John Myung's hardest bass song?

[PwnsomeWin]

So we all know John Myung is an insane bassist. But what do you think his craziest song performance on bass is?

Even though I'm a bassist, I don't listen closely to the bass. From what I'd paid attention to, though, The Test That Stumped Them All seems to have some hard parts. Most likely not his hardest, but what do you think?

[Chino]

In no particular order.

- The Dance of Eternity

[chaotic_ripper]

I'm not a bass player, but The Glass Prison has got to be tough.  You know which part i'm talking about! 

[Whatsername]

I always thought Panic Attack was insane, but not being a bass player there could be simple tricks to that one. Not sure.

[(nothing)]

I've attempted almost every other Dream Theater song and I can now pretty much play all of them if I want to, after a while the challenge is to memorize everything and play it flawlessly in one go of course (which is what makes JM really great when it comes to live performances).

So here are my top picks:

- The Dance of Eternity obviously is hard but only because of the solo imo, the rest of the song is hard but still not that bad.
- The stamina you need to play all of The Great Debate is just insane. You could say the same for The Glass Prison but it's slightly easier in my opinion on that aspect, in terms of speed it's harder.
- The fast 16th runs on The Test That Stumped Them All are hard indeed
- There is a fast 16th run towards the end of Endless Sacrifice that's the fastest thing he's ever played on a recording, I think
- The fast double bass part of TDEN is really hard but a metronome's your best friend.

The rest of his material might be hard but it's less hard than these parts I think (Like Panic Attack that was mentioned above is certainly not easy but it's not as hard as the parts/songs I mentioned above imo).

For me, I have small hands and that makes playing certain lines harder than it would normally be. So things that require superior stamina are harder for me. If I had to pick one song as the hardest, that would be The Glass Prison.

[Outcrier]

- The stamina you need to play all of The Great Debate is just insane.

I imagine 

[(nothing)]

Just realized I forgot Outcry. Oh well 

[detemete]

Even though I'm a bassist, I don't listen closely to the bass.

Does. Not. Compute.

[Chino]

Even though I'm a bassist, I don't listen closely to the bass.

Does. Not. Compute.

I'm not in Dream Theater, but I still listen to them.

[Dellers]

Half of the stuff he plays is ridiculously hard one way or another. Speed, awkward positioning, stamina. My hands are very small, so I find almost all of Myung's lines to be very uncomfortable to play, and therefore I haven't really tried learning many of his lines. He's following Petrucci a lot, and playing something fast on bass is easily twice as hard as playing it on guitar (even though I'm mostly a bassist I can play most stuff faster on guitar). Pretty much the only songs which aren't hard are The Root Of All Evil and One Last Time. Probably some ballads as well.

[Cable]

I never thought much about TTTSTA, but that one is indeed insane. Just the 16th note gallops thru a fair chunk of the song make it a decent endurance challenge. But those stupid intro and middle reprise of intro unison, and outro unison make me pass on attempting this one!

[Deep Sixx]

Well for what it's worth, John Myung's stuff consistently ranks as the most difficult bass tracks on Jammit, with Panic Attack being a 5: the highest skill level required (according to the site of course).

[eosforum]

What about his solo in The Killing Hand?

[adastra]

I've heard they're all pretty basic..

[Whatsername]

I've heard they're all pretty bass-ic..

FTFY

[PwnsomeWin]

Even though I'm a bassist, I don't listen closely to the bass.

Does. Not. Compute.

Well, I listen to it, but I don't pay attention to how hard it is.

[Onno]

I've heard they're all pretty bass-ic..

FTFY

[puppyonacid]

I've heard