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Holdsworth is felt by many to be one of the most significant figures in the development and evolution of the electric guitar in the modern era, and has been described as "the guitarist's guitarist". The unique efficiency of his playing style, and his mathematical approach to mentally mapping out the fretboard allows him to 'see' symmetrical finger patterns, which produce note flourishes associated more with the saxophone playing style of Wayne Shorter and John Coltrane than voicings one might be used to hearing from the guitar.
Holdsworth has recorded many different styles of music over the years, including a brief flirtation with pop, in the form of a collaboration with British funk fusion pop band Level 42. In 1968, while a member of the group Blue Mink , Holdsworth played the wailing lead guitar part on the Donovan hit single 'Hurdy Gurdy Man', substituting ably for Donovan's first choice, Jimi Hendrix.
In the early Seventies, Holdsworth joined avant-garde rock group Gong (group) and later in the decade he was a member the all-star progressive rock quartet UK (group) with John Wetton, Bill Bruford and Eddie Jobson.
He is also recognized for his own compositions, which vary in musical style from progressive fusion jazz (for example, his work with Soft MachineThe Soft Machine were a pioneering British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz band from Canterbury, Kent, England. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene. Soft Machine had emerged out of an earlier band called Wildeflowers (a refer on their album Bundles), to romantic, chordal and "spacey" guitar- synthesizerThe term "synthesiser" is also used to mean frequency synthesiser, an electronic system found in communications. This article is about the musical instrument. A synthesizer (spelling var. synthesiser is an electronic musical instrument designed to produce works (he utilises an instrument called 'the SynthAxe ' an effective example of which can be heard on the album Atavachron)