ALLAN HOLDSWORTH MEET & GREET 140912 NYC
PART 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfC7nFjoI5o
Here is the transcript with all bold and italic formatting removed:
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Host/Interviewer: ...go your own way and leave a trail, you know? So it's kind of like that for me. Don't you think, though, that—I mean, I know you don't like that word for yourself—like Coltrane, that's kind of a form of genius?
Allan Holdsworth: No, I'm no genius! I'm dumb as hell.
Host/Interviewer: No, okay, well, we'll leave you after it. But it's a form of genius for someone to not have a reference, to take something somewhere else that no one else has really taken it to. And those guys did that, where it just comes from some innate something within them. But I think your playing comes really deep from within you, that no one can emulate.
Allan Holdsworth: Probably something I ate or something...
Host/Interviewer: All right, I'll stop complimenting. So there was no kind of "aha moment" where you go, "Okay, now I'm onto something"?
Allan Holdsworth: No, there's never been an aha moment. I'm still waiting! You know, one cool thing about being really old, which I am, is that the only cool thing about being old is that I woke up today.
Host/Interviewer: That's inspirational!
Allan Holdsworth: Well, it is. I can go buy a beer!
Host/Interviewer: I don't want to dominate the questions. Anybody in the audience want to ask something?
Audience Member 1: I'd like to follow up on what you brought up. So you're suggesting this idea that creative, groundbreaking work by someone... but his practice routine was, like, Slonimsky—the scales, many hundreds of thousands of hours exploring scales, technique, etc. So how much of it is craft? Did you put in the work? Did Coltrane put in the work?
Allan Holdsworth: Probably. I mean, I don't think you get anything for nothing, you know? I just figured out a way to work on my own and study things on my own. Then I realized I wasn't sure about the guitar with the way notation was formatted. How, when you get to an altered dominant chord, it's got five different names, and my dad said, "Yes, because you don't play the piano, and you can never play all the notes. You're only playing four notes at a time." Which is true—most guitar chords only contain four notes, which don't even really spell out a full chord.
So that's when I decided I was going to look at the whole thing differently. I quit looking at anything from the root up, which is what guitar players usually do. I figured out a way to write down all the scales. I wanted to figure out every possible scale without buying books, so I did. I cataloged them all and I have them all. Obviously, I can't remember hardly any of them because there are thousands of them! But it was a unique experience to work on it, and I did work on it, you know? I'm lazy now because I'm old, but I wasn't so lazy when I was younger.
Host/Interviewer: When you were younger, how many hours per day do you think you practiced?
Allan Holdsworth: Well, I played every day. I never had a strict practice routine. I'd have three main areas:
1. Working on something I didn't know. 2. Trying to figure out chords and scales. 3. Just improvising and noodling.
Those were the only three things I did, but I did it every day. Sometimes I'd spend more time noodling, and other times I spent a lot of time working on stuff I didn't know, trying to figure out how to play certain scales in certain positions.
Host/Interviewer: Were you playing in cover bands, doing cover music back then?
Allan Holdsworth: Sure! I played in a top 40 band for years. It was cool! It was a little bit better than a barber shop.
Host/Interviewer: You also liked bicycling—like 80 miles a day or something, right?
Allan Holdsworth: Yeah, in the old days. But I quit that once I got fat. So if you get a bike, ride it!
Host/Interviewer: Well, that leads into the chords thing. How do you approach voicings? Because lots of people—myself included—can't play some of the chords you actually play. They're so extended.
Allan Holdsworth: Actually, my only teacher was my dad, and he played piano. So when he played chords, they would always be voiced differently than on the guitar. Even though later on he became a pretty good guitar player—he could play beautiful chords on guitar. He didn't have a lot of chops, but it didn't matter; he had a lot of harmonic chops, which is actually better.
A lot of the chords he showed me were close-voiced, so I just grew up with that. That was normal for me, so I never learned the standard short, bunched-up chords. They were always a bit more extended. It was just an accident; my dad wasn't primarily a guitarist, but he was able to open up a whole new world for me on guitar. But I was ignorant to the fact that I was doing anything different than anybody else. I thought everybody did this!
Host/Interviewer: So you never looked back and said, "I'm not hearing anybody else doing what I do now"?
Allan Holdsworth: Really, no. Because I always heard the guys I thought were really amazing. So no, I just kept going, kept looking, kept fishing. You've got to dig!
Host/Interviewer: How did the tone evolution come about—the ever-evolving chase for tone?
Allan Holdsworth: That's a never-ending story! I just wanted to play long notes. I started like everybody else with distortion, but the problem is that it's kind of ugly. Distortion is often really ugly. So it's been a big battle for me to find a way to make distortion sound less ugly and try to make it prettier. It's kind of hard, though; you need a lot of makeup!
