Allan Holdsworth - Fred 2009

[SparkDrew]

Very similar progressions to Phil Keaggy. Very difficult chords changes and progressions to do at the speed they do them at.

[muddgroove]

I leaned this tune in 1978 and is still one of my most favorite's! HE is still the MAN

[soundshards]

this is beautiful!

[archiecollins]

at 3:23 he plays a run that sounds like something Mustaine does in his solo on Holy Wars

[arivaderchee]

scary

[aNdYmAtTeR]

Ah, now I see how it's done! You just get one of them headless Steinberger guitars and tickle the strings a little and out comes all those otherworldly notes!!! If I only had known! I wonder where the start button is? Maybe I'll get me such a guitar and start practicing and I'll be ready by X-mas?

[donbosleymusic]

I can't believe he's drinking water and not booze.

[hamaniable]

Genius.

[alspageddi]

holy shit, allan holdsworth drinks water, just like me!!!!!!!!

[TheHornet79]

@alspageddi lol your comment made my day! XD

[Samsgarden]

@alspageddi

yeah but as soon as he drank his, the water became blessed.

[minkofan]

The song is about Allan's first wife. He says so himself on p. 42 of Reaching for the Uncommon Chord (Hal Leonard Publishing 1985).

[fractale8]

this song reminds me a tune on his very first album called " kinder"

on velvet darkness...

[nonfoods1]

Hey flower pop is your name reticulated ignoramus like me? Doesn't hindmost say it all evil hate crap foam beer coolers and scary scull silk screens! Corny crap for all. Heh don't metalers make you laugh till you barf in your dog shews?! Some people take hiding behind crud much too seriously. Like north American crudly

[guitarist12461]

just top!!!!!!!!!

[ElPopularVale]

The father of shredding.

[PSIchiater]

My first love with Soft Machine!

[HurricaneTBag]

Those headless guitars fuck with me.

[BiorythmicDrifter]

Allan's music could bring about world peace and end hunger....

[Paiste01]

Did he design the guitar himself?

[C861986]

@Paiste01 looks like a steinberger headless to me

[richcapo]

He's definitely slowed down since his days in Soft Machine and he seems to be more repetitive with his phrases than he was back then, but he's playing the impossible.

[flowerdrop1]

is it true this guy is like idiot savante? he cant even read a note of music or anything? just jams all the time?

[bigwhitesugar]

The ability to read music has nothing to do with one's ability to hear and understand music or to improvise. Reading music is like color by numbers; it's only a guide. I've known plenty of people that are great at reading music, but really didn't know what was happening in what they were reading. They just put the fingers where the page dictates. Allan has an extremely deep understanding of choral and scalar harmony, more than just about anyone. He is not an "idiot savant."

[koolaidolio]

No, he can read but he doesnt like it. he usually comes up with his own theoretical approaches to playing. buy his REH instructional VHS, he explains some of it.

[kzsoci]

is it true that this song is about alfred nobel, the inventor of tnt? i mean, it's like dynamite to me: "BANG!" every time he plays a note. you know, like a march or something.

[SpiritNirvana]

Hi No, it's about one of Allan's children

Take Care

[tmphotosan]

@SpiritNirvana

i heard that the song was for Fred Frith (Henry Cow).

Besides, the song was written when he was playing with Tony in '70s.

[AbbathGS]

@tmphotosan

If true, that's awesome. I LOVE Henry Cow.

[taghl]

@SpiritNirvana

Buying that "Live at Yoshi's" DVD was one of the best purchases of my life. Four virtuoso musicians. I got turned on to him reading about Eddie Van Halen, and have enjoyed discovering his music. His greatest hits cd is full of great pieces also.

[floatingseeds]

@SpiritNirvana haha i'd love my father to play like holdsworth... D:. i'd borrow all of his steinbergers

[videoman4450]

Fred was actually a nickname for his first wife. It was originally a ballad, believe it or not. It was changed to it's present form when he played it with Tony Williams.

[MrGuitardudeism]

@videoman4450 Yep! He says right in his book Reaching For the Uncommon Chord that this song was about her. Pud Wud and Mr. Berwell I believe were written in reference to his daughter Emily and his son Sam.

[SixtyThreeStrat]

@kzsoci He wrote a song many many moons ago on the Velvet Darkness album called Kinder. German for children.. Brought it back when he did the sessions for Tony Williams and they electrified it and called it Fred.. Absolutely one of my most favorite songs ever written!! Period!!

[CommBreakDown]

idk it was pretty ....extensive at time..noddlish.

[le1992lo]

Allan Holdsworth = GOD

[Yarsh52]

Honestly, I prefer the sound Holdsworth had during the 1970s. This is still pretty good though.

[BrianGuitarShred]

This is way more fitting for his playing then the Soft Machine/Gong tones he had around then IMO.

[5amuu]

thank you so much for sharing these videos!

[SpiritNirvana]

Your quite welcome my friend...anytime !

All The Best

[matt89102]

@SpiritNirvana

Are U Charles?

[danman111777]

LMAO **how can you teach god**

SO True trevski !!! I seriously couldn't have put it better myself !!!

[bedlam6666]

This is one of my favorite tunes of all time. As a drummer, I struggled for a long time to play that Tony Williams riff. And as a drummer who knows nothing about guitars, I am amazed how effortlessly this guy plays. I know he has a huge cult following, but you would be amazed how many guitar players I have turned on to him, who never heard of him. In any case, this is a great post, thanks...but I would have like to seen the drummer at least once :)

[quarktron]

Per Derek Duncan, the Seymour Duncan Allan Holdsworth model AH-1 is based on the JB model, the main difference being the double screws. Resonant frequency is around 5.5kHz

I have one of these pickups in my Parker Mojo Nitefly. I must say that it sounds better than any pickup I have ever used. Previous most favorite pickup was the DiMaarzio FRED.

