John Myung Puns

John Myung is amazing and I want him to be my dad. He's so skilled and so fun to watch and listen to. This is a John Myung appreciation space get out if you don't like John Myung send tweet

As i grew up i was a die hard fan of myungs bass playing, however recently as i strated analizing more DT songs, their music was more about Petrucci showing that he can play guitar (Really well), specially in the latest albums, and i think theyve lost some of their musicality.

Im not saying that myung is a bad player or anything, he has mad skills just like all other DT members, but when it comes to final mix bass sometimes is barely audible and IN MY OPINION doesnt really add too much just doubling such louds guitars.

What do you guys think?

I have came back to show the world more of the unshined truth that needs to be told hidden behind the lyrics of Dream Theater's songs. While this may sound like another unrealistic theory, the truth is quite (the) astonishing.

JP and JM are writing an essay for their English class and JP's handwriting looks significantly worse than JM's and JM criticizes JP for it yet JP defends himself and gets mad at JM for criticizing him. This is evident in the following lyrics;

"Don't. Tell me how to write."

JM cannot stand the fact that JP is continuing to write in his illegible scribbles, so he takes his pencil away. JP forgot the rest of his school supplies at his house so this is the only thing he brought to school. This is demonstrated in these lyrics;

"It isn't your right, To take the only thing that's Mine."

JM says to JP that his letters are rather not clearly written, yet JP rebuts his claim by telling him otherwise which is shown in these lyrics;

"The Lines, Are clearly defined."

JM shows JP his paper and JM's handwriting is significantly better than that of JP. JP beings to realize that maybe his handwriting is in fact not at all good and he can't rationalize it anymore. This is told through these lyrics;

"I've been trying To justify you. In the end I will Just defy you."

JM decides to give JP back his pencil out of wanting to see JP write the way he was writing before. The reason JP's handwriting was so horrible was because he was writing without his arm bent at all, he had his arm straight out towards the paper with his pencil not being able to be well guided. This quote demonstrates this;

"To those who understand, I extend my hand."

Yet JP feels that in the long run, it is still worth it to write like this, as it works out his arm and he would look so awesome in 30 years being ripped on magazine covers, so he decides to continue writing like this. These lyrics show this;

"I won't change to fit your plan. Take me as I am."

Everyone is having a much easier time writing than him while JP is still keeping his arm fully extended to write, it is making him outcasted from everyone else and it is making it more difficult for him. The following lyrics reveal this;

"Still, Running uphill. Swimming against the current."

He knows that doing what he is doing is an awful use of his time and energy, but he is a committed young man devoted to his work. This is known from these lyrics;

"I've been wasting my breath, On you. Open mind will descend, Upon Yo

I have felt the urge to share with the world a fourth groundbreaking theory of mine. I hope to one day have the entire world exposed to the true meaning of every one of DT's songs. While this theory may be unreasonable due to the fact that the song was released ~15 years before Minecraft was, once you take a deeper look into the lyrics it becomes clear that my theory is the truth.

It begins with John Myung watching the sun in Minecraft rise. He uses the term 'virgin mind' because there is no sex in Minecraft. This is demonstrated with the following lyrics;

"I remember a time, My frail, virgin mind, Watched the crimson sunrise."

Minecraft being a seemingly endless world with the objective to explore, JM wants to travel through all of the World which is shown through these lyrics;

"I must explore the boundaries."

JM found the perfect spot to build his base. He wanted to explore and travel more throughout the world but now that he found the spot for his house he could not. These lyrics demonstrate this;

"Still I longed to search for more, But those days are gone now."

JM settles in either a taiga, tundra, mountain, or ice spikes biome which is known through these lyrics;

"The snow has now fallen."

JM needs resources for his tools and armor, so he goes mining. There are many mobs attacking him lowering his health which puts him in danger and gives him the sense of fear. These lyrics show this;

"I've never been so filled with fear, All my life's been drained from me, The end is drawing near."

You can craft clocks with redstone and gold and put them on walls using item frames. The following lyrics demonstrate this feature of Minecraft which outright proves the connection between the song and the game.

"The clock on the wall."

Also, Minecraft has the feature of collecting roses from the ground which is shown through these lyrics, further connecting the song and the game.

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."

JM dies while caving. He is playing on Hardcore mode where his world file is now lost. He now grows saddened by this as he never got to build his cool sky base, which was the whole reason he created a Minecraft account and world in the first place. He saw this cool looking sky base on r/minecraft and he wanted to make it for himself but never could. The following lyrics show this;

"I was blinded by a paradise, Utopia high in the sky."

