You may know/be aware of what I said or maybe not, but everytime I see such superficial takes on Vai, Rudess or Petrucci I feel the need to put things in place: these guys are way beyond shredding and have great knowledge of musical expression, which they implement superbly in their compositions.

I couldn't have said it better and I completely agree. sometimes it seems to me, that people tend to think if they dismiss anything fast as "mindless shredding" with "no emotion whatsoever", they'll show everyone how knowledgeable they are about music. It's like instant respect points, something along the lines of not liking McDonalds, or Bush. I really don't like this attitude to be hating just for the sake of it

However, I must agree that for example that arpeggio-guy, or mentioned Rusty Cooley are examples of mindless shredding. they do shred ALL THE TIME and the songs don't seem to convey any sort of emotion, or thought whatsoever. Where I can NOT agree is the criticism on Petrucci and Vai. Same goes for Rudess. have you heard his solo on the LSFNY? have you?

that being said, I laughed my ass off while watching the phycho exercizes. especially the first and fourth one

[djskrimp]

You may know/be aware of what I said or maybe not, but everytime I see such superficial takes on Vai, Rudess or Petrucci I feel the need to put things in place: these guys are way beyond shredding and have great knowledge of musical expression, which they implement superbly in their compositions.

I couldn't have said it better and I completely agree. sometimes it seems to me, that people tend to think if they dismiss anything fast as "mindless shredding" with "no emotion whatsoever", they'll show everyone how knowledgeable they are about music. It's like instant respect points, something along the lines of not liking McDonalds, or Bush. I really don't like this attitude to be hating just for the sake of it

However, I must agree that for example that arpeggio-guy, or mentioned Rusty Cooley are examples of mindless shredding. they do shred ALL THE TIME and the songs don't seem to convey any sort of emotion, or thought whatsoever. Where I can NOT agree is the criticism on Petrucci and Vai. Same goes for Rudess. have you heard his solo on the LSFNY? have you?

that being said, I laughed my ass off while watching the phycho exercizes. especially the first and fourth one

1) I don't recall putting Petrucci in that category, I believe I was commenting on LaBrie's overemoting over the song structure.
2) Rudess is an awesome keyboardist, but my opinion is that Kevin Moore was far more complementary to Petrucci's playing.
3) Petrucci is NOT beyond criticism...nor is anyone else who makes art. That's kinda the point..to look at the creation and comment on how it makes you feel or what it evokes in you. Which sucks, too, if your opinion is different than those being expressed by others, because people tend to take dissenting opinions personnally. (I know I did when The New Black came out and some opinions weren't glowing.)
4) I KNOW I didn't include Vai in any of this. I hold him in as high esteem as Frank Zappa and Ry Cooder as far as being a trailblazer and as an artist.

Steve Vai=Awesome
John Petrucci=Amazing
Steve Morse=Brilliant
Gary Moore=Soulful
Eric Gales=A Natural
Eric Johnson=King of Tone
Devin Townsend=A perfect mix of all of thee above
The list goes on...

Francesco whats name=? I respect his talent but...I much prefer these guys

Just my humble opinion

i don't consider petrucci very tasteful, most of the stuff i've heard from him is terribly boring. =/

I used to be REALLY into DT, but there came a day when I just simply...stopped. I couldnt listen to it anymore, and still cant to this day. Its so 2 dimensional. Yes they have skill and all the members pretty much do the "look what I can do" stuff, but it just got old to me. Congrats to them for their success and technical skills. It simply doenst do anything for me anymore.

1) I don't recall putting Petrucci in that category, I believe I was commenting on LaBrie's overemoting over the song structure.
2) Rudess is an awesome keyboardist, but my opinion is that Kevin Moore was far more complementary to Petrucci's playing.
3) Petrucci is NOT beyond criticism...nor is anyone else who makes art. That's kinda the point..to look at the creation and comment on how it makes you feel or what it evokes in you. Which sucks, too, if your opinion is different than those being expressed by others, because people tend to take dissenting opinions personnally. (I know I did when The New Black came out and some opinions weren't glowing.)
4) I KNOW I didn't include Vai in any of this. I hold him in as high esteem as Frank Zappa and Ry Cooder as far as being a trailblazer and as an artist.

