When Allan Holdsworth played chords, it could squint downright bemusing and somewhat physically demanding; what’s more, how did he plane come up with that stuff in the first place? Plane surpassing discovering Holdsworth myself, I kind of thought well-nigh chords in the same way considering I found the increasingly traditional way of seeing things a little difficult to get to grips with, or rather, I couldn’t use it to good effect in my playing. I wanted something increasingly guitaristic that took wholesomeness of the nature of the guitar and the layout of the fretboard.
The way Allan Holdsworth thought well-nigh chords is quite a simple concept to grasp once you realize that he saw them as groups of notes from a scale, rather than a construct based on stacking diatonic intervals. In other words, he would think of a Dm or Dm7 chord as stuff the D Dorian scale the length of the neck, or perhaps the D Melodic Minor the length of the neck, or any number of other scales he knew that contained a Dm or Dm7 chord.
Let’s put this on the neck. Below (in visionless blue) you can see three chords that Allan might have played when thinking ‘Dm7’. He scrutinizingly unchangingly went for ‘groups of notes from the scale’ rather than any orthodox chord shape considering he probably didn’t like the sound; plus, he was heavily influenced by modal jazz, where you’ll moreover find these kinds of chords.
These are all Dm7 chords, they’re just not the traditional stacked thirds ones. In fact, Allan’s line of thinking was that, ‘any groups of notes FROM THE SCALE is pearly game if you’re looking for D minor type chords’. Some will obviously sound largest than others but in theory, they should all ‘work’ to some degree.
You could moreover find these Allan Holdsworth type Dm chords in the D Melodic Minor scale.
As the D Melodic Minor scale contains a natural 7 (Dm or DmM7), you’re going to get increasingly ‘out there’ chords if you use the Allan Holdsworth approach, but again, the scale is D Minor so any groups of notes from it is pearly game as far as chords go.
Experimenting with Allan Holdsworth Chords
Try it out with this G Major/E Natural Minor scale.
Let’s say you’re looking for some chords to play over a long Em section for a gratuitous jazz fusion number at the local bar. See what groups of notes you can come up with while using the unshut E string as a reference or plane a drone. Remember that Allan didn’t think in modal terms and didn’t have a name for a scale that starts on each note (i.e. the modes), and though he must have been enlightened of this, he probably dismissed the idea. So, forget your standard chords and squint for groups of notes that sound good to your ear from the scale above.
There are a number of insightful books on Holdsworth’s playing, including mine, if you want to get deeper into the mind of an wool guitar genius.
The post Allan Holdsworth Chords – How to Find Them appeared first on Unlock the Guitar.
