Petrucci vs Michael Romeo

[ABQShredHead]

I like the musical directions Symphony X have taken better than where Dream Theater have gone since Kevin Moore left the band.

I'm still waiting for that Petrucci solo-CD to come out though. He was awesome on the G3 tour.

 

[MorphineChild205]

Blues-based soloing? Are you on crack?

What? Are you going to tell me that the majority of Petrucci's solos aren't blues-based? Sure, a few aren't (like Fatal Tragedy), and he shreds in Phrygian a lot, but most of his solos are bluesy.

I like his solos that AREN'T bluesy (like the first one in The Glass Prison and Beyond This Life, and the classical one in Erotomania). However, even though it's bluesy, the solo in Under A Glass Moon kicks all sorts of ass.

 

[Odysseus]

i got a good laugh outa that one too. and yes, it is sposed to be Voices And Signs, like that one Akashic song.

yea, I only looked at about the first four characters and then stopped. I figured you couldn't think of a screen name so you just kinda smacked some keys with your fist or something, although I guess then you would've gotten something more like i9im,o;l9okyu,.l or maybe 0o;ppolo990p;0. Just probably not the well thought out mixture that I now know discretely spells voices and signs.

 

[Solitude*Dominance*Tragedy]

!!! PETRUCCI !!!

* S*D*T runs for his life*

Don't hurt me *huddles up in corner, mumbling about baby carrots*

 

[theodyssey]

Avril Lavigne!!!!!

*awaits swift foot to groinal region*

 

[Yngvai X]

What? Are you going to tell me that the majority of Petrucci's solos aren't blues-based? Sure, a few aren't (like Fatal Tragedy), and he shreds in Phrygian a lot, but most of his solos are bluesy.

I like his solos that AREN'T bluesy (like the first one in The Glass Prison and Beyond This Life, and the classical one in Erotomania). However, even though it's bluesy, the solo in Under A Glass Moon kicks all sorts of ass.

I'm gonna have to go ahead and agree with Aiwass here and say that the majority of Petrucci's soloing is very much NOT blues based. He does play a lot in Dorian though, which can sound kinda bluesy I guess...

 

[MorphineChild205]

He does play a lot in Dorian though, which can sound kinda bluesy I guess...

Maybe that's it. His solos do sound bluesy when compared to Romeo's, though!

 

[DoktorShred]

hmmm i dunno....romeo does often throw in pentatonic and b5...

 

[Yngvai X]

Maybe that's it. His solos do sound bluesy when compared to Romeo's, though!

Well, I think the one thing about Petrucci's soloing is that it is definately MUCH more modal than Romeo's. He doesn't really travel outside major scale modes much from what I hear (Aeolian, Dorian, Lydian, Mixolydian mostly). Occasionally I'll hear him use harmonic minor. Romeo likes to stick to Phrygian Dominant/Harmonic Minor, pentatonic scales, and also lots of Shawn Lane/Holdsworth style symmetrical diminished and whole tone shapes. Plus Romeo likes to do a lot of arpeggios which Petrucci doesn't do very often at all.

 

[aiwass]

Well, I think the one thing about Petrucci's soloing is that it is definately MUCH more modal than Romeo's. He doesn't really travel outside major scale modes much from what I hear (Aeolian, Dorian, Lydian, Mixolydian mostly). Occasionally I'll hear him use harmonic minor. Romeo likes to stick to Phrygian Dominant/Harmonic Minor, pentatonic scales, and also lots of Shawn Lane/Holdsworth style symmetrical diminished and whole tone shapes. Plus Romeo likes to do a lot of arpeggios which Petrucci doesn't do very often at all.

The word you are looking for isn't bluesy. Petrucci's playing is JAZZIER than Romeo's. Although a drop-out, Petrucci did pick up a thing or two on modal playing in Berklee. He also uses more chromatics. The only bluesy moments I can think of are things like The Spirit Carries On, parts of A Change of Seasons, etc., which are still the bare minimum for bluesiness.

 

[The Stormbringer]

Aaah... nothing better than discussing guitarists.

 

[Yngvai X]

The word you are looking for isn't bluesy. Petrucci's playing is JAZZIER than Romeo's. Although a drop-out, Petrucci did pick up a thing or two on modal playing in Berklee. He also uses more chromatics. The only bluesy moments I can think of are things like The Spirit Carries On, parts of A Change of Seasons, etc., which are still the bare minimum for bluesiness.

I don't mean this as a slag against Petrucci, but I can tell you that he most likely got most of his modal soloing from influences like Morse and Vai, and not from Berklee. I was at Berklee just as many semesters as JP was, and trust me, he wasn't there nearly long enough to get as much theory knowlage as a lot of people think he did there.

