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Brett Stine 6 days ago 11 min read

"A Deep Dive into the Voicings of Allan

Holdsworth"
Updated: 2 hours ago

I want to start off by saying there are multiple names for some of these voicings. There are also
quite a few rootless voicings so depending on the root not only the name of the voicing could
change but also the quality whether it's "Major", "Minor" "Dominant" etc. If there is a voicing that
has no root I based the name off of the root the bass player was playing. If there was no bass I did
my best to try and figure out based on the overall structure and harmony of the tune what scale
Allan was most likely to be thinking about and named the chord accordingly. You CAN and
SHOULD experiment with different roots and with altering all of these voicings in your OWN way.
After all, I would imagine no one would encourage that more or be happier about you doing that
than Allan himself.

All of these voicings were extracted straight out of Allan's tunes so they are actual voicings that he
played they are not voicings "In the style of" they are ACTUAL voicings. I watched video's for as
many of these as I could to make sure I was fingering the chord the way Allan did. For the ones I
couldn't find a video for I did my best to make an educated guess based on the thousands if not
tens of thousands of video's, I've watched of Allan and based on years of studying jazz chords and
voicings in general and the knowledge I've accumulated over the years.

You should keep in mind that these voicings have been extracted from many different tunes they
are shown here for the most part out of context. I have transposed many of them to a different
key. All the "Major Chords" are "CMaj7" based voicings all of the "Minor" chords are "Dm7" based
and all of the "Dominant" chords are "G7" based. This keeps all the voicings as accidental free and
as simple as they can possibly be. If there is an accidental then we have clearly left the key and the
chord is coming from a different key or mode, this makes analyzing and figuring out what
scale/mode these voicings are coming from at least for me as simple and as clear as it can possibly
be. For example, if a "Minor" voicing contains the notes "D B F A", "Dm6" then we are still in "C"
and the scale the chord is coming from is most likely "D Dorian" or "D Melodic Minor" this is of
course just two possibilities. If the notes are "D Bb F A", "Dm7#5" or "Dm7b6", in this case, we
have left the key of "C" and could now either be in the key of "F Major", "D Aeolian" or "Bb Major" ,
"D Phrygian", just two of the possible scale/modes the voicing could be coming from. This is pretty
basic jazz harmony so hopefully, this makes sense to you. Same with the "Major" and "Dominant"
chords some of the "Major" chords do have "#11's" and/or "#5's" etc. these are obviously coming
from other modes "C Lydian" or "C Harmonic Major" for example. Also, the "Dominant" chords, do
have alterations, so the voicing could be coming from a multitude of scales, "G Super Locrian", "G
W.H. Diminished", "G Whole-Tone" etc. these are just a few possibilities. A few of the voicings in
this collection could very well be coming out of "Messenians 3rd Mode" as well, I tried to make
note of this when possible. Puting the voicings in this context at least for me makes analyzing them
a much more simple task, while at the same time leaving them open to interpretation so that I and
you can experiment and find as many of the different scale/mode possibilities as we can and then
use them in our own way. I really hope you can get something out of it.

A big part of Allan's genius is obviously the way he voice leads and moves from one voicing to the
next so seamlessly and effortlessly, that isn't really the purpose of this lesson, I will do a deep dive
into that in the future. Until then play through the example below and check out how smooth his
voice leading is and how he puts all this stuff together in such a musical way. These two examples
were taken from his "REH" video. The way he puts voicings together and moves from one to the
next is a huge part of what makes him so great, more on this in a future lesson.
Most of these voicings can be categorized as, "Drop 2", "Drop 3", "Drop 2 & 4", "Spread Triad's"
and/or some variation of, as well as"Intervallic Structures" or what Allan might call "Sound Families"
.
"I think of scales as ''sound families'' ( chords are just parts of them)". ~ Allan Holdsworth

For example one of my favorite voicings in this collection is a typical "Dm7" Root Position "Drop 3"
with the "9th" added the "5th" omitted and the "3rd" moved from the 3rd string to the 2nd string,
but it's still just a "Drop 3". It really doesn't have to be any more complicated than that unless you
just want to impress your girlfriend because I'm sure she cares.
Ex.1 & 2

Changing the voicing in this way creates an "m2nd" interval between the "F" the "3rd" of the
chord and "E" the "9th" of the chord. Allan does this a lot, having interval's of a 1/2-step "m2nd"
and/or a whole-step "M2nd" are a big part of the way he voices chords, it's a big part of why his
voicings sound and look as awe-inspiring as they do. This is also one of the reasons why when you
watch him play chords his hands look like for lack of a better word so alien. He's trying to get a
particular sound though not impress you with his ability to stretch his hands.

