John Petrucci iz Da Shiz.

HughesJB4 wrote: My other complaint with Petrucci, is his leads just don't sound all that unique. What I mean really, is that I can hear guys like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan, Steve Hackett, Marty Friedman,  and within a few phrases, I can tell it's them, because these guys all have such a unique voice on the guitar and have signature phrasing.

Thank you, I have said the same thing to budding guitarists and Dream Theater fans and they disagreed vehemently and put it down to my not being a guitarist and of course I couldn't argue with that. Now I know I was not entirely off the mark.

Well I only just realized this thread was not originally in the Appreciation section, so my bad if I sounded a bit harsh earlier

Well, as much as I think The Spirit Carries on is a great song and has one of Petrucci's finest solos, p0mt3 is right in that the song is pretty unoriginal really, and honestly, that song lets down the album a bit, and overall I think I&W is a superior album to SFAM anyway.
If I must be honest as well, I don't like Octavarium much at all, I skip past about half of the tracks on FII and same for Systematic Chaos.
Quite frankly, I've gotten sick of Petrucci and Rudess' 'widdly wee' solos and want to well.........hear them actually put their musical training to maximum use.
These guys have a whole head full of orchestration knowledge and could create some pretty immense music, but they just don't and honestly now, I don't have much hope for any future studio releases from the band.

My other complaint with Petrucci, is his leads just don't sound all that unique.
What I mean really, is that I can hear guys like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan, Steve Hackett, Marty Friedman,  and within a few phrases, I can tell it's them, because these guys all have such a unique voice on the guitar and have signature phrasing.
Whereas, if I just turned on a radio and heard a Petrucci solo,  I might not know it until a radio announcer at the end told it was Petrucci, because I've never been able to really hear much uniqueness in his leads.
I mean sure enough, when watching the G3 Live In Tokyo DVD, during the jam you can tell when it's Petrucci, but outside that kinda of environment playing with other guitarists, when he's playing as a lone guitarist, his style doesn't have any real phrasing that makes me think "Oh, that's Petrucci".
And because of that, he doesn't even get into my top 20 guitarists really.

As for his chops, I think of about 100 guys off the top of my head that can easily outstrip him technically.
Shawn Lane comes to mind (the guy could do things in legato, alternate and sweep picking Petrucci can't even get close to), and Lane was a master of emotion too IMO.

But it must be said, being able to combine incredible rhythm guitar prowess with ferocious technical lead playing is a pretty amazing.
He has the rhythm guitar capabilities of James Hetfield on metal riffage times 5, and add to the fact he can do it while crossing an array of dizzying time signature and tempo changes, his rhythm playing is a feat to behold.
And Petrucci is always gonna be an influence of mine, and to some extent a guitar hero to me too.



Edited by HughesJB4 - December 25 2008 at 20:16

^cobb, I definately understand where you are cominf from, though.

Kestrel wrote: As I saw in someone's signature once: Gilmour gets more emotion out of a single note bend than Petrucci does in a whole guitar solo.

That's bull, sorry. It's just not true at all.

And I don't even like Dream Theater. But I believe in giving credit where credit is due. Petrucci's playing can be very emotional too.

Having said that, this thread is utterly unnecessary. Lock and hide.

Equality 7-2521 wrote: Also his solo in Voices is much more emotional than anything he ever did before or after.

Also his solo in Voices is much more emotional than anything he ever did before or after.

I don't understand why every guitarist that happens to be in a heavier band that might play a solo that may have a few more notes always gets called an Malmsteen-esque automaton.

As if The Spirit Carries on and Repetance don't exist at all.......

The Spirit Carries On guitar solo is among the best solos in Petrucci's career, and one of the better solos in prog too.
Memorable without being over the top, and brings a tear to my eye each time.

This what appeared to be an appreciation thread failed as soon as it got it's second post in here
Seriously guys, he obviously hasn't made this thread for people to come in and bash Petrucci, show the OP some respect.


Edited by HughesJB4 - December 25 2008 at 03:43

Depends on what you mean by Da Shiz. What i look for in a guitarist is emotion, composition, and originality. Technicality is interesting for the OMG WTF effect on a youtube video, but in a song it is only a means to an end, not something to be desired itself.