Allan Holdsworth (Guitar Player 1980): Difference between revisions

By Tom Mulhern

TYPECASTING ENGLAND’S Allan Holdsworth as a jazz-rock soloist extraordinaire is easy for anyone who has heard his spellbinding and complex lines, which abound with wide-interval melodies, singing harmonies, and high-speed picking. But his electrifying solos on albums by Jean Luc Ponty, Tony Williams Lifetime, Soft Machine, U.K., Bruford, and Gong have inspired players in several different styles, not just fusion. For example, in the April 80 issue of Guitar Player, Eddie Van Halen described one of the things that makes Allan so appealing to him: "He's got a rock sound.”

I don't think so, because I don't know if there really is an easy way. I think that it means more to learn something on your own. The lesson is more valuable, because rather than just following someone else's path without much insight, you can understand how you did things. Really search yourself out. Go for the essence of things, and don't really worry about what others are up to. Try to look at it like, “This is a certain standard, so I should try to be more than that,” but without going the same way. You can get to the point you want to reach by following many different paths. I know it sounds ambiguous, but like most people I guess it's not always easy to explain exactly what I'm thinking. The things that I'd like to do, I've barely started.

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