Dynamics in "Countdown"
3.4.6 The head
TRACK 35
The head is presented two times in the track; the first following the intro, then again after the second solo. In the latter one an epilogue is also played, as Coltrane also did on his original version, but in a different way. One interesting aspect of the head is that it is actually very calm and subtle. Holdsworth switches to a soft acoustic sound on the guitar and plays the head using chords with the melody on top. The piano stays absent both times.
In many of the chords he uses in the head, the bass note is often different from the root, and sometimes the root is not played at all. This is to be expected since Willis accompanies on his bass guitar, and there is therefore no need for Holdsworth to emphasize the chord changes.
Still, the chords sound much more traditional than what we hear in his original compositions.
In the third bar of the first phrase (bar 45) he plays an altered chord; this is actually a part of
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the composition as presented by Coltrane. Although the chords on the lead sheet does not reflect this, the melody goes from a minor 3rd to a minor second 2nd over a dominant chord, a feature we find in the seventh mode of the melodic minor scale.
A repeating characteristic in the chords he uses is the interval of major seconds. It is not very common to find this interval in the mid-voices of a guitar chord, and so this reminds us of Holdsworth’s influence of the piano, where this kind of voicing is part of the tradition. It is also much more idiomatic to do this on piano than on guitar, since these chords often force the guitarist to stretch his fingers a little more.
In bar 52 Holdsworth demonstrates his persistence in defying the instrument’s limitations by sliding two fingers simultaneously, one sliding one fret and the other sliding two, while holding the C and G throughout. This kind of combination of multiple glissandos over
sustaining notes very rarely occurs in guitar playing since it requires extensive stretching and clenching of the left hand.
119 Holdsworth:
Coltrane:
TRACK 36: (Complete head from Coltrane’s original)
The final phrase is the only thing in the head that has been changed profoundly from Coltrane’s original. Here Holdsworth has replaced Coltrane’s phrase which revolves around the high A with 5 accentuated “hits”, also articulated by the bass and drums.
After the second head the following epilogue takes place. Using the SynthAxe, Holdsworth plays chords and melody based on the first phrase of the head, but replacing the D major chord in the end with a C dominant chord with 6/4 suspension before resolving the 6th down to the 5th. Finally the phrase ends on the slash chord F/C, a mixture of the root and third of both chords. It can also be viewed as an Fmaj7/C. This chord is held for 10 bars while the band improvises over the chord, before the track ends with jet another guitar solo over the changes before the music gradually fades out.
TRACK 37
120 3.4.7 Summary
It is clear that much of the secret behind Holdsworth’s characteristic sound and music is found in the melodic minor scale and the different alterations of this scale. In his version of
“Countdown” we see this scale widely used in the intro, often as a dominant scale. The mode found on the seventh step of the traditional melodic minor scale is of course the altered scale, a scale frequently used by most jazz-musicians. Not only does Holdsworth make use of the altered scale, but also uses the fourth mode of the melodic minor scale with added minor 7th, where we find a mixolydian scale with added minor 3rd. He also play the melodic minor scale over some minor and major chords on the track. However, in his second solo we see much more traditional choice of notes and scales, and the major/minor scale dominates much of his playing.
It is very difficult to say anything regarding his choice of notes to emphasize. He is working hard to avoid repeating himself or getting stuck in signature licks, and is quite successful at this. The notes that are long, articulated or at the beginning or the end of the phrases in this track seem to vary from any of the notes in the scale. By a small margin a preference for the root, fourth, fifth and seventh can be suggested, especially in the second solo, where the bass and piano creates some structure that needs to be considered.
In contrast with his original material Holdsworth base much of his soloing in this track on continuing eight-note patterns with spars use of subdivisions in groups of three, five, seven, and so on, though the use of these has become a significant part of his style. It is therefore fair to say that the opening part (bar 1-41) is in many ways more true to his own style of playing than the soloing that occurs later in the song, with respect to the much freer harmony, and flexibility and unpredictability of the rhythm.
The changing dynamics presented through-out the track creates a very clear form that in a way lends itself to popular music in the sense of clear parts with different feels to it. Instead of an organic development stretching in one line from the beginning to the end, we hear a very clear dynamic retreat on the head, offering a different sound and feel, as a solid pillar in a restless and vigorous music landscape. A landscape overall dominated by the sound of electric bass-guitar, electric piano, loud drums and Holdsworth doing what he always does, though this time with a slightly different touch.
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