Allan Holdsworth - Devil Take The Hindmost Lesson & Tutorial

[@obedefranklin2464]

John, once again, thanks a lot for these lessons. Your videos have been my joy in every single weekend in the past months.

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thats very kind of you! Thanks for watching :)

[@hamandvaid]

This is really wonderful, thank you. Amazing job. I never knew the anecdote about Allan wishing to write a simpler song, and I love this so much - he then proceeded to write the greatest guitar solo of all time.

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thank you!!

[@vspa]

it is (greatest ever solo)

[@manitheman0806]

John....prompts to you for attempting this type of advanced lessons...priceless....THANK YOIU

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

My pleasure, thanks for watching!

[@ArthurBrendler]

Really, really good lesson. Metal Fatigue is my favorite 'Pop Allan' album. Metal Fatigue, Devil Take The Hindmost, Home and Panic Station are really great songs and they are, in my opinion, the best introduction to Allan's work. Thank you for your work.

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thank you so much for watching! I wasn't too high on that record but Home and parts of UnMerry Go Round are some of Allan's absolute best works ever.

[@jakelee7639]

Thank you so much,.i can’t believe how much effort you put into these videos and dissecting these songs,..Allan’s writing is so innovative and complex and you treat them with all the respect they deserve...you are awesome!!!

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

I appreciate that, thank you :)

[@trapkat8213]

Great run-through. The use of the harmonizer was a revelation to me. It is interesting to see how recently more and more guitarists have started to analyze Allan's playing, some 30 years after the recordings were made! The state of the art seems to finally have caught up with his unique style.

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thanks! I agree, I personally never would have been able to do this without really good software and videos to help!

[@razeshbudhathoki]

I was about to ask you about doing this song in your videos. Glad you did! Definitely one of the important channel on KZbin for me.

[@melozxc]

4:05 / 5:11 / 6:48 / 9:09 / 9:47 / 10:04 10:22 10:32 10:39 10:46 / 11:03 / 11:42 14:58 15:59 16:06 16:22 16:29 16:36 16:48 ... 17:35 17:44 17:49 17:58 / 18:12 (18:20)

[@winstonsmith8240]

What can I say? Just such great work. Can't compliment you enough. It's like finding the Holy Grail. 👍

[@grantroulston7969]

Thanks!

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thank YOU so much!! 😄😄

[@maerarun4992]

What a nice tutorial as always, Allan have a incredible mind to modulations and chords progression. You're amazing dude!

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thank you! I agree about that with Allan. One of the reasons why I find his chord stuff so interesting is all the voice leading, modulation and blending into different keys so smoothly you don't even notice!

[@maerarun4992]

@@TurrigenousOfficial Yeah dude, with you tutorial i just find out the modulations in Devil Take Hindmost, i thought it was chromatic chords or atonal

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

@@maerarun4992 This is pretty rare for Allan. USUALLY his music is melody driven with a lot of non-functional harmony and voice leading, which is why you can't really say what key a song or part is usually in. I would venture Allan didn't purposely want to 'shift' keys but more about how he heard it and what sounded nicer to him.

[@maerarun4992]

@@TurrigenousOfficial Non-functional harmony? oh boy i have to study more about that, is so interesting and fun at the same time and when you give and analysis to the song i would be my favorite part of the video. Also, Allan's music is like alien music is just wow

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

@@maerarun4992 Its a scary word but pretty simple. Let's take a song in the key of C major. C Am F G. 1 6 4 5. That harmony is functional. Non functional harmony are chord that almost seem random. Gm Bbm B G#. It could still sound good with a strong melody but doesn't make sense in a key

[@alanblakeguitarist]

Super cool and correct brother!! Much appreciated. I was actually looking for the solo but this is great too!!I’m going to look you up to see if you play in NY

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thanks! There are a lot of real accurate versions. I did transcribe lines from it and every other Allan solo but it's in the middle of a 5hr video hah

[@srb-ef3zs]

Allan is smiling from above!

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

I could only hope. Thank you!

[@jonellison2331]

Wow! Outstanding work, sir-Thank you!

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thanks!

[@PedroMirandaGuitar]

Marvelous! Superb work and gift for all of us! Thank you very much!

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thanks for watching! :)

[@sharoonjohn3850]

You're the best John!! keep them coming!!