It's not so much about gear, but just your way of thinking about it. Though gear helps—you look for stuff you like, trying to get a sound that isn't so gnarly. To some people, it might be too dark, but it's never done. I haven't gotten there yet; I'm still working on it. As long as I keep waking up, I'll keep working on it!
Host/Interviewer: If you have a question, raise your hand. We'll start with the gentleman right here.
Audience Member 2: Going back to the chords: if I remember correctly, you played violin on your I.O.U. record, and I think you mentioned in an interview around '82 that you were tuning in fifths sometimes. Was any of your recorded guitar output tuned in fifths, or was it all standard tuning and you just did the fifths tuning at home privately to explore voicings?
Allan Holdsworth: The only time I tuned anything in fifths besides the violin was with the SynthAxe, because it was easy to do. Fifths tuning is a bit gnarly for chords and somewhat limiting, but on the SynthAxe, I could tune it in straight fourths—which is my favorite! If I were starting to learn guitar today, I would tune in straight fourths without a doubt.
The B string is a pain, and it's unnecessary unless you're going around bashing out power chords, which you don't need anyway. If I learned again, I'd use straight fourths. But I spent so many years trying to beat the B string that I can't un-beat it now! There's a song title in there. Otherwise, every voicing on any set of strings is exactly the same—until you hit that B string!
Audience Member 2: So are any of the SynthAxe tunes on the records in fifths?
Allan Holdsworth: Yes, they are! But I also figured out how to play them in fourths, too. That was one of my pet projects: to see if I could play the same thing in fifths as in fourths. Most of the time you can, except the SynthAxe has an extended range, so some low notes weren't available.
For example, I wrote "Looking Glass" in fifths, and "Non-Brewed Condiment" was written in fifths, but you can play them on regular guitar. The solo on "Non-Brewed Condiment" when I used the SynthAxe was in fifths because I was trying to play a fake violin. Otherwise, no, on the regular guitar I just use standard tuning. As much as I'd like to change it, I always end up dropping back. I've tried other tunings, but they fail miserably for me!
Audience Member 3: Back to the search for tone: you mentioned distortion is a sort of necessary evil to get the sustain you're looking for. What is your signal chain—from guitar to what, to what, for your lead sound?
Allan Holdsworth: First, you have to find an amplifier whose base sound you like. There are a lot of really nasty amplifiers out there, but once you find one you like, you work with that.
With a little bit of an electronics background, I used to build my own load boxes to manipulate the sound. They took the power amp section of a tube amp and turned it into a line-level signal so I could EQ it, then feed it into a giant power amp out to speaker cabinets. That way I could run it quiet. The original amp might look like it's cranked to 11, but the actual volume was very low.
My pickups are very low output—like original '59 humbuckers, custom-made for me by Seymour Duncan. They have low output and weak magnets, so they don't pull on the strings. When using thin strings, a powerful magnet stops the strings from vibrating properly. So I prefer a lower-power magnet and then boost the signal further down the chain. That's also why I like single-pickup guitars.
Audience Member 3: Is that power-soak to power-amp setup what you use live, or do you do something simpler?
Allan Holdsworth: Not so much live anymore. Because of how we travel now with restrictions on gear, I've been using pedal setups just to make things easier. It's not how I'd ideally prefer it, but it's what the travel economy has dictated. I generally don't use the exact same setup live as I do in the studio.
Live, my signal splits: clean sound is easy (direct to PA is great), but the lead sound goes to a dirty setup. I end up running two separate stereo sets—four speakers total—for stereo clean and stereo rhythm/lead.
Audience Member 4: Thank you and salute you for the beauty and integrity of your music! Two questions:
1. If you taught an ensemble of young aspiring musicians in the art of improvisation, what would you tell them?
Allan Holdsworth: I don't know anything! That's the weird thing—you see people who are teachers, and I think, "How can you teach anything if you don't know anything?" I don't know anything about music; I'm still trying to figure it out. It goes so far beyond me. Who am I to know anything? If I tried to teach, I'd have to give a refund!
Like Frank Zappa said when asked if he had advice for young musicians: "Yeah, take out a Herbalife franchise!"
Audience Member 4: 2. What do you look for when improvising with other musicians, and what do you try to give them musically?
Allan Holdsworth: Number one: try to screw up as little as possible!
I've been fortunate to work with some of the greatest players in the world. When you work with someone great, there's an organic connection that happens that I can't put into words. The first time I played with Gary Husband, he was 19 and I was 27. It felt like we were connected by a wire—how did he know where I was going?
Jimmy Johnson is the same way. He'll play something and you wonder, "How did he instinctively know there was going to be a hole there?" You get on stage, start playing, and see what happens. It's like Las Vegas—you don't know, you're probably going to lose!