Hey relax, I wasn't really talking about your post, just reacting to what goat said, which kind of triggered a mini-rant which I needed to let go, because that kind of stuff bothers me a little bit. No offence meant and I apologize if it came over as if I was talking negatively about you. I didn't mean to.

that being said, I must say I can agree with some of the things you've said. no one is beyond criticizm, as well as nobody's perfect (except Chuck Norris of course) and criticizm is fine as long it's constructive and respectful. I only wanted to say, that I despise people, who judge by the simple formula "fast = bad" without really listening to what is going on in the song.

The Rudess/Moore (/Sherinian) Debate has been going on for years on the dt.net boards, partly with the same thing: "Rudess plays fast, therefore he sucks". I like both (all three) Keyboardists, every one of them has their qualities, which helped to enhance DT in that era. for Moore it was his feeling for songwriting and ambience, for Rudess his high technical proficiency, his unisons with Petrucci etc. I don't think Moore would fit in the current DT, as well as Rudess wouldn't in the old school DT.

why is it that nobody can spell psycho???

phyco?? really... youre telling me that word has a silent "p"?? or is the p "p"retensding to be an "s"?

sorry, enough of my wankerness... that clip was really funny.

heh... i wont edit it: "pretensding" hahah... im a fuckin HYPOCRITE...

heh... i wont edit it: "pretensding" hahah... im a fuckin HYPOCRITE...

You are a hypocrite. If you're bitching at other peoples spelling, you should at least use proper punctuation. Typos, like "pretensding", can happen. But i, im, youre, wont, dont, fuckin, and not a single cap in sight... Really, people will believe you now.

why is it that nobody can spell psycho???

phyco?? really... youre telling me that word has a silent "p"?? or is the p "p"retensding to be an "s"?

sorry, enough of my wankerness... that clip was really funny.

I'm sure the video maker made the typo on purpose, for added fun

[djskrimp]

1) I don't recall putting Petrucci in that category, I believe I was commenting on LaBrie's overemoting over the song structure.
2) Rudess is an awesome keyboardist, but my opinion is that Kevin Moore was far more complementary to Petrucci's playing.
3) Petrucci is NOT beyond criticism...nor is anyone else who makes art. That's kinda the point..to look at the creation and comment on how it makes you feel or what it evokes in you. Which sucks, too, if your opinion is different than those being expressed by others, because people tend to take dissenting opinions personnally. (I know I did when The New Black came out and some opinions weren't glowing.)
4) I KNOW I didn't include Vai in any of this. I hold him in as high esteem as Frank Zappa and Ry Cooder as far as being a trailblazer and as an artist.

Hey relax, I wasn't really talking about your post, just reacting to what goat said, which kind of triggered a mini-rant which I needed to let go, because that kind of stuff bothers me a little bit. No offence meant and I apologize if it came over as if I was talking negatively about you. I didn't mean to.

that being said, I must say I can agree with some of the things you've said. no one is beyond criticizm, as well as nobody's perfect (except Chuck Norris of course) and criticizm is fine as long it's constructive and respectful. I only wanted to say, that I despise people, who judge by the simple formula "fast = bad" without really listening to what is going on in the song.

The Rudess/Moore (/Sherinian) Debate has been going on for years on the dt.net boards, partly with the same thing: "Rudess plays fast, therefore he sucks". I like both (all three) Keyboardists, every one of them has their qualities, which helped to enhance DT in that era. for Moore it was his feeling for songwriting and ambience, for Rudess his high technical proficiency, his unisons with Petrucci etc. I don't think Moore would fit in the current DT, as well as Rudess wouldn't in the old school DT.

No offense taken; just defending my position is all.

This guitar was made by Ibanez... uh... Mr. Ibanez.
This was painted by Michael Angelo, not the guitar n00b but the guy who painted Jesus on those ceilings.