John Petrucci chord question

[JustinVK]

Often he does this thing where he creates this "happy dissonance" effect with the guitar by playing notes on the lower strings and then ringing out the higher strings and it always gives me goosebumps. Examples of this would be the intro of The Count of Tuscany, the part leading up to the solo halfway into Erotomania, and the guitar part playing under the lyrics "You won't find it here, look another way, You won't find it here, so try another day" in Another Day. I know very little music theory, but if someone could describe to me musically what he is doing, I would really appreciate it.

[Ħ]

Those are harmonics.  It is done by lightly touching certain strings, but not fully compressing them.  It only works for certain frets.

[jsem]

I don't think that answered his question fully. I don't think he meant the harmonics of JP's solo during the intro in TCOT for example, and there are no harmonics (an overtone) during the "you won't find it here" part of Another Day.

What he is doing is droning an open note, kind of an Alex Lifeson influenced thing. He's playing often a suspended chord with the suspended chord note (the 2nd or the 4th, depending on what type of a chord it is) as the highest note and the open string and letting it ring while plucking the rest of the chord.

If there's every any dissonance, it's because he could be playing a chord with both the major 3rd and the 4th (not that common, as its dissonance is fairly horrendous) - or he's playing, like he does on TCOT, a major 7th chord with the major 7th and the octave right next to eachother and droning the octave. The major 7th creates some dissonance, but it's more soothing generally and is probably what is the "happy" dissonance you're talking about.


This might not make sense to you, and this probably doesn't answer the question.. but whatever.

[ronrule]

You're not talking about harmonics.

I don't know if there is a specific name for this, but you've described it accurately.  The chords change, but certain notes drone throughout the chord changes. And I think Erotomatia is one of the coolest examples of this ever. Ty Tabor from King's X also does this a lot (see Summerland).

[jsem]

You're not talking about harmonics.

I don't know if there is a specific name for this, but you've described it accurately.  The chords change, but certain notes drone throughout the chord changes. And I think Erotomatia is one of the coolest examples of this ever. Ty Tabor from King's X also does this a lot (see Summerland).

He said in an interview w/ guitar world he "stole" the idea of droning from Alex Lifeson. Ty Tabor is a fantastic example of the technique actually...

[weezul]

inverted pedal?

[Metabog]

Here's your answer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedal_point

[bosk1]

You're not talking about harmonics.

I don't know if there is a specific name for this, but you've described it accurately.  The chords change, but certain notes drone throughout the chord changes. And I think Erotomatia is one of the coolest examples of this ever. Ty Tabor from King's X also does this a lot (see Summerland).

He said in an interview w/ guitar world he "stole" the idea of droning from Alex Lifeson. Ty Tabor is a fantastic example of the technique actually...

Definitely.  That and the fact the Doug plays so many chords and walking bass lines instead of just single note root playing is why they have such a huge sound for only a trio.