John Petrucci Scales/ Modes

[Ant1991]

Hey guys just wondering what scales or modes mr petrucci uses. Also if you no what steve vai uses or satriani. Any of those type of guys.

[crevis]

petrucci uses B minor and D dorian alot and E magor and a bit of B phrygian on the seven string stuff, Vai uses alot of lydian

[Ant1991]

cool thanks dude keep the infor coming guys.

[mi2tom]

Originally Posted by crevis

E magor

I want to learn this new scale

[andy7jem]

Originally Posted by mi2tom

I want to learn this new scale

Damn....you beat me to that one

[j.arledge]

i am no petrucci expert but just try to identify his chords through thier progression , and know your key tones because as you know john uses a lot of chromatic stuff , that is cool just as long as you remeber to emphasise the chord tone your playing over . the same really goes for anyone . i know off the top of my head that starry night is a pentatonic. joe uses a lot of pentatonic stuff , so does eric johnson . it is just in the phrasing and selection and chord tones . not hard stuff to get just hard to apply sometimes

[rrhea]

Originally Posted by j.arledge

i am no petrucci expert but just try to identify his chords through thier progression , and know your key tones because as you know john uses a lot of chromatic stuff , that is cool just as long as you remeber to emphasise the chord tone your playing over . the same really goes for anyone . i know off the top of my head that starry night is a pentatonic. joe uses a lot of pentatonic stuff , so does eric johnson . it is just in the phrasing and selection and chord tones . not hard stuff to get just hard to apply sometimes

That is exactly right. I'm no expert on theory, myself... but I am working on playing chord tones now instead of "blanketing" the whole chord progression with one key of a single scale. It is hard to apply, but I am finally getting it.

A lot of what makes some shred music soloing sound monotonous and even boring sometimes is when players use one scale and blanket the whole song with that scale. Say the song is in E Maj and you are only playing the E Maj scale all over the neck. This works, but will eventually get pretty boring. You have to determine what other chords are in the song and emphasize those notes when those chords are being played. The blanket approach is fine, but not as your only means of note choices.

As j.arledge said, in Starry Night Satch mostly uses the Pentatonic (A minor). The song is in the key of C Maj, and there are moments when he dips into the C Maj scale and other chord tones to add to the melody and make it more interesting. It's a great song to study, and easy to play.

In the end most of the really excellent players use a little of everything. When you know what you're doing then all the tools are at your disposal.

Ryan

[crevis]

Originally Posted by mi2tom

I want to learn this new scale

You should try E# mimor too or B# myksamobian

[waylay00]

He uses the Dorian and Phyrigian modes a lot, with some pentatonic thrown in with LOTS of chromatics. Many of those fast licks he does are just chromatics.

[Lefty Robb]

John uses tons of split power chords all throughout his music and used extensively on I&W, of which I always refer to as "Petrucci" chords or "Dream Theater" Chords.

F#5/B:

e----
B----
G----
D--11--
A--9--
E--7--

[crevis]

Originally Posted by Lefty Robb

John uses tons of split power chords all throughout his music and used extensively on I&W, of which I always refer to as "Petrucci" chords or "Dream Theater" Chords.

F#5/B:

e----
B----
G----
D--11--
A--9--
E--7--

Thats a suspended 5th, alot of people call them add 9s but there not because an add 9 implys you would use a major or minor 9th which he never does. I used to call them nu metal chords before I got into DT.

The other one is the 5th inversion chords which makes a powerchord sound very meaty and bassy. You just put the 5th on the bottom like so

e----
B--3-- (root)
G--2-- (5th)
D--0- (root)
A--0-- (inverted 5th)
E----

[Ant1991]

thanks heaps guys.

[Lefty Robb]

Originally Posted by crevis

Thats a suspended 5th, alot of people call them add 9s but there not because an add 9 implys you would use a major or minor 9th which he never does. I used to call them nu metal chords before I got into DT.

In the key of Cmaj its that one that I listed and C#sus4/B or F#sus4/B or Bsus2 or C#7sus4/B. So yeah, they are suspended but its just easier to do F#5/B for me which is correct as well. It sounds like a add9 because its basically the lower half of a Badd9 barre chord on the 7th position, so it wouldn't be all that wrong to think of them as that anyways. the inversion chords go well with them as well, you can here some nice examples of these chords working together on one of my favorite Vai songs; 'rescue me or bury me' during the acoustic parts.

[crevis]

Originally Posted by Lefty Robb

In the key of Cmaj its that one that I listed and C#sus4/B or F#sus4/B or Bsus2 or C#7sus4/B. So yeah, they are suspended but its just easier to do F#5/B for me which is correct as well. It sounds like a add9 because its basically the lower half of a Badd9 barre chord on the 7th position, so it wouldn't be all that wrong to think of them as that anyways. the inversion chords go well with them as well, you can here some nice examples of these chords working together on one of my favorite Vai songs; 'rescue me or bury me' during the acoustic parts.

Your naming is correct but a sus chords should be thought of as a 'natural 9th' like you have a natural 5th in a pwerchord, if you called a power chord an add 5 then in C, if you follow the scale would would play a B add 5 as B and F rather B and F#.

This is why I dont like the powertab chordfinder because its a little to mathematical and discards some 'notation etiquite'. Its just like breaking up a quarter into two tied 8ths to pair with a single 8th note. Either way is theoretically correct but I think a music teacher would mark you down for doing it the other way.