MUST be the only person to have figured this all out ever. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you!! Id like to think so but I had some help from my friends 😄. I will always give Joe credit because I don't think I would have ever noticed those unique tunings!
@@TurrigenousOfficial Well, it's a statistical fact that in the case of the SynthAxe and the baritone guitars, there are not enough of those instruments around that someone can work on this. On a sidenote, I recall what Steve Vai wrote about his "Hindmost" solo transcription back in 85. He said that figuring out the pitches was kinda easy (sure, Steve!), but figuring out the fingerings was hell. And now I'm starting to think that Allan was really just messing with us. He must have had a laugh about a lot of these lines: "Let them try to figure that one out!" But you did!
@aharchives Haha I thought about that too. It's a simple and genius way to get crazy lines without doing too much work. How would anyone know unless you had the synthaxe to test it and better software to slow down the music 😊. This is why I had such trouble with Flat Tire... there were lines that were just insane! I tried to think it was some special tuning. Nope, it was just edited haha
John, I still don't think you get enough praise for these, it is beyond amazing. Your tireless work has brought me, and many of us, so much valuable information. Thank you so much (also I love how perfectly you transitioned All Our Yesterday's and Sand at 16:21 - That was so sick)
Ah thank you so much! Doing my best 😊. That was purely an accident, I can't take credit for that haha
Oh yeah! This is what the Internet is for... amazing research and insight. Never ceased to be amazed at the depth of Allan's musical world. Keep it coming!
Thank you! 😄
internet = great for exploring fringe artists like AH!
@@jimmythebold589He's not a "fringe artist", but rather, the greatest electric guitar player ever. And there are no artists like him.
This video is pure gold.
One of CZcamss best.
Thanks!! 🙂
Thank you for illuminating Allan's music with your deft analysis once again
Thank you and thanks for watching!
Great work John!
Thank you so much! 🙂
Fantastic, accurate job as always my friend!! Wow! 😍
Ah, thanks bud 🙂
Beautiful work! Thank you!
I agree with the others who wrote lavish praise; all of us Allan fans who miss him every day owe you a debt of gratitude that is beyond words for the incredible work you have done to delve so deeply into his work and bring us the amazing details of your discoveries! 🎸🎶🤘👍👌👏👏👏👏👏
My pleasure! I'm glad so many people appreciate these cool things that show Allan's genius 🙂
@@TurrigenousOfficial We can't get any more of Allan; the next best thing is exploring what he gave us a lot deeper, because he's always been too intimidating for me to ever consider doing something like dig deep like you have! I just admire and soak up his music with my jaw hanging open like a hillbilly in New York for the first time! 😁
That was my intention, to help de-intimidate (is that even a word?! 😁) Allan and try to make it as accessible as possible to people to play or even understand better
When I was in high school, I could not for the life of me reverse engineer the intro to metal fatigue. I wish I had then known it was a harmonized recording. Such an amazing creation.
Amazing!!! Thank you for this man
Oh man my pleasure!! 😊😊 Loved your video with Steve Hunt!
Wow...incredible work
Thank you!
The song Moon uses the C baritone also.one of my favorite tracks!
Ah yes!! IIRC I didn't include it because it didn't have any good lines to use for my video. Had I remembered I would have added a little bit from it. Oops! 😬
What a treat. Happy Friday ;-)
I didn’t tune out at the end of your comprehensive video. Im a big fan of lots of players who use different tuning and love to play with it. Thanks again for all of your detailed work
Thanks for sticking it out and watching this one too! 👍
More amazing analysis of the master. Thanks John
Much appreciated!
Very interesting video! Thank you for sharing this amazing work. I'm a great Allan's fan and this stuff is really exciting. Thank you very much again and regards from Italy
Thanks for watching! 🙂
Tremendous amount of effort to put these clips together. Thanks for your time.
My pleasure! Thank you for watching🙂
Thank you 16 times!
Djent guys: look at my multiscale baritone guitar
Allan: hold my guitar neck
😂😂
Wow, great work. Thank you for this.
Thank you for watching!
Fantastic as always , John 👏
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Thanks so much buddy 😀. Hope you're doing good!
Fantastic
U had nice experience about Allan that really great😊
Gracias por tremenda cantidad de información. Es apabullante. Gracias
Awesome!
Thanks again😊
Bravo Maestro!!
Thanks!!
THX for your work God bless you 👍🔝
Thanks for watching!
hello there, I was taking notes the whole time, thank you for this tunings video, you mention de VG-99 around 1996 to 1999, I have only seen Allan with the VG-88, the floor unit, the VG-99 is kinda different (not a floor unit), I still own a VG-99 so imagine my surprise.
Thanks for the clarification. Ultimately, the way I'm describing it here they'll do the same thing. Both use the gk3 pickup. But if we're talking about the actual sounds used yea I'm sure they're different
great stuff
getting a 504 Gateway Time-out on your web site to get the book
Thanks for the heads up. I linked directly to to the page so I think the website is just down for the moment. It's doing the same for me. Try again later, thanks!
Hi John, your content is, as always, really great! I appreciate a lot the hard work that you're putting to explain and unveil 'Secrets' of Mr. H.
I have a question: Did Allan played for real bebop/bouncy phrases on 'So, so Calypso'?
Thank you so much! So that's a great question. I tried transcribing it for my solo lines video and nothing made sense. I came to the conclusion that Allan actually didn't play on it. I think his credit is a mistake
🙃🙂Thank you!!! 🙃🙂
If I had a lot of guitars, I’d try all these tunings
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What an intro!
