If you have a guitar and a YouTube, you've almost certainly stumbled across the internet phenomenon that is the Andertons TV YouTube channel and it's panel of hugely talented and entertaining product demonstrators. Typically, I was late to the party, having only found them in 2019 when I began researching a replacement amp for my dear old much loved but insanely heavy Laney TT50 combo. The two demonstrators, Danish Pete & Rabbea Massad, effectively sold me on the Katana and when I went and tried it in the flesh and blew the competition straight out of the water.. and even with the 100w 2x12” version, after years of lugging 30+ kilos of Laney around it felt like I could pick it up and juggle it!
(Full disclosure – I didn't actually buy it from Andertons, I got it from PMT in Nottingham, because the staff there were very patient bringing me amp after amp for a good 2-3 hours letting me try them out.. I could probably have saved £20 by getting it from Amazon but if we all do that then very soon we won't have any music shops at all, so let's think about the long game when shopping for gear...)
After this I effectively became an Andertons junkie – and if you're reading this, chaps, then “The Captain Meets... Neil Zaza” NEEDS to happen – and having thoroughly enjoyed my dues paying with the classic blues greats throughout 2020 I decided to expand my palate for 2021 to include anyone and everyone I happened to enjoy. So, over the next coupe of years all the Andertons team will be featured in the blog. I decided to start with “Danish” Pete Honore as there was something in his jazz & country tinged blues style that I connected with... another case of “He's just like me... but better!”
First a little potted history – for more details on Pete's life, career and country of origin check out this YouTube interview on the Andertons channel – and a little bio on his website here: https://www.mrpeterhonore.com/about. Born in Copenhagen, Pete received his first guitar aged 11 and was shown the A, D & E chords by a family friend. This sparked an interest and the same family friend would go on to teach him how to play Blackbird, and from then on Pete was hooked! This natural ability, plus a lot of dedication and practice, would see him move to a music academy in Copenagen, and to cut a long story short a little being in the right place at the right time coupled with a LOT of ability quickly saw him move from playing in cover and tribute bands to playing at the Brit Awards with Tom Jones in 2003. This was the breakthrough gig that saw Pete move into session work, touring with multiple chart topping bands like Girls Aloud and Il Divo before the rigours of balancing touring commitments alongside family caused him to seek more stable employment – which in it's turn led to Andertons, and YouTube stardom!
Every single blog entry since I've started doing this has said that the minor and major pentatonic forms the basis of whatever player I've been looking at's style, so I think we can take that as read.. but actually Pete tends to favour the blues scale, the minor pentatonic with a b5 added (R b3 4 b5 5 b7). Just as you can move the minor pentatonic shape three frets back to get the major pentatonic (R 2 3 5 6), you can do the same with the blues scale pattern - in this instance the b5 in the blues scale becomes the b3, giving what's often called the “country” or “major blues” scale, consisting of R 2 b3 3 5 6. There's an absolute truckload of ingenuity and musicality in Pete's playing, so let's get to it!
The licks that follow come from “The Captain Meets... Danish Pete” interview jam – and when you consider that everything transcribed here came from a two improvised solos, it's even more impressive!
This first is in E major, leaning heavily on the 4th (A), and using a beautiful lateral move along the B string, moving from the root E on the 5th fret hammering onto the 7th fret F# (2nd), sliding into the G# (3rd) and with a wonderfully languid semitone bend to include the A (4th) and ending on the B (5th) – as with the Albert King Lick (remember that?), ending on the 5th gives a powerful sense of leading somewhere.
About 20 seconds later into the same solo, Pete hits the accelerator and pulls out this blistering little E major pentatonic run. It's largely fours – based, but far from being a straight up shred pattern there's a lot of clever stuff going on here, hidden in plain sight. He burns his way up position 1 of the C#m pentatonic shape (C#m is relative minor to E major, so this gives us a major pentatonic sound) before deftly slipping into position 5, then back into position 1 and he's running down in groups of 5 played across a 16th note (4 to the beat ) rhythm, before resolving, unusually, to the C# (6th). This is not a particularly strong tone to resolve to, but what he's actually doing is setting up tension to resolve in the next lick:
Scooting around the nether regions of the C#m scale to begin with, Pete makes deft use of hybrid picked 6ths on the A and G strings, before a slide/ pull off manouevre resolving to the 5th, which he then echoes to resolve to the root E on the 2nd fret D string. Never overtly showy, nevertheless his playing is full of this type of musicality.
Later on, in the end jam section, the key switches to G and here Pete flexes his country chops with a neat hybrid picked idea involving the open D and G string with the middle and third fingers while the plectrum picks a riff from G minor pentatonic (position 5)
This isn't particularly tricky to do, it's just yet another cool little idea Pete uses that I hadn't come across before. Try this on a bridge single coil with a Fender-style twang and it's pure Nashville!
However fast forward 20 seconds and he's gone full on jazz!! Check this out:
G Blues scale, zipped through with pull offs and slides to smooth out the transitions and check out the chromatic notes on the E string! Also, note the nifty position shift to include the b5 (Db) on the 14th fret of the B string.
I could wax lyrical about Pete's playing for pages but at some point I have to respect the fact that this is a blog post not a novel, and with that in mind this is the final lick (you can find more on the YouTube channel in the One Minute Lick playlist) – but we're ending on a high:
Starting up in G major pentatonic, this nods to the minor by bending 2nd to b3, before nimbly skipping across to position 1 of G Blues and then finishing with a sequence of 10ths picked with plectrum hitting the A string and middle finger plucking the B. If you're not familiar with the concept of 10ths, basically a 10th is what you get when you take the 3rd of a chord and boost it up by an octave. Pete further puts his own stamp on this by bending each 10th up a quarter tone to sit in between major and minor, and moves from a scalic progression in the 3rd bar of the lick to a chromatic one in the 4th.
And with that, we wrap things up – I did have lofty ideals of doing an interview but unfortunately that's not proved possible at time of writing – I'm guessing juggling a pretty intensive work schedule coupled with three kids doesn't leave a whole lot of time for stuff like that! Respect due though, I've chatted a little with both Pete and his wife on Instagram and they do seem genuinely nice people. And let's be honest, it's a crazy old world out there and as far as they know I could be a stalker or God knows what, so I do appreciate the time taken, and if the opportunity to do an interview or something similar crops up, I've got my research all done and ready!
I'll end with a link to Pete's YouTube channel and just in case you've been living under a rock, the Andertons' channel too – I believe he has plans in the pipeline for some recording and I wish him all the best with it, this has been a absolute blast learning these licks. Very educational and hugely enjoyable!
Links:
Facebook: facebook.com/mrpetehonore
Instagram: @mrpetehonore
YouTube: youtube.com/user/peterhonore
Next month – the One King To Rule Them All..... oh yes. Mr. Riley B. King, other wise known as “Blues Boy” or B.B. King steps up for another shot. Get that tux pressed and dust off the 335...
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