Allan Holdsworth

I never use pull-offs because I don't like the sort of 'meow' sound they make with the string being deflected sideways.

— Allan Holdsworth

When I practise scales I will play four notes on one string. If I'm playing a C major scale, starting on F,…

— Allan Holdsworth

You wait all your life to be signed by a major label, and then when they sign you, they don't want you…

— Allan Holdsworth

As soon as I figured out I didn't know anything about music, I was OK. It's when I thought I could learn…

— Allan Holdsworth

I don't get a big recording budget or much promotion, but I have creative freedom.

— Allan Holdsworth

If the whole idea, in the original bebop days, was to get to soloing, then that's all it should be about.

— Allan Holdsworth

It's obviously flattering when somebody likes something one is doing. But at the same time, I get embarrassed about it. It's the…

— Allan Holdsworth

I don't think about what other people expect or anything. I mean, I sit and worrying so much about what I'M thinking,…

— Allan Holdsworth

Most people/musicians hear things differently and what might please one might not please another. One man's meat is another man's poison. Don't…

— Allan Holdsworth

Music moves forward so quickly; music is an accumulation of knowledge, and musicians keep getting better and better.

— Allan Holdsworth

When I first started playing, I plunked away just like everyone else. During the Sixties I played in a blues band for…

— Allan Holdsworth

The electric guitar's a pretty cheesy thing when you think about it, still working on those bits of wire and magnets for…

— Allan Holdsworth

I don't like playing to guitar players, actually. I'd rather just play to ordinary people.

— Allan Holdsworth

Most of the musicians I play with - aside from the form and structure of the music - the interpretation is up…

— Allan Holdsworth

If you fall in love with a woman, there's this unknown thing that gives you a force and energy, and music is…

— Allan Holdsworth

Jazz is something that's constantly changing. Its sole purpose is to let people improvise, to let them solo differently each time they…

— Allan Holdsworth

I like lyrics a lot.

— Allan Holdsworth

I'm trying to play tunes in a new way, using all the same scales, harmonies, structures, but twist everything a little bit…

— Allan Holdsworth

Whenever I watch a movie I like to imagine what sort of music I might compose for a scene, to create a…

— Allan Holdsworth

Standing and playing next to Tony Williams was pretty amazing. One of the things I learned about being a band leader from…

— Allan Holdsworth

I didn't decide to play guitar, but that was the instrument which I was offered. I've always been interested in horn-type instruments,…

— Allan Holdsworth

You never really get to be good at anything.

— Allan Holdsworth

The problem we have is that, some people call it 'too rock' to play on a jazz station, and it's 'too jazz'…

— Allan Holdsworth

To most people, jazz-fusion means this dreadful synthetic jazz-rock thing, this jazz-Muzak, which I detest. They also think of jazz as a…

— Allan Holdsworth

I started out in rock, but I didn't want to stay there, and haven't.

— Allan Holdsworth