VIDEO MASTERCLASS - Allen Hinds

We welcome the stunning US guitarist, Allen Hinds to demonstrate his sophisticated legato lead work over Jason Sidwell's track, Glow To Grow. Jon Bishop is your guide.

- Jon Bishop

This month’s star video features LA guitarist Allen Hinds who creates a solo over Jason Sidwell’s sophisticated slow groover, Glow To Grow. The first part of the process, as Allen explains, is to organise a chord chart road map. We have written out the full chord sheet for you to study, and this is included both in the magazine and shown on the screen in the video. The tempo is a laid-back 86bpm which inspired Allen’s overall melodic approach, and allowed for moments of faster legato phrases.

Glow To Grow is in the key of G Major for the most part but, as Allen reflects, there are always some unique chord changes in Jason’s tracks that keep him on his toes. Due to these, Allen provides a detailed run-through of the chord chart, and how he approached soloing over them.

The track starts in G Major and the scale of choice for the intro and the first part of the verse is the G Lydian mode (G-A-B-C#-DE-F#) to cover the G and A chords (the Lydian’s C# note caters for A Major’s Major 3rd). For the observant, the fleeting G7 chord tilts the vibe a little, and G Lydian Dominant (G-A-B-C#-D-E-F) functions well here for both the G7 and A chords.

When the tonality changes to B Minor, Allen explains that he favours the Dorian mode over Minor tonalities. B Dorian mode (B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A) has a Major 6th and sounds smooth and works well. For the chorus section Allen favours the ‘key centre’ approach as all the chords up to the C/D are from the D Major scale (D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#). For the C/D, D/E and Em chords he goes for E Minor Pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D).