Saxophone: Difference between revisions
From Allan Holdsworth Information Center
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But eventually I fell in love with the guitar for other reasons. I played the violin for a couple years too but I missed playing chords. So I went back to the guitar and used distortion to sustain notes and make it do things it wouldn’t normally do. So, here I am playing the guitar… or trying to! | But eventually I fell in love with the guitar for other reasons. I played the violin for a couple years too but I missed playing chords. So I went back to the guitar and used distortion to sustain notes and make it do things it wouldn’t normally do. So, here I am playing the guitar… or trying to! | ||
==[[Guitar Like A | ==[[Guitar Like A Saxophone (Guitar World 1987)]]== | ||
Holdsworth has added a breath controller apparatus to his SynthAxe. Basically a piece of thin tubing that hooks up to the unit and runs to his mouth, this breath controller allows Allan to literally blow the notes out of his instrument. With this bit of tubing, the guitarist’s guitar hero can finally become a saxophonist. | Holdsworth has added a breath controller apparatus to his SynthAxe. Basically a piece of thin tubing that hooks up to the unit and runs to his mouth, this breath controller allows Allan to literally blow the notes out of his instrument. With this bit of tubing, the guitarist’s guitar hero can finally become a saxophonist. | ||
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==[[The Allan Holdsworth Interview, part one (Musoscribe 2017)]]== | ==[[The Allan Holdsworth Interview, part one (Musoscribe 2017)]]== | ||
Was it your time with Jean-Luc Ponty that sparked your interest in playing the violin? | Was it your time with Jean-Luc Ponty that sparked your interest in playing the violin? | ||
Early on in your solo career, you became very closely associated with the Synthaxe. What piqued your initial interest in that instrument? |
Oh no, no, it was just curiosity. I messed around with a lot of instruments; I played clarinet for awhile. I had borrowed '''saxophone'''s from band mates in the past, just to get a feeling of how they work and the challenges of each; and it was like that with the violin. I got a violin, and then after that I did buy a viola. But the viola got lost in the shuffle when I moved; I don’t really know what happened to it. | ||
Early on in your solo career, you became very closely associated with the Synthaxe. What piqued your initial interest in that instrument?
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It went back really far into my childhood, actually. Because I always wanted to play a horn or a violin or something where you could shape a note, as opposed to the guitar which is basically a percussion instrument. And I always tried to get the guitar to sound like it wasn’t a percussion instrument.
When the Synthaxe came along, it opened the door to not only different textures and sounds that were unavailable on the guitar, but with the use of the breath control, I could do all the things that I wanted to do if I had been a horn player of some sort. I learned a lot from just playing that instrument. I still use it a lot in the studio; for the stuff I’m working on now, it has probably ended up on every track. | |||
==[[The Outter Limits - Allan Holdsworth’s Out of Bounds Existence (guitar.com 1999)]]== | ==[[The Outter Limits - Allan Holdsworth’s Out of Bounds Existence (guitar.com 1999)]]== | ||
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Your guitar tone is huge and thick, almost like a baritone sax...
"Well that’s the kind of sound I’ve been striving to achieve. I’ll never get exactly what I want, but it’s just like music itself. When I first started listening as a kid, I’d hear some piece of classical music and it would make me want to cry. And I didn’t understand it, so instinctively I knew I wanted to be a listener and an absorber of music. It’s like when you first fall in love and it’s an agony and an ecstasy at the same time; that’s because there’s something that you don’t understand and that’s what I love about music. It’s like being in love with something you know you’re never going to get. And it’s the same with the sound: to me the sound is part of the music; I’ve always strived to achieve a certain sound and that’s a neverending quest for me." | Your guitar tone is huge and thick, almost like a baritone sax...
"Well that’s the kind of sound I’ve been striving to achieve. I’ll never get exactly what I want, but it’s just like music itself. When I first started listening as a kid, I’d hear some piece of classical music and it would make me want to cry. And I didn’t understand it, so instinctively I knew I wanted to be a listener and an absorber of music. It’s like when you first fall in love and it’s an agony and an ecstasy at the same time; that’s because there’s something that you don’t understand and that’s what I love about music. It’s like being in love with something you know you’re never going to get. And it’s the same with the sound: to me the sound is part of the music; I’ve always strived to achieve a certain sound and that’s a neverending quest for me." | ||
...and what has come to light for me is that the music is the most important thing; the way you write it, or the way you play it. I really don’t think the instrument has anything to do with it at all. For me the instrument happens to be the guitar, because I’ve played that particular instrument longer than anything else and am able to express myself more easily on it, than say on piano. It’s only as time has evolved that I’ve got to a certain stage -however grim, or good doesn’t matter- it’s just better now than it was a few years ago. | |||
==[[Allan Holdsworth (International Musician 1981)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (International Musician 1981)]]== | ||
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==[[Allan Holdsworth (Music UK 1983)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (Music UK 1983)]]== | ||
‘In the beginning when I started playing, I wanted an instrument that I could blow on and I’ve now found a way of getting something that I want out of the guitar. About 2 or 3 years ago I basically rediscovered the guitar, if you know what I mean, because I started to find a way of expressing myself through the guitar. In a way the instrument doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter what it is really, whether it’s a '''saxophone''', a violin, anything, there’s always a way of trying to find something from it. What I didn’t want to do is sound like somebody else.’ | |||
==[[Allan Holdsworth (Sound Waves 2012)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (Sound Waves 2012)]]== | ||
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But eventually I fell in love with the guitar for other reasons. I played the violin for a couple years too but I missed playing chords. So I went back to the guitar and used distortion to sustain notes and make it do things it wouldn’t normally do. So, here I am playing the guitar… or trying to! | But eventually I fell in love with the guitar for other reasons. I played the violin for a couple years too but I missed playing chords. So I went back to the guitar and used distortion to sustain notes and make it do things it wouldn’t normally do. So, here I am playing the guitar… or trying to! | ||
