Allan Holdsworth Reshaping Harmony - Duo Now

Allan Holdsworth’s approach to harmony wasn't just "different"—it was a complete reconfiguration of the guitar’s DNA. Nowhere is this clearer than in his duo collaborations , where the stripped-down format forces his ethereal melodies and "strange, angular" chords to take center stage.

Holdsworth’s duo work, particularly with keyboardist on the 1980 record The Things You See , showcases a masterclass in harmonic space. By abandoning traditional root-fifth power chords for non-tertian harmony and complex scale forms (diminished, whole tone, altered), Holdsworth created a sound that was simultaneously unpredictable and profoundly fluid. Key Concepts in Holdsworth’s Duo Harmony: ALLAN HOLDSWORTH reshaping harmony - DUO

: Instead of thinking in static shapes, Holdsworth viewed the entire neck as a shifting grid that reconfigured the moment a chord changed. ALLAN HOLDSWORTH reshaping harmony - DUO