 

[ABQShredHead]

I don't mean this as a slag against Petrucci, but I can tell you that he most likely got most of his modal soloing from influences like Morse and Vai, and not from Berklee. I was at Berklee just as many semesters as JP was, and trust me, he wasn't there nearly long enough to get as much theory knowlage as a lot of people think he did there.

I think most of what Petrucci learned at Berklee dealt with arranging and composing rather than anything to do with technique or deeper theory. I agree on this point.

But I also agree with others that I don't see much blues influence at all in his playing. Much of his playing is derived from technical chops. But, with that said, every player (yes, even Mr. Romeo) falls back to pentatonics throughout any given solo, and that lends itself to "bluesiness". If it fits the song and your ideas, punch it in.

 

[Yngvai X]

I think most of what Petrucci learned at Berklee dealt with arranging and composing rather than anything to do with technique or deeper theory. I agree on this point.

But I also agree with others that I don't see much blues influence at all in his playing. Much of his playing is derived from technical chops. But, with that said, every player (yes, even Mr. Romeo) falls back to pentatonics throughout any given solo, and that lends itself to "bluesiness". If it fits the song and your ideas, punch it in.

The difference here is that much of Romeo's pentatonic use is UNblues like, Kinda like Derek Taylor or Shawn Lane. A lot of 3 note per string ideas, as opposed to doing blues licks.

 

[Taliwakker]

There is nothing bluesy about either guitarist.....thats not bad or good.
I went to Berklee for one day to visit a friend who was studying there in 96 or 97.
I learned a cool pentatonic idea where you play a G# Pentatonic scale over an Aadd#11 chord......i've been using it ever since and i also used the trip to Boston (from Australia) as a tax deduction.....because i'm a guitar teacher and all. Good trip all round....massive snow storm closed down everything but the pubs and resteraunts the next day....i got really smashed and pissed off all the 'jazz cats' who were friends of my friend by telling them that EVH shat all over Mike Stern etc.....rubbing them the wrong way for entertainment value. It was good to see that Jazz Nazism is a world wide epidemic and that you can go to any music school and find at least one bass player who has that stupid Jaco Pastorius beret thing on his head.

So yeah.....the only way we can tell who's better is to have a Shred Idol tv show where people can ring up and vote...let the public decide....and have some smart ass judges hanging shit on the contestants.

 

[Technetium]

Well, I will first say that I think both guitar players are phenomenal.

Then I will say that neither of them is my favorite, and I much prefer the likes of Roine Stolt, Al di Meola, and David Gilmour.

And then I'll give you a straight answer and say that I like Petrucci more. I'm just more of a fan of slower styles of guitar soloing where the emphasis is on getting every single long note tweaked just right. Solos in songs like Lines in the Sand, Goodnight Kiss, and Trial of Tears are what I like Petrucci for. I've never been a big fan of most of his faster solos, such as Under a Glass Moon or anything from Train of Thought, though I do like the solos in Voices and Lie, because he somehow manages to get those notes tweaked even though he's playing them so fast.

MJR has really only done that kind of slow and thoughtful playing a handful of times, and when he does it he does it well, which is why I wish he would do it more often. I love his solos in Lady of the Snow - very chilling and emotive. Now, I like the rest of his playing for an entirely different reason, which is that he is an expert of composition.

I'm not a guitar player, which you should be able to tell by my use of terms like "note tweaking", as I really have no idea what you call it. But I know what I like to hear.

 

[Lord Of The Snow]

Personally I was tempted to answer "John Lennon", but since 42 is the answer for ALL questions, I'll go with that.

 

[shredmaster]

Well, they`re definitely both great players. Technically, Romeo is more proficient, due to him not always seeming to be limited to alternate picking when playing fast(although he can do it, and when he does, it sure sounds scary...)
There are, in fact a few things which makes me choose Romeo as my absolute favourite:

- He is MUCH better at improvising...(Solo spot in LOTEOF vs. John`s olo spot in Live in New York)
- He doesn`t create solos consisting of fast alternate picking 99% of the time (As I Am solo comes to mind).
- He is IMO the better composer, and does not seemingly build song structures based on containing too many odd time signatures for the sake of it(Well, Dance of Eternity for example)
- He is a better live guitarist than JP(LOTEOF vs. LINY).
- The Odyssey( ) is a FAR FAR better album than TOT( ).

Of course some of these lines are based on my opinion, but there are also some facts.
Besides having sick technique (Awfully good string skipping, sweep-tapping etc), Romeo is also a very melodic player...
Arghh, I did`nt feel the need to reply to these threads..

I hope I won`t have to write this again in another thread in three days though ...

 

[karelrulez]

they both rock, and I don't care about b5's thrown in either.

 

[metalfox]

The guy from blink182 is really good