Allan really rocked the Robin Hood for 80s tv haircut during his synth phase
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@TurrigenousOffical Do you think you might ever do a lesson/analysis of the song Wardenclyffe Tower? It's one of my all time favourite tracks but I couldn't begin to make heads or tails of the progressions?
I do! I wasn't going to but late last year I think I figured out the synthaxe opening. I might use the SA for everything because Allan used the Bb baritone for the main section
Hey, thanks for the great Holdsworth content! You mention that Allan had a double neck built with on neck for 5ths ... do you know the tuning and gauges for that he used with that neck? I'd love to use a full 5ths tuning but can't seem to work out the gauge/tuning... Thanks!
The tuning for 5ths is always the same, FCGDAe but no idea about anything else. As far as i know he's never mentioned anything else about it
@@TurrigenousOfficial Thanks!
Christy Coobatis also has another track he did with Allan titled "It's So Easy." It's on CZcams as well if you search for it.
Yes! Before I did my 5hr video he contacted me that he had 3 tunes with Allan. I told him I wouldn't use the audio in my video if I found anything because they weren't released. I did put that line in the licks pdf cuz it was harmless. Now that the tunes were out I could use the audio
@@TurrigenousOfficial Ah cool! Is the third one available somewhere?
@lex.cordis I'm not sure. It was a small synthaxe piece but it was really short and didn't have any solo lines
@@TurrigenousOfficial Fair enough. Thanks! I'll be on the lookout for it, I suppose.
@lex.cordis he may not release it. I dunno if it was a private thing or a test for something? But it wasn't that serious. If I didn't tell you it was Allan you wouldn't even know anyway
Thank you so much for this! I'd like to ask about the Allan’s use of rolling, does he use rolling when he plays the same fret on different strings back and forth, or does he use different fingers to press the fret?
If i understand your question, it's most likely the same finger in the fret
@@TurrigenousOfficial Sorry, my English is not good. But I do mean this, thanks！
@Rurikon_1 not a problem, thanks you for watching!
@@TurrigenousOfficial 😾👍👍
If using the same finger on two strings, what about three strings? For example, for three consecutive 7th fret strings on the E,B,G strings, do you also use one finger for rolling?
I'm sorry to bother you again, but I've been practicing your book Looking Glass recently and I'm not sure about two fingering questions.
The first is the sweep picking example on page 311, may I ask on the three consecutive 12th frets on the B/G/D string, does allan use his index finger to play the three notes consecutively or does he use his index finger to hit the 12th frets on the B and D strings and middle finger to hit the 12th fret on the G string?
The second is the last example on page 332, can i ask if the two 9th fret notes on the B and D strings are also both hit using the index finger? If so, do you move quickly to the D string after hitting the note on the B string, or do you press both notes on the B and D strings with the belly of the finger in advance?
Additionally, I would like to ask about the concept of "barring" that you mention in your book. Is barring a simultaneous pressing of two frets on the same fret, or is it pressing one fret and muting the fret on the other string?
Really hope you can reply to these questions, I can't thank you enough. Best wishes.❤
Yes you use the index finger for all of it and yes you roll the finger in the fret so one is being played and muting the others. It's an odd thing to get used to, but it's very common in playing arpeggios where you want one note to ring at a time. You can also roll any finger across a fret, but mostly it's the index.
@@TurrigenousOfficial So what about in the example at the end of page 332, is it to play a note with your fingertips and immediately cross over to the D-string to play a note of the same fret, or to prepare in advance to hover on two separated strings?
@@TurrigenousOfficial Unexpected and timely response, thank you for your efforts!
@Rurikon_1 you won't play that with the fingertips. You play the B string with the bottom part of your finger and the D with the top. Like you would barre it, but roll the finger to only play one note
@@TurrigenousOfficial I already know. Thank you very much for your reply😾😾👍👍
How did you get a hold of The SynthAxe ?
I was very lucky someone was selling one within driving distance from me.
@@TurrigenousOfficial it must've been a steal... because Holdsworth was one of the owners of two of them and they still hold some value..
I was given a price it was hard to say no to haha
Thank you, mister. There is something I'm not understanding and that is in 8:29 you mention "pixie dust", am I right? what is that? what are you talking about?
It's just to give his swell playing a little "effect". Pixie dust is Allan's term for it haha
@@TurrigenousOfficial Thanks for your response. It's the first time listening about that term.
Np! Afterwards I thought to myself maybe Allan said "Fairy dust" haha. That's what I get for going off the top of my head, but they mean generally the same I think. A bit of sprinkly high end shimmer.
Bro, whoever didn't finish watching your 5 hour video has no balls.
Haha nah it's not for everyone but thanks!
Wow what a great channel! This is such an important work and the music community is grateful. I'm waiting for you to deal with "Peril Premonition"!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Haha thanks! Peril is a Chad tune iirc 🙂. Also, like Maid Marion, it has a very open solo section harmony wise, like Devil Take the Hindmost, so it doesn't have a set of chords to follow.
@@TurrigenousOfficial oh yes it's definitely a Chad tune. But that solo AIN'T! To me, that is the most vicious guitar solo ever and any guitarist that's ever heard of it I imagine is to scared to even attempt it, one because it's too difficult to try and duplicate, and two so as not to make a fool of themselves. 🤣But if you ever decide to do an analysis on it, I'd be very interested to see what you do with it. Thanks!
@NotYourTypicalNegro thanks!! It's really hard to do those kinds of analysis vids because it's like a kitchen sink solo. Just throw everything at it haha. It's much easier with ones that have identifiable changes to them. Altho dunno why they never played this one live. 🤔
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