"Home" (A. Holdsworth) played on my 12-string Desert Rose

[Jan Jonsson]

Hi,

As mentioned in a recent thread (http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=258353) I'm currently working on transcribing (and recording) a few Allan Holdsworth compositions for the pedal steel guitar. Inspired by the rather successful implementation of "Shallow Sea" (cf. recent thread) I have now ventured to take on "Home", one of Allan's beautiful ballads. While not as uptempo as Shallow Sea, the ballad contains some really challenging chord voicings that require four (3+thumb) finger picks, some pedal and lever gymnastics, and a very positive attitude.

I'm playing this on my new 12-string Desert Rose, exclusively using the Telonics "bridge" pickup. The arrangement is based on Fred Amendola's transcription in "Reaching for the Uncommon Chord".

Here's an excerpt of the recordings made so far:

https://soundcloud.com/janjomusic/home-mature-draft

Best regards,

-- Jan

[Neil McCollum]

Great rendition of a great piece!

-Neil

[Mike Neer]

Very nice, Jan.

We could really learn a lot from these transcriptions, like how to utilize the voicings in other musical situations and how to build harmony around a melody. Allan adds orchestration to his melodies.

I can only say, I feel so lucky to have had the music of Allan Holdsworth planted in my head for so long now. Not only do I get great joy from listening to him, but he has affected my own way of hearing things.

[Marc Muller]

I used to transcribe, score and perform with a band a bunch of Holdsworth (and Dregs) back in the 80's at Berklee. (Still doing same thing but with the Dead. Still crazy, but a different kind of crazy. www.deadonlive.com) Still have a stack of music. Looking over it I can't believe I could ever play that stuff. Ah, to be young.

Always thought about applying to pedal steel because of the odd intervals. Don't think it can be done on E9. Maybe C6 neck? Good luck soloing some of his passages though. Anyway, good on you for keeping Holdsworth's unique style alive and for tackling it on an instrument that's already a bear to play!

[Clete Ritta]

Very cool Jan! Your rendition of Holdsworths music is interestingly very appropriate for the pedal steel, yet in a reverse kind of way in terms of execution. On the guitar, one literally has to be "reaching for the uncommon chord" (as the title suggests) with the left hand fingering. On the pedal steel however, these very same chords are capably produced by you, yet it is your right hand which is "reaching for the uncommon grip" instead.

It doesn't sound like you are using bar slants at all, but taking great advantage of the pedal steels unique tuning and close proximity of notes to find these Holdsworth "cluster" type of uncommon chords. I really enjoy this and hope you continue posting more!

[Jan Jonsson]

Thanks, all, for the positive comments.

Yes, Clete, "reaching for the uncommon grip" is a very fitting description of what I'm trying to do here. The grips are definitely uncommon to me, having relied so much on the traditional chord strumming technique in the past.

Cheers!

-- Jan