John Petrucci sees JM with his world file being lost, and starts to sympaphise with him to help feel better. JM

If you’ve been following Myung’s interviews over the past years you’ll know his Musicman bass will be announced this week(end?). Anyone else also itching to pick it up? Any current bongo owners that can shed some light on your experience with the bass and making the best of the sound? Thought on what to dial in to get his tones?

Please no outdated “JM speaks?!” comments.

This guy is so fun to watch/listen to. He has really been motivating me lately to work on precision and some tough reaches. Many of his riffs are insanely complex and his tone is on point... he's just a bass god.

Plus, best hair in the rock world.

I recently saw a post about James' side project. But does Myung have any ? As a bass player I would be interested in listening to that.

As you can clearly see in this picture, and in many others of Dream Theater bassist John Myung as well, his left (fretting) wrist is bent at quite an angle. I was told you want your wrist straight to avoid injury, and when I do bend my wrist (which it tends to do when I put my thumb behind the neck) it seems to get sore. What Myung is doing, then, appears to amount to wrist suicide!

Yet, John Myung obviously knows what he is doing--how does he get away with such a bend? What are your thoughts on fretting wrist technique (both Myung's and in general)?

Here's the link.

John himself breaks down a couple of his basses and his unique specifications, and then one of the tech crew guys goes through his amp and effects settings.

I just eat this stuff up, I find it really fascinating.

Mangini’s snare is on point as well. As a whole this might be the best production I’ve heard since Portnoyageddon.

Hello Reddit

I'm a bass player, so naturally I like when you can hear the bass in the songs. That being side, I feel like since Myung changed his instrument to the Musicman Bongo, his sound has gotten worse.

I've seen them live many times. and I can never hear the bass in the shows. And when I do, it's all muddy, cluster together. It has 0 note definition. It's like in the studio, the bass sounds like a fart and on live shows you can't hear it.

My favorite show was The one Live in Budokan, where the bass sounds really loud and defined. I obviously cannot expect that sound all the time, but at least a middle ground would be fine.

Thoughts?

The quietest of Dream Theater, they would say. No one knows how is mind works. He could be the best song writer in the world for all we know! 100% pure bass!!

John Myung plays a 6-string bass, showing us how he wants equality to John Petrucci's guitar. He is spreading this communist propaganda since Images and Words, how is this commumity ok with this?

Hey guys, sorry to spam, but since I'm a pretty new DT fan (3 or 4 years now) I have a question about one of the best bassists.

John Myung--is this guy extremely shy or humble? He's an incredible bassist and he barely moves around stage and always has his head down. Usually never has any bass solos either.

I read an old thread where someone said the band said it's totally his choice to never solo (2005).

What are your thoughts/comments?

EDIT: A few of you keep pointing out that he solos all the time or will give a specific song. I appreciate the effort, but my main point isn't about his soloing. It's about his introvertedness, which some of you have already addressed.

While I know he does have solos, the point with my question/statement, is that he doesn't do it much live, from my experience. I've only been to 3 shows, but he hasn't had a standalone "solo" like Jordan or Petrucci. Someone else mentioned something about Myung soloing much more in the early days of DT. Thanks for all the insight though.

Also, I'm not in any way knocking him for not having many solos. This was just an observation. I love Myung and the music he creates with his bass. Absolutely incredible musician.

Did anyone else notice that in his latest video, Davie didn't seem to recognize John Myung or the tapping solo from Metropolis? He just called him 6-strings-bavss-guy. It's also not a very difficult solo at full speed, nor is it Myung's most difficult part. I want to see Davie pull this one off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yqOA0BMXS0

I love love love John Myung's tone. Does anybody else think that his tone cuts through so much better in live albums than in the studio recordings? I really wish they'd bring his levels up in the studio mixes.

Oh, and got my ticket! April 15th in DC, baby!!!

Does he use this technique in any other Dream Theater songs? I know he pops the strings in the intro to TDEN as well but I can't think of any other examples off the top of my head.

In a studio video that showed the making of SDOIT, Myung has an 8 string bass in his possession, does anyone have any idea what song(s) have an 8 string bass?

Being able to finally hear the aggressive fingering (yeah yeah I know) and that awesome percussive slap of the strings on the fretboard really gives me visions of one of my biggest bass influences, the late Cliff Burton. Also it sounds like they did less to "smooth" the low notes. On previous albums it sounded like they tried to reduce the wave-like sound of the low notes and I always found that odd because when I play low notes on my 5 string, you hear very distinctly the string itself vibrating and wobbling. Now on this album you hear that wobble and it's honestly an awesome and visceral sound.