Allen Hinds is one of those players who sits in a unique spot — not purely blues, not strictly jazz, not fusion in the Holdsworth sense — and that very difficult-to-categorise quality is precisely what makes him so interesting to study. This masterclass, recorded live as part of a weekend featuring Marshall Harrison, Andy Timmons, Jens Larsen, John Stowell and more, covers modes, scales, and fretboard thinking in the most practical, honest way you’ll hear it discussed.
What you’ll get out of this lesson
An insight into how a working professional thinks about scales and modes in a real musical context, drawn from Allen’s decades of touring and session experience, plus his own candid reflections on style, inspiration, and carving out your own musical identity.
Allen’s background and approach
Allen is from Alabama, came out to Los Angeles in 1985 to attend MI (Musicians Institute), and was hired to teach there straight after graduating. He has toured extensively — most notably fifteen years with singer Randy Crawford, as well as stints with Hiroshima, Bobby Caldwell, and Gino Vannelli, whose Steely Dan-like complexity of chord changes Allen describes as both a challenge and an honour. For the last decade or so he has been focused on his own music, releasing records and performing regularly at the Baked Potato in Los Angeles. His most recent album, The Good Fight, was recorded at EastWest Studios with a band that includes Travis Carlton on bass, Matt Rohde on keys, and Donald Berry on drums.
Style and the difficulty of categorisation
One of the most valuable things Allen says in this session is that he has always been a difficult sell precisely because he doesn’t fit neatly into any single genre. As he puts it, he’s not really a blues player, not a traditional jazz player, and not fusion in the Holdsworth or Scott Henderson mould. His goal is something harder to achieve than any of those: writing simple, honest music with integrity that connects with people on a gut level. The challenge he sets himself is the melodic, the accessible, the song — and that sensibility directly informs how he approaches scales and the fretboard.
“To me, the challenge is to write a poppy song that everybody can hang. To me, that’s more of a challenge, to write something really simple that has some integrity that people can get off on.”
Thinking about modes and scales practically
Allen’s approach to modes is rooted in what serves the music rather than what demonstrates technical knowledge. Throughout this session he draws on his experience across smooth jazz, R&B, and his own compositions to illustrate how scale choices need to respond to the harmonic context in real time. His years of diverse touring — including work with bands whose chord changes required genuine harmonic navigation — mean his scale vocabulary is tested and practical rather than theoretical. He also has a Patreon page where he continues to share this approach in depth.
What to listen for in the masterclass
Pay attention to how Allen connects fretboard visualisation with sound. He is a strong advocate for knowing the instrument across the whole neck rather than in position boxes, and his explanations return repeatedly to the idea that the ear should lead the fingers — not the other way around. His guitar for this session is an early 1980s Fender Ultra (the precursor to the Robben Ford model) fitted with Tom Holmes humbuckers, which gives a good illustration of how a player with experience chooses and adapts their tools.
To find out more about Allen, go to https://www.allenhinds.com
Allen also has a fantastic Patreon page, click here to check it out
Taking it further
Allen’s touring work with artists across very different genres is worth reflecting on. Playing in contexts where the music demands something specific from you — rather than letting you default to habits — is one of the most powerful forms of musical education. Seek out recordings from the artists he mentions and notice how the harmonic environment of each one creates different demands on the guitar player.
Your homework
Pick one scale you already know well and this week focus on hearing it rather than just running it. Play it over a chord that suits it, but instead of running up and down, start on a non-root note and try to play a short melodic phrase — three or four notes — that goes somewhere. Allen’s emphasis on melody over patterns is the core of what this session is about.