There are a couple of Alan Holdsworth tutorial videos online, he explains his super-easy chord and scale method. I would start there.

 

Alan Holdsworth wasn't a singer though was he? Instead he was mainly focused on highspeed fretboard wankery, which I can affirm is egotistically pleasing when youre a teenager, but loses it's appeal when you start to think more melodically and musically pleasing.

Singing along when you start playing is a great art to develop right from the get go. It teaches many valuable lessons, both from a musical and practical point of view. A guitarist that can sing is far more employable than a guitarist who can't, and therefore has to skulk artound until they get their cliche filled 10 second guitar solo in every song ..... yawn ... how 35 years ago .......

 

just an update. ive been doing progress the last 2 weeks. i finally got a clear idea of how the notes are laid out on the guitar, i learned how fingers are positioned, and im now learning scales and my first chords.

 

You're contradicting what you wrote in a previous post about finding your own voice, nobody plays or sounds like Holdsworth, if you look in the guitar world for unique players he's right up there, as stated by many famous players. You may not like his style but many do. What you hear from him is his inner voice.

I'm a more melodic player myself, I don't see the point of extended fast guitar solos (with a few exceptions) but to each their own.

 

Also, the Holdsworth post was a joke!

 

haha, yes i know exactly what that means and how it feels. i experienced that when i fist started learning music theory years ago. my happy spontaneity got exchanged for lots of brain activity that only questioned everything i did, pretty depressing.

but that only lasted for some time, the spontaneity came back after a while, and then armed with logic.

learning music theory for music-making is like learning philosophy for living life, a total necessary toolkit if you want to exercise your mind into a deeper more meaningful journey

 

Last edited: Aug 6, 2022

Holdsworth was actually always mimicking sax when he played. Which can phrase in ways that have nothing to do with singing. Usually posts like yours are sour grapes from people mad they just don't have those chops (fine, neither do I) and think therefore that no one should.

 

Allan the flashy player with no soul, the only people who regarded him as idol were total no names like Zappa and Van Halen. Fuck them, Colin is the real guitar expert. Lead us the way!

LOL his response
People just can't admit having stupid ideas

 

yeah I got the joke!
but wanted to make the point about singing being important when learning an instrument

 

not sour grapes at all! I'm a professional guitarist that did all the flashy stuff back in the day until it became boring and self-indulgent, and am still learning new things myself. It's a lifelong journey.

I'm all about EVERYONE expressing THEMSELVES through music and hopefully getting all the feelgoods that come with that. And just throwing in wee things I think are worth learning (like singing along) ... the rule of thumb is .... if you can't sing it .... it's probably wank!

 

Being able to play what you can sing is definitely important. I based my whole style on Yoko Ono.

 

Holdsworth not only developed his unique, unmistakably recognizable style, but also his own musical vocabulary. That's something only a few select musicians can claim to have accomplished (not that he did, he was always searching).

So I guess it's a good thing for many fans of his music that he didn't start to think more melodically and musically pleasing once past his teenage years.

 

You're joking, but I once did an improv with a lady who was vocalizing weird shrieks and stuff, and I played along with my guitar, and it was AWESOME.

 

There are several ways to "f*ck theory" :
4 chords (Nirvana...)
Allan Holdsworth (who didn't learned theory ON PURPOSE, against his father "way")

As you see (and hear), "f*ck theory" will NEVER be a way by itself.

Here is a guy knowing theory inside out AND creative :

PS : there is an harp too, and he MUTES all necks perfectly

 

Sadly the Vai video is mimed, even if he did spend days learning how to mime it perfectly - which probably means he can play it live, but the video he released isn't and I don't think he can play it at concerts yet or we would maybe have seen footage of that as he's currently on tour.

 

Absolutely! What a boring horrible world it would be if everyone liked and did the same thing (which it is nowadays)(presumably because there's tutorials for everything easily available whereas back in the day there weren't and you figured out things the best you could by yourself ... which meant you would maybe get some things wrong, but you'd stumble upon loads of ways to do things and happy accidents that you wouldn't have ever figured out unless you were desperately searching for a way to play something you couldn't play .... neccessity is the mother of invention)

And I can assure anyone, that even if you are just starting out, and playing for people at a party, or just a group of your friends, you will generate far more interest playing (and singing) even the most basic of songs, than you will get doing some wanky rapid fire burst of notes (with no context) , that most regular people can't comprehend or decode.

 

Just to get my oar in on the theory thing .... theory is day one stuff .... absolutely it helps to have a grasp of theory. If after a lifetime you are still trying to rationalise everything in terms of theory, thn you've missed the point. The point is to become one with your artificial limb (guitar) and be able to express yourself through it like your voice.

When was the last time you were talking to someone and you stopped to think about grammar or the spelling of the words you are using?

You don't! You just have a conversation and everything is there without thinking.

That's where you want to be

 

https://rickbeato.com/products/the-beato-book-interactive

 

it is an excellent resource for learning music theory, and beato provides video and audio examples of how to apply theory practically. i'm not trying to sell anyone or anything, but i do believe that this resource is a major step in the right direction - especially for guitar players.