John Petrucci VS. Michael Romeo

W.Chuck wrote: TheLamb wrote: I dont understand... Do you think that when you play 20 notes per second (probably exaggerated but nevermind) there's a "Melody"? There's no melody in those speeds, and if there was you wouldn't be able to hear it... I guarantee you that it's on purpose too, he ain't loosing control, and being a musician myself (not a guitarist but still...) I'll tell you that sometimes are just looking for speed to give some kind of feel to what your playing and it dosent really matter what you play as long as you're playing the notes accurately, and If you heard any of Petrucci's solos you will know that he plays incredibly accurate!   By the way, What's a "Soli", some kind of propper english? TheLamb wrote: Besides, your only talking about solos! Thats wrong in my opinion. You should listen to the amazing things that Petrucci does besides solos, He's a great rythm guitarist aswel and he uses his outstanding technique during parts with vocals or keyboard solo, whatever, not only his own solos. I wish I could say the same about Romeo, he just does angry power coords, but maybe thats because Symphony X's style is more influenced by power metal.... First, speed doesn't reduce the melody, lol what a sh*t... and do you know how rarely MJR plays powerchords?... Mostly metal licks and his riffs are awesome as well as his arpeggios (not solo). And "soli", well I'm german and the plural of "solo" in German is "soli", and in German it is a superior form than "solos". I don't know if it is the same in the english language...

Speed does reduce the quality of melody.  That is why a composer like Mozart or Schupert is considered to be more melodic than a composer such as Vivaldi or Bach.  Mozart and Schupert composed pieces at slower tempos to leave more room in a phrase for melody.  Vivaldi and Bach were from the Baroque era which focused on speed and the virtuosity of a soloist.  Just because there is more speed dosen't mean that there is no melody, but faster speeds tend to fall more in the category of virtuosity rather than melody.

Mike Romeo uses quite a lot of power chords and has a "chug-a-chug" style to his rythmn playing.  By "chug-a-chug" i mean that Romeo plays repeatative breakdowns to add rythmn to the compostion.  Petrucci's rythmn playing blows Romeo's away.  Petrucci uses the entire range of his guitar in rythmn playing.  Petrucci is one of the best guitarists at using every fret and every string in every song.  On a side note, Petrucci uses much more complex chords than Romeo does.  Petrucci's A double flat to F chord changes are much more difficult to compose (especially when adding in other insturments) than Romeo's typical i-v-III progressions.

W.Chuck wrote: TheLamb wrote: I dont understand... Do you think that when you play 20 notes per second (probably exaggerated but nevermind) there's a "Melody"? There's no melody in those speeds, and if there was you wouldn't be able to hear it... I guarantee you that it's on purpose too, he ain't loosing control, and being a musician myself (not a guitarist but still...) I'll tell you that sometimes are just looking for speed to give some kind of feel to what your playing and it dosent really matter what you play as long as you're playing the notes accurately, and If you heard any of Petrucci's solos you will know that he plays incredibly accurate!   By the way, What's a "Soli", some kind of propper english? TheLamb wrote: Besides, your only talking about solos! Thats wrong in my opinion. You should listen to the amazing things that Petrucci does besides solos, He's a great rythm guitarist aswel and he uses his outstanding technique during parts with vocals or keyboard solo, whatever, not only his own solos. I wish I could say the same about Romeo, he just does angry power coords, but maybe thats because Symphony X's style is more influenced by power metal.... First, speed doesn't reduce the melody, lol what a sh*t... and do you know how rarely MJR plays powerchords?... Mostly metal licks and his riffs are awesome as well as his arpeggios (not solo). And "soli", well I'm german and the plural of "solo" in German is "soli", and in German it is a superior form than "solos". I don't know if it is the same in the english language...

Speed does reduce the quality of melody.  That is why a composer like Mozart or Schupert is considered to be more melodic than a composer such as Vivaldi or Bach.  Mozart and Schupert composed pieces at slower tempos to leave more room in a phrase for melody.  Vivaldi and Bach were from the Baroque era which focused on speed and the virtuosity of a soloist.  Just because there is more speed dosen't mean that there is no melody, but faster speeds tend to fall more in the category of virtuosity rather than melody.

Mike Romeo uses quite a lot of power chords and has a "chug-a-chug" style to his rythmn playing.  By "chug-a-chug" i mean that Romeo plays repeatative breakdowns to add rythmn to the compostion.  Petrucci's rythmn playing blows Romeo's away.  Petrucci uses the entire range of his guitar in rythmn playing.  Petrucci is one of the best guitarists at using every fret and every string in every song.  On a side note, Petrucci uses much more complex chords than Romeo does.  Petrucci's A double flat to F chord changes are much more difficult to compose (especially when adding in other insturments) than Romeo's typical i-v-III progressions.