Audience Member 5: I've spent 20 years chasing tone with amps and pedals. Digital modelers used to sound fake, but I recently bought an Axe-Fx II and it's getting me really close. Do you see yourself using digital direct devices/emulators in the future to simplify your rig?
Allan Holdsworth: Absolutely! That's a wonderful unit. It takes away all the clutter on stage and lets you plug straight into the PA.
At the end of the day, gear is just a tool. In 20 years, someone might find a 50-watt Marshall and a 4x12 cab in their garage and think it's amazing, but gear won't stop you from creating great music. The guitar is just my connection to the world of music; it could easily be a trumpet or a wrench. If you can create music with whatever you have, that's all you need.
Though I still have a soft spot for old 2-inch analog tape machines! But saving myself from hauling heavy gear around by using a single cabinet or modeler direct to the house sounds great. I'll look into it.
Audience Member 6: On one of your instructional DVDs, you talk about the importance of visualizing when practicing. How did you realize visualization was an essential element of your practice routine?
Allan Holdsworth: Visualizing was really important to me because I'm a person who can almost "see" the music visually.
When my dad passed away, I decided to look at music differently and developed my own formulas. I cataloged every single possible combination of scale intervals in one, two, and three octaves. I didn't worry about standard scale names—I named them myself.
I'd pick a starting note (like D) and mathematically generate every permutation of 5-note, 6-note, 7-note, and 8-note scales. I ended up with a huge pile of papers. Any combination that had more than four semitones in a row, I discarded.
Because of that process, looking at the fretboard for me is like looking at an abacus. I visually see the physical intervals and distances between notes on the neck rather than letter names. When I look at the guitar, that visual map of available notes is what I see.
PART 2
FORTHCOMING https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1RLstwAnds
PART 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8OiP7lEBdI
PART 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULYxyyxwuhw
PART 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwWLF0vJ4zo
Allan Holdsworth: ...so, Alan, tell us some stuff to check out on the road. I need lots of road stories!
Allan Holdsworth: Actually, I have so many stories, I really do. You know, it's funny how things come to people, but one of the funniest things that happened to me was when I was playing with Soft Machine in—god, 1972? That's how old I am! And we did a gig in Dublin, and we were trying to get a soundcheck in a little bit early. But pub hours—I mean, back then, pubs were open until 10:00 or 10:30, and they were pretty strict.
Anyway, we went to the pub, trying to get inside to check the gear. It was above the pub, and they were cleaning the glasses. All the pubs close at 10, or whatever the closing time traditionally was. We couldn't get a beer, and we were waiting outside, talking to the guys, going: "Can we get a pint? Please?" I expected my captain to be Irish, clipping along, hi-hi, no: "Sorry, missus, we can only serve..."
So what are we gonna do? We missed it! We were desperate. So finally, we started to leave, and someone asked: "What time do you open?" "5:30." And as we started walking away, the guy shouted: "Hey! Can I get you a drink while you're waiting?"
Another thing that comes up is developing stories when playing overseas, like in Japan, where people are very critical, but audiences are incredible with their precision. You know, when they're doing this kind of schedule... and anyway, you want to get on.
Now, we switch the clock over. For me, it was a really, really cool little club—it's gone now. But the guys would come down, and the Japanese audiences are extremely polite and quiet. We were ready to go on stage, and somebody in the front row shouts out: "How are we on time? Are we on time? How are we on time?" And he goes: "That's precision!"
Have you ever played in a band and been driving and running out of gas or having van trouble? Let me tell you another road story. Back in the old days in the 80s, you're driving, trying to get somewhere to play a gig. We had a little van we traveled in, and we're driving up there. The speed limit is 55, and I'm going over the speed limit—I was speeding, and I was driving. I got pulled over by a CHP officer.
He pulled me over, and he looked back, walked up, and so I pulled off the highway. He didn't really give me any instructions; he just said: "Okay, I'm going to take off, and I'm going to chase somebody else down, and the next time you see my show-tag lights, you're gonna stop!" So I'm like, "Okay!"
Later on, sure enough, there's the show, and we pulled over. It's the same dude! He followed us about two days later, and he's like: "Oh, you again!"
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Allan Holdsworth: Anyway, to wrap it up—are we good? So the next thing is, we're going to sign some things over here. There are guitar strings, a bunch of chord notation stuff available, and some CDs for sale exclusively. That's it! Thank you all for coming out, I really appreciate it. We had a great time, and hopefully we can do it again.
I'm really not good at this kind of thing, you know. I would be happy to just play a show, walk off, and hang out in the back room. I feel really bad because I don't always know what to say. But I want to thank you all so much for coming out.
Audience Member: I just want to thank you for the beauty and integrity of your music.
Allan Holdsworth: Well, thank you, man! But I don't really think about it like that. All I want to do is try to figure out how to play guitar without sucking too much! I'm still trying.
