"Hi, My name is John Myung. I play bass for a band called dream theatre, um and welcome to my first intructional video where I instruct you on all the stuff you will never be able to play" Thank you
For people who might be confused he is moving through the cycle backward but only applying every second note on the cycle, this allows him to loop back to C. That's c, bflat, aflat, Gflat, e and d. If you wanted to go through this extensively you could go through this the way that he does and when you finish play the same pattern again this time starting on F, and this would give you all the missing notes eflat, dflat, b, a and g. I'm pretty sure that this excercise could be used in such a way that you could apply this to totally master the circle of fifths in a practical sense and learn where all the sharps and flats are too by extending it for that purpose. I think it would help to look at the cycle of fifths while playing through, and instead of thinking just key, think how many sharps or flats are in that key in major. Then do the same thing with the minor keys as well. Following johns example the positions for each note don't even change either. The names will though, (eb becomes d# etc.).
What I think he's talking about is starting the 1st arpeggio on the root, and the following one on the third, as he cycles through the circle of fifths. So, if you started on a CMaj7(c,e,g,b), you would move to an FMaj7 starting on the third (a,c,e,f). I hope that helps:)
It was so annoying not being able to hear almost any bass on the last album. Seriously, more bass solos and more bass presence in the songs- they're not a simple punk band, they've got one hell of a bassist, and we want to hear him! I'm a guitarist by the way. wish I knew bass is some awesome when I decided to learn guitar =(
I know it's not about the music, but I was just stunned at the beginning, in the short segment where the light behind Jonh creates shadows with the strings on the bass.
@NeverLandQM I know!! I listened to it through as many different sources as I could, even bose headphones, and I could still barely hear the bass. I think Six Degrees has the best mix for hearing the bass, Myung really cut through on that one.
@Lucidmakexael24695 I know, and I'll probably will learn to play bass after I'll finish school~ I do love guitar though, don't get me wrong xD right now I have no time to learn 2 instruments xD
@jollino This video was released in 1996. I was 6 years old at the time and don't know exactly how popular Dream Theater was around the world at that time, but I'd be willing to guess that they weren't nearly as popular as they are today.
I'm pretty new to bass so could someone please enlighten me as to how to apply these patterns? is it just to learn where the notes are all over the fretboard or do they serve a specific purpose when playing with a band?
These patterns are applied as a means of understanding the notes that make up a given chord. He's just taking 14 different ways to play those chord tones and extending them by playing backwards through the circle of fifths. What it should do is help you recognise not only key, but also chord sound. I'm working through them myself and I think that what it will eventually do if practiced thoroughly and regularly is to allow you to respond to chord changes. If you are familiar with the fingering of say a diminished 7 arpeggio then when you hear say a Bb diminished 7 you would instantly recognise it and go to that spot on the neck, in this case the sixth fret on the e string and now you have this built up muscle memory of most of the notes in that position that make up that chord. So you won't panic or get confused, you'll just naturally outline that chord. At least that's what I think it's for. I think it would be a good idea to extend it as I've said to cover all twelve keys and also to practice the major scale this way as well. This exercise has opened up new ways of thinking about practice for me. It's really a goldmine once you start extrapolating everything that's in this into your own practice routines. Another idea I have is playing through the examples using Stu Hamm's method of doubling up using a metronome. So start each example playing single notes, then two halfs, then single halfs, then two quarters, then single quarters. Then you could apply this potentially to different time signatures as a way of getting used to them. And it's possible to even extend the pattern to cover more chords as well.
I think personally as musicians everyone in dream theater is in the top 3 best for each instrument (to me they're #1 but to quiet down the trolls I said top 3) either way they all excel... This might sound stupid but go watch some hentai called love is the key to (something I can't remember) and just listen to the beginning music Tell me this doesn't sound like it....
"... and for those of you who want to play along with me..." Play along? WITH you?! :'3 ... and that's about as close as I'm ever going to get to touring with Dream Theater.