[lfzadra]

You´re right, there´s probably lots of fundamentalists around here that will kill you for blasphemy or loss of faith. Allan is my favourite guitar player, the best (in my opinion), but I don´t think he is God. Allan closed his forum because of this type of attitude. People fighting each other about Allan´s divinity, because somebody said that he is not the best, well, teenage stuff, really. Pretty sad and pretty boring.

[mancini2468]

arj446 - wanking? lost spark? Wow, he's got 100 times the guitar spark I have, and he's 62. This may be a rough sounding recording, but you are mistaken.

[lfzadra]

Allan tone is pretty cool in this video. Never liked the coldness of his Yamaha modelling gear that he started to use after the Boogies. The tube power section of the Hughes & Kettner´s amps are really helping to extract some juice from that Yamaha Magic Stomp shit that he uses.

[arj446]

I've got a lot of respect for Wackerman, but frankly, nobody makes that song grrove like Tony did. As for Holdsworth, though he's a great guitarist, he kind of lost the spark : that sounds more like wanking than music to me.

[lfzadra]

Allan is great, I think he is the best in his style. But his live performance lacks something from his CDs. Allan himself admits that he does not performe well in public. He refuses to play memorized solos, he wants to improvise, something that few guitarrists do. And if you play live in this way, you can´t erase your bad takes that will occur often. You can´t take risks and sound amazing 100% of the time, that´s the nature of the stuff he likes to do: improvisation.

[trevskiw2008]

That sounds logical if Allan goes out there and plays something he has never played before to the average person that may sound a bad idea vut do remember this is Allan Holdsworth we are talking about, God in my language.

Allan never has bad takes it is always different and unique.

Allan is too humble to say he plays well live he is not some guy who boasts about how good he is which he could easily do.

Allan once even said he needs guitar lessons which is ridiculous, how can you teach god?

[shagbugmcnasty]

I've seen him live many times, this concert included. I have to agree with iffzadra, at least in general. His live performances vary greatly from one to another. and His CD performances almost always have more depth than his live ones.

[shagbugmcnasty]

Except this one time, at My Fathers Place on LI in the early 80's, he was beyond amazing. He was opening for the Dixie dregs, and the place almost rioted when his set was over. No one wanted the dregs to come out, only more holdsworth. Allan had to come out and after 2 encores, calm down the crowd so Steve Morse could come out. Crazy stuff.

It was undeniably the most amazing guitar I have ever seen from anyone ever, including later performances by Holdsworth himself.

[istivi]

He's simply the Best!

[nacholandiax]

someone there knows what pickups does he use with that Steinberger?

they're definetly not EMGs

probly S. Duncan but dont know what model

[stitcha123]

i dont know much about steinbergers, i can see theres no headstock, but what are the 'benefits' or main uses of them? i recall a friend saying can play quick runs across them, is that true?

[nacholandiax]

well, as for what is concerns to Allan, he once said "once you play with a headless guitar, you don't wanna use a normal one again". It probably is because the fact of not having the headstock makes the nut lighter, resulting in a better carriable guitar.

talking about the pickups, I think they might surely be Seyomur Duncans, though most of the older Steinberger models used to come with EMGs.

I think it must be just the best guitar both for stage and studio.

[guitarran]

stitcha123

Traveling: being made of graphite makes them very stable and it having no headstock makes them easier to carry with you (on a plane...etc) these are the main reasons for Allan using them on the road. If you too have toured for many years you would choose what is simplest for you, especially if you're 62 and still touring.

[MrGuitardudeism]

I have read some stuff where he said he likes the balance better, things like that. Plus with the trans trem you can whammy intervals and they go down or up in synch, not out of tune, Whole chords can shimmer and go up or down and you dont get that out of tune skronk.

[petecockcroft]

Seymour Duncan SH-AH1 is a good place to start.

Standard kit on the Steinberger Allan Holdsworth Signature Guitar.

Hope that's some help

[86108610]

duncan 59 with screws for poles in both bobbins

[fusionhar]

Harry who?

Allan is a true genius and deserves all the praise

[bardobound]

what a great ending chord.

[blazzzzzzin]

dam i ive met him before hes a really nice guy

[buddastrat]

most awesome.

[rzr77]

The man is a god.

[fatherfocus]

frank zappa lo dijo holdsworth es el mejor musico del universo

[metalfatigue217]

The most original guitarist of his generation gets 300+ views while millions watch the comedy stylings of bad Harry Potter puppets...We are doomed.

[Paiste01]

@metalfatigue217

Complexity, richness and texture does intimidate people, weather it's literature; cooking, music or anything that you can't judge on a black and white scale.

[Guitfiddlejase]

@metalfatigue217 Wow! I could'nt have said that better myself!

[scorpionz44]

@metalfatigue217 i no, the world is just pathetic these days, they cant appreciate real music =[

[pactater]

@metalfatigue217 Nay, they are doomed. We are the awake ones relishing this sublime sonorous magic!

[lateforthesky61]

@metalfatigue217

Oh for God sake--so fekkin' totally!!!

See you at the "Jersey Shore"

[snouter]

Thanks for the upload. I saw him the following night at the Ridgefield Playhouse. I wish I had brought a video device. They seemed real cool about it as long as there was no flash photography.

[nikolas7333]

This is soooo awesome, Just what I needed to work out the tune. thanks.