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Allan Holdsworth on the limitations of electric guitar

 
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dinojackson



Joined: 11 Sep 2004
Posts: 12

PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:33 am    Post subject: Allan Holdsworth on the limitations of electric guitar Reply with quote

Holdsworth is not very happy with the playing potential of electric guitars(I am quoting his comments from his interview with innerviews on January 15, 1993 ... "The way that I could make a note loud and then soft and then loud and then soft is completely impossible with a guitar. Sure, you could use a volume pedal but it's not the sound— it's not the way I want to hear it. If you play a violin and you pull a note and then you can make it soft and add vibrato, take some off and then make it bright again and hard—just one note. It's just the way you can shape notes. You can shape notes on guitar—I've worked really hard at doing that, but it's really limited compared to what I could do on a Synthaxe."...). Any comments on that? Sad
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember being somewhat disappointed when I read that. I remember that quote very well. I bet he pissed off a lot of his hardcore fans. Well, I think Allan is a saxophonist trapped in a guitarist's body. He thinks in terms of sax lines and he wants to phrase like that, too. And he has figured out ways with his incredible technique on the guitar to do a lot of what great sax players do. He truly innovated to extend the expressive and tonal range of the electric guitar.

But at the same time, he himself has said that he is "awful" on "regular" electric guitar techniques and the vast repertorie of music those regular techniques could cover. As for me, I've learned to accept his comment as just frustration of not being able to do certain things on the guitar which he'd like to do, but the fact is that the guitar is inherently not able to do those things. But then, you can't play chords on saxes, right?

Well, he's on the guitar now and playing as well as ever. Sometimes the drive to innovate and be so singular-minded can close one's mind, I believe. I think he went just a little too far off into his own direction with the SynthAxe thing and I believe he realized that. Or he wouldn't be playing a "regular" electric guitar now, would he? Wink
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Alun



Joined: 19 Sep 2004
Posts: 125
Location: Over Here

PostPosted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 4:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

alexkhan wrote:
Allan is a saxophonist trapped in a guitarist's body. He thinks in terms of sax lines and he wants to phrase like that, too. And he has figured out ways with his incredible technique on the guitar to do a lot of what great sax players do. He truly innovated to extend the expressive and tonal range of the electric guitar.



I agree. I seem to remember seeing an interview ( it might be on his REH video) where he said he always wanted a horn but was bought a guitar. I guess that, if you're trying to emulate another instrument, the guitar may be limited ( although Creative Guitar 2 has a great section on this). I sometimes feel that way when I hear these fantastic close voiced piano chords that are, in the basic form, unplayable. But if Holdsworth hadn't been searching for something outside the norm he wouldn't be the player he is now.


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