[@LivioLamoneamusic]

Love it! Please keep them coming my friend! ☺️

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Kudos from the man with the perfect transcription haha. Thanks Livio!

[@Tmidiman]

Nice, simply beautiful. Thanks!

[@darwinsaye]

I’ve been playing that D maj shape with my index finger on the E string and middle on the G string since I learned to play 40 years ago. The way most people do it seems weird and awkward to me. :)

[@julifinnmusic]

Thank you for this amazing video!

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thanks for watching!

[@rodrigobm12345]

Dude, thank you very much. Perfect lesson!!!!

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thank you!

[@carolmcgeough6590]

crazy good, love it

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thank you

[@agus6115]

Great video man. Keep em comin.

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thanks! Not that many left though. I'll be happy when I got em all ready in a nice neat playlist

[@agus6115]

@@TurrigenousOfficial There's some audio out there of an early live recording of this tune with Jeff Berlin on bass. I think the tune was still a work in progress but the solo section was in G major vs. Minor. Real cool..

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

@@agus6115 oh that's interesting. I might have that somewhere... gotta check my live shows

[@gunbladesarah5027]

Amazing work my man! This must take sooo long to do!! Even though this is a “simple” Holdsworth tune, i still have to break my fingers in several places to play it xD Please do Home, his most beautiful song imo

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thanks! Ive been chipping away at these songs for so long I can't really tell you. I usually do a pass and im happy with it. Then if something strikes me as unusual i'll go back and look at it. Basically keeping on polishing it until I think the transcription is right. Then right before I do a video, I do a check to make sure I got everything. Don't worry that'll eventually be coming up. I'd say Home is his hardest so be warned!

[@alexkopteev]

@@TurrigenousOfficial home is just a nightmare for a fingers)) but sound very beautiful

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

@@alexkopteev I know, its one of my favorites!

[@alexkopteev]

@@TurrigenousOfficial mine too, really cool but damn tough to play, hope i can finish learning it...

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

@@alexkopteev Stay tuned!

[@DanielPeroine]

Great video, very good job

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thanks!

[@philg7806]

You gotta get a few guys together and do all these tunes live. Great stuff as always!

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thanks! Maybe one day haha

[@danielsgrunge]

It took me like 5 minutes to realize the giant incesticide album cover in the background, and it's one of my favorite releases ever!

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

I always wondered what people would think I have a Nirvana poster while talking about all these geeky music things. Its my fav album as it had the largest impact on me before I even started playing guitar!

[@danielsgrunge]

@@TurrigenousOfficial I instantly assumed you're not a boring geek guitar player that's for sure haha

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

@@danielsgrunge haha thanks! Although I still think I am a boring guitar geek :)

[@srobert231962]

Great lesson, thank you. I am working off Livio Lamonea's tab but seeing and hearing really helps. I want to buy your book, can I buy it anywhere else besides Amazon, like maybe a pdf?

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thank you! Livio is awesome. Hes a buddy of mine and we would help correct each other stuff. You can shoot me an email at zombie.guitarist at yahoo

[@Argohemoth]

Hello, it Is possibile in the future a lesson on the solo analysis?

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

I have an idea but not for this tune. Really a majority of the cool stuff is Allan playing crazy outside/symmetrical lines over a G minor thing.

[@Argohemoth]

@@TurrigenousOfficial because there is a symmetrical/outside concept in this song that triggered me, and you are one of the few expert in Allan! So i'm on hype!

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

@@Argohemoth Thanks! I think the issue is, at least what made sense to me, is thinking in detail actually makes it harder. If you think of it in broader concepts, "Play outside line for tension then bring it back in key" is much easier to understand and use. A lot of times the outside lines are 'random' but have a thing about it that you can hook your ear on, or also very easy to play physically. For example, taking something like a little pentatonic box of D E G A, and then shifting up a half step, then playing the box backwards, then shifting up again etc. So its a 5 note phrase, thats simple and has some pattern to it. It has tension to it and when you're close to your key, just go with it.

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Also I should add he's also using patterns in the 3rd Messaien mode and other scales. basically any scale that has a G in it haha.

[@alexkopteev]

Very nice and interesting, thank you very much. Not sure - but to my ears sounds like harmonizer should sets not 4th down, but 5th up

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thank you! Its def a 4th down. A 5th up would be much higher, like on Metal Fatigue. A lot of these harmonizers can be tricky to hear. My ears get tired a lot when trying to transcribe some of the trickier chords with them.