Getting into the theory of "Drop 2", "Drop 3" "Spread Triad's" etc. isn't something I want to get
into in this lesson. I might dive into it in a future lesson but that information is abundant if you just
take the time to "Google" it. And you really should look into it before diving into these voicings, it
will make your life and your understanding of these voicings much, much easier.

I will, however, touch on "Intervallic Structures" or "Sound Families" a little bit as they are a huge
part of Allan's voicing palette. An "Intervallaic Structure" is when you take a set of "intervals" and
a "string grouping" and then walk the combination through a given scale, for example, the "Major
Scale" and/or the "Melodic Minor Scale".

For example, a really common intervallic structure that a lot of modern jazz players such as
"Rosenwinkel", "Kreisberg" and "Lund" just to name a few can be found using is the intervallic
structure of a "4th & 6th." (See Ex.3 below) Learning voicings in this way and walking them
through as many scales/modes and keys as you can, can and will get you headed in the direction of
viewing scales, chords and the fingerboard the way Allan does.

"I see a scale family from the lowest available note to the highest available note on the
instrument." ~ Allan Holdsworth

"I first find a chord voicing I like using notes from the scale and then "harmonize" it by simply
moving the voicing up to the next set of notes in the scale. By continuing this process we end
up with seven voicings all relating to the first chord and scale family." ~ Allan Holdsworth
Ex. 3

Above is an example of a "4th & 6th", structure, the "4th" being on strings "3 & 4" and the "6th"
being on strings "1 & 2" they are then being played through the "C Major Scale". These should be
played on all possible string sets this is just one example. This does not mean you can ONLY use
them when the chord is "CMaj7" and the root is "C". These same voicings can be used for ANY of
the chords that exist inside the key of "C Major". "CMaj7, Dm7, Em7, FMaj7, G7, Am7, Bm7b5".
Playing these when the root is "E" will create a "Phrygian" sound playing them when the root is "F"
will create a "Lydian Sound" and so on. If this doesn't make sense to you, you might want to
"Google" "Modes" and do some research on them but that is outside the scope of this lesson, good
luck!

Doing this can make the naming of chords a little tricky though. If you named all of these as
separate voicings with "C" as the root you would end up with voicings that do not contain the
"3rd" or the "7th" of the chord. These are the defining notes of a chord they determine whether a
chord is Major, Minor or Dominant. For example, the last voicing in this group "D G A F" with "C"
as the root gives you the "R 9th 5th 6th & 4th". That would give you a "C6sus4add9" that's an
overly complicated name in my opinion. The main objective here shouldn't be to come up with all
kinds of crazy voicings and then have to give them overly complicated names. The objective
should be to see a simple chord symbol like "CMaj7" and just know all the possibilities that are
available for you to use. It's a bigger picture way of thinking.
"It seemed to me, because of the very nature of the guitar, I could view this very differently,
more from an overall picture." ~ Allan Holdsworth
If your ear is good and you have any sort of musical sensibility and creativity whatsoever you will
be able to use this stuff in a musical and creative way. Let your ear be your guide.

In example 4, I've gone through and changed one note in our "4th & 6th" structure to show how
just by changing one note you can get different parent scales and/or modes. If you change the "C"
to "C#" you get "D Melodic Minor", If you change the "G" to "G#" you get "A Harmonic Minor", If
you change the "A" to "Ab" you get "C Harmonic Major". I highly recommend doing this with as
many scales and modes as you can.
Ex. 4

Ex. 5
In Ex. 5 above, I've taken the same concept changed the string grouping to "1 & 2" and "4 & 5" and
the intervals to a "4th & 5th" this is essentially a "Drop 2 & 4" voicing, if you want to look at it that
way, I did this to show how this concept isn't just limited to the top 4 string, you can get creative,
spread things out and get some really interesting voicings. Then by changing just one note in our
first structure, here I changed the "E" to "F" and got the intervallic structure of a "tritone" and a
"5th" while staying in the same scale/mode in this case "C Harmonic Major", we are able to get
even more voicings out of this approach. Hopefully, you are starting to see how deep this concept
can get and we are just beginning to scratching the surface of where this concept can go, it really
is only limited by your imagination. Hopefully, by now you are starting to see just how
"Holdsworth-ian" sounding this approach is.

"A name is only a means of identification and communication, but in my case, identification
only." ~ Allan Holdsworth

Some good examples of Allan using "Intervallic Structures" or "Sound Families" can be found on
his "REH" video. You can check out some of those examples below in (Ex.6).
Ex. 6
Allan talks about his approach to scales and chords pretty extensively in his "REH" video here are
a few quotes:

“Well, one of the things that might happen to you is if somebody says “Ok, play me an E major
seventh chord”, which is a pretty primitive chord. And if you haven’t been playing very long
you might just play. ( ex.1 ) But that’s a really ugly, disgusting, dissonant sounding chord to
me, so you could play another inversion of that; say ( ex.2 ), which sounds a whole lot nicer.” ~
Allan Holdsworth
Ex. 7

"When I first started to play, I would see scales written in a book showing, for example, how
to play over an altered dominant chord, and on the next page another scale to use on an
altered minor chord. Because at that time I was thinking more in positions, I would practice
them without realizing I was really just playing the same scale starting on a different note. I
would also see a chord shape, and then on the next page, the same shape with another name.
I realized then that guitar chords generally only contain four different notes. This makes the
naming and clarifying of chords on guitar a little more ambiguous. So it seemed to me,
because of the very nature of the guitar, I could view this very differently, more from an
overall picture." ~ Allan Holdsworth

“People ask me a lot about chords and the way I think about chords, and the way I do think
about chords is; I just think of them as being, say, members of a family. And I think of a four-
note chord for example, which most guitar chords are, as just being four members of a family.
Say you have a, imagine a seat with eight family members on it and you say “Four stand up;
Steven, George, Sarah, Winston”, or whatever, “Stand up!” And then you take a picture of
those and that’s that particular chord, but their all members of that one family. So when I
hear chords moving from one chord to another, I don’t just hear the static voicing of that
particular chord, although that may be important, in a head say for example. I see it more as
being the families that change; you change from one chord to the next. So, I just think of
chords as being based on scales, so I try to hear the scale-shapes move, you know, from one
family to the next as the chords go by.” ~ Allan Holdsworth

"I think of scales as ''sound families'' ( chords are just parts of them). I see a scale family from
the lowest available note to the highest available note on the instrument. A name is only a
means of identification and communication, but in my case, identification only. I do not think
of a scale as having a beginning or an end, a bottom or a top - just a sound. The name I give is
for identification only and not for signifying any particular root. I do not give a seven-note
scale, seven different names. However, it is very important to hear and remember how each
scale ''sounds'' starting from each and every one of these individual notes. I feel harmony
should be mobile, so as chord sequences go by, try to hear these as a whole ''sound families''
moving, instead of the four or five notes of a particular chord." ~ Allan Holdsworth

Below are the voicings I've extracted from various tunes all transposed as I explained above. I
should mention I have written some scale choices here and there above a few of the chords these
are just some of the possibilities for that chord. I will be doing a more in-depth lesson on scales,
down the road. I wouldn't get too caught up in the names of these chords, I tried to account for
every note in the voicing when naming these because they are specific voicings, even though most
of the time a symbol like "CMaj9" implies that the "3rd" and "7th" should be present that isn't
always the case. There are many voicings I've seen called "Cmaj9" that may not include the "3rd"
and may not include the "5th" etc. at all, sometimes you may see "CMaj9(no 3rd)" in that particular
instance but not always. So again to me, all the "Major Chords" are "CMaj7" based, if I see a
"CMaj7" chord symbol depending on the context and my mood at that moment I might play
"CMaj9", "C69", "CMaj7#11" etc. these are just part of my "CMaj7" palette, I suggest going
through these and just adding the ones you like to your "Major" chord sound palette and calling
them whatever you want to call them.

"A name is just a means of identification and communication, but in my case, identification
only." ~ Allan Holdsworth

Anyway, there are close to a hundred voicings here right now and I will be adding many more in
the future, stay tuned.
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