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The incredible John Myung
- Thread starter shatterd
- Start date
Wow, its nice to hear John Myung now and then. I am one of the people (you can probably count us on your hands) who likes James Labrie, but then again most of th oter metal bands I like have female vocalists.
I agree, I mean honestly. Even in screamer/shouter songs like "The Dark Eternal Night" I think he has a better sounding voice while screaming.
It's a really old demo tune from the mid-80s before they even had a record contract. It never got recorded properly in the studio and back then the band hadn't really settled on a vocalist. It's quite amazing that they'd play something like this on an official DVD recording night (it's from their "20th anniversary" DVD) and it is quite interesting to hear it sung by the vocalist that they became famous with for a change. The result could be better, but in this case it's the music that's more relevant anyway.
At the time they wrote this, they weren't even Dream Theater yet. They were called "Majesty", as evidenced by the logo on the screens behind them. Even more impressive is the fact that they were all about 18-19 years old when they wrote this.
Saw Dream Theatre live once... utter pants! Yeah they can play, but I see no real value or musicianship in people who can a million miles an hour of scale, after scale, after tedious scale - utterly boring, bland and indicative of musicians who have no real ideas. Myung is very overrated and his techniques sucks big time. Just my opinion mind 
- Mar 30, 2007
- 4,017
- 321
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Genzler Amplification/Spector Basses/Mojo Hand FX
Saw Dream Theatre live once... utter pants! Yeah they can play, but I see no real value or musicianship in people who can a million miles an hour of scale, after scale, after tedious scale - utterly boring, bland and indicative of musicians who have no real ideas. Myung is very overrated and his techniques sucks big time. Just my opinion mind
I'm sorry, but I have to totally disagree. You do say they can play, but you also say these are players that have "no real value or musicianship", and are "musicians who have no real ideas" is just down right false. Every one of these guys is bad to the bone as a player. I will admit I think Myung gets lost in the mix, but compositionally, there is some very interesting ideas being written inside this band...harmonically, melodically, and rithymically.
To say you are not a fan of their style of music is fine...to each his own...but to trash them as musicans...I just do not agree with that.
Saw Dream Theatre live once... utter pants! Yeah they can play, but I see no real value or musicianship in people who can a million miles an hour of scale, after scale, after tedious scale - utterly boring, bland and indicative of musicians who have no real ideas. Myung is very overrated and his techniques sucks big time. Just my opinion mind
I agree that they're very skilled musicians, and I also agree that they tend to write long compositions with no real rhyme or reason. They seem to ignore the basic songwriting structure. This may be good or bad depending on what you like. I like DT but a little goes a long way. Many notes does not a song make.
songwriter21
I have an obsession for wood. The musical kind.
A guy here said, on the first page of this thread, that Myung has small hands. I met the band before a show, at a local music store for a meet-n-greet, and he had pretty massive and beefy hands.
I read somewhere that he's seriously into keeping in shape so he can pull of their stuff easier...makes sense.
I read somewhere that he's seriously into keeping in shape so he can pull of their stuff easier...makes sense.
I like DT, not a huge fan but I respect them. I posted on here when I saw them in columbus oh about 2 months ago. They were very good live. Myung is very good live. He played a bongo 6 and a 5 on a couple songs. I will admit that James was very rough on some songs, but on others he was ok. If you think that DT is all about playing scales very fast, listen to the second disc on the 2-disc set they released this summer. Its called "Greatest hit".
I love John Myung and Dream Theater, have done for about 3 years, John Myung's playing is what has and is still pushing me to improve, his licks are beyond me sometimes and his stamina and speed, although not unmatched are still amazing 
it annoys me soo much that he's lost in the mix below the guitars and drums in soo many albums, if you listen to the live scenes from new york his mix is alot more favourable. Live he is very audiable and down right amazing
p.s i'm gonna stand up for the singer LaBrai and say his voice on some albums is amazing, the awake album is my favourite by far and his voice has soo much more strength than any more recent work
it annoys me soo much that he's lost in the mix below the guitars and drums in soo many albums, if you listen to the live scenes from new york his mix is alot more favourable. Live he is very audiable and down right amazing p.s i'm gonna stand up for the singer LaBrai and say his voice on some albums is amazing, the awake album is my favourite by far and his voice has soo much more strength than any more recent work
I only went to see DT because I had heard that Myung was a great bassist, they were playing in my home town, so it was a great opportunity to check him out. I just came away very disappointed and very underwhelmed, and very baffled by this love affair with him. To my mind, a band like DT is a glowing example of style over substance. Any individual can learn to play like DT - anyone... period! It's a matter of practice makes perfect. And I think that's the point, it was little too perfect and polished. That does not however make for great musicianship in my mind.
I came away from the gig having seen Myung and Portney thinking... 'sure these guys can play, but so what' - these guys are what I would call 'technicians' and not 'musicians' within the context of DT at least (maybe outside of DT it's different i don't know) - To me, it's as much about what you don't play as to what you do play. And in this concert, every space, chord sequence change and every time signature change was filled with a barrage of scales, multi-paradiddle rhythm changes and just plain noise. It was boring plain and simple.
Maybe, if the concert had been different somehow, then maybe my opinion would differ. But it wasn't/ain't! If you like DT, that's cool - like you said, each to their own. Enjoy the music you love - peace.
Even though my pal and former teacher Dave LaRue plays with Petrucci and Portnoy when they do a trio, I hate Dream Theater, and I'll tell you why. They may be great musicians, but they are wankers to the core. And there's actually evidence of it. A producer they worked with did an interview where he suggested Portnoy play a simpler part on one of their songs because he thought it would work better. Portnoy told him, "Hey, I've got to win some magazine reader's polls!" Sorry but I despise that kind of thinking in music.
I'm really surprised Myung is getting this much airtime on a DT DVD. Most of the footage is of JP and MP doing their thing. Props!
LaBrie's voice isn't bad on cd, but live it's like cats mating while someone's dragging their fingernails across a chalkboard. Add to that the fact that he's so off key, it's pathetic.
LaBrie's voice isn't bad on cd, but live it's like cats mating while someone's dragging their fingernails across a chalkboard. Add to that the fact that he's so off key, it's pathetic.
That's because LaBrie ruptured his vocal chords in 1994, he's only gotten substantially better in the last few years. This also has limited his vocal range somewhat.
I usually don't like music where the listener talks more about the stamina and speed then about the melody, song structure and tightness. That might just be me though.
This is also the main difference between Rush and DT, wich to some are the same thing. Rush songs are littered with hooks: they were very familiar with the pop, blues-rock song structure and it showed. They just worked within it to expand it. With DT, it seems as if they have never heard a song in their whole life and are cobbling licks/tricks together.
This is also the main difference between Rush and DT, wich to some are the same thing. Rush songs are littered with hooks: they were very familiar with the pop, blues-rock song structure and it showed. They just worked within it to expand it. With DT, it seems as if they have never heard a song in their whole life and are cobbling licks/tricks together.
Funny, because "tightness" is one of the words I come upon most often when talking or reading about Dream Theater. And "song structure" - I think it makes music more interesting for me as a listener when a band is actually creative with song structures (as Dream Theater have been again and again) instead of doing everything more or less adhering to the worn-out verse/chorus pattern that everyone else has been using for decades.