[@alexkopteev]

@@TurrigenousOfficial yes, listened a bit more closely - you're right)

[@sharoonjohn3850]

You've got to get some guys and do some live!! That'll be awesome!!

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Thanks, maybe one day!

[@milgarofalo3377]

Thank you :)

[@pranavphx]

Wow.. I thought you would never do this one

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Same but I as I said, I wanted to incorporate some simpler Allan tunes. So at least this gives some nice insight into different chordal voicings Allan used. Wait till you see the next one!

[@Ramdas_Devadiga]

@@TurrigenousOfficial I love these lessons. Something I look up to. A bit off topic, can you please tell me what specific genre does Jeff Loomis plays? I want to start from the ground up to be atleast 10% like him within a few years from now on at this stage. Where should I start in terms of music theory or songs practise routines? I believe that I am at an beginner-intermediate stage? Thank you.

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

@@Ramdas_Devadiga Thank you for watching! To be honest, I don't know much about Jeff Loomis as a player. He just seems to be a pretty straight forward metal guy with excellent technique, at least what I've seen. You'll never get worse by playing, the only thing that could happen is you won't get any better, or stunt growth with bad habits, like I have had in the past. The most important thing is REALLY getting your fundamentals down. The pentatonic scale is one of the most used scales in all types of music and is mostly 'safe' from bad notes. Learn how to play the minor pentantonic in as many places as you can on the guitar, then start branching out to the major scale and its modes. Understanding what the modes are and what they mean. You have to know the rules in order to break them.

[@Ramdas_Devadiga]

@@TurrigenousOfficial Kind sir, thank you for your response. I have a beautiful guitar at home which is just sitting in the corner. I seem to have hit a block of some sort wherein I keep seeing players like Jeff, Mikael Åkerfeldt, their interviews, their play style videos, and so on and so forth, but when I even think of keeping those first steps in their direction, the whole mountain of their sheer musical genius seems to collapse on my head and a wave of crippling sensations take over, rendering me hopeless in the sense that I can never even partially achieve their level of skills, especially since the fact that I have learnt whatever I have learnt through ears. I am pretty adept at recognizing where to play any given song of most genres of music I listen to, but to specially head in my idols direction has been seemingly out of reach for some reason. And thus, reaching out to you from this angle, I thank you for specifically guiding me in the direction of pentatonic scale and expanding from there on. Its refreshing to even get a little nudge, a gliding direction. Thank you once again.

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

@@Ramdas_Devadiga Thanks! One thing i've come to grips with is not to be intimidated by inspired. Which is the reason why I do these. I was intimidated by Allans songs but as I learned more and more, I realized it all wasn't that bad! I was inspired to get better. Also 2 things, try to learn all the notes on the guitar. Start wit the low E and A string, as 99% of barre chords have their root there. The other is don't forget to play and have fun! I started out just by playing tons of Nirvana songs. But when I got better is when I WANTED to get better. So play what you like and enjoy and then nudge the difficulty up. Its not a race.

[@MrThomas1958]

thx

[@SstalkerS]

Now just to find a proper polyphonic pitch pedal that doesn't suck...

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

I dunno what Allan used. The one on my kemper is 'ok', to get the point across but isn't that great. I think he also might have used the one on the Magic Stomp. Pretty sure theres a preset harmonizer on there. I should try that out some time.

[@stephen0793]

@@TurrigenousOfficial Speaking of the magic stomp, isn't it true that for swell sections Allan used a series of multiple magic stomps??

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

@@stephen0793 He didn't use a series, just one. You can't use multiple patches at the same time, so you need extra's to do it. One was for reverb/delay, one was for distortion, one for swells, one for fx and I think the other two were back ups.

[@angus2ful]

The solo is far from simple I see nothing here about it

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

Well it's simple that a majority of it is a loose improvisation in Gm. But then it follows about 8 chords. Which is different than say, 16 men of tain that has a LOT of chord/key changes one would have to follow

[@angus2ful]

@@TurrigenousOfficial can you replicate the solo? Steve Vai was only able to transcribe the first half

[@TurrigenousOfficial]

@@angus2ful He did but its not perfect. I have, for my next project. Just finished editing all the pdfs! I have almost 2300 lines/examples.