Allan Holdsworth was one of the greatest guitarists to ever live, not just because he was technically proficient, but because he discovered brand new chords very few guitarists had ever played before. He even wrote a book called “In Search of the Uncommon Chord.” And some of those chords are so ridiculously difficult to play, we thought it'd be fun to have make a little sport out of it.

Here's a sneak preview of our upcoming Allan Holdsworth Chord Competition. The chords are from John Vullo, inspired by his very, very excellent video about the 10 hardest Holdsworth chords

John Vullo is a guitarist from New York who's spent a long time picking apart Allan Holdsworth's notorious chords. He put together a chord dictionary, which is a fascinating and invaluable resource for any fan of unusual and challenging guitaring.

I've wanted to learn Allan Holdsworth's acoustic guitar intro to UK’s Nevermore for decades and never got around to figuring it out... until now!

Learn this beautiful, jazzy guitar intro to the amazing song "Mental Medication" by UK from their self-titled album.

In this video, we pick apart "Hell's Bells" from Bruford's 1979 release, "One of a Kind." It's a fun, complex song with an intro that makes use of odd time signatures and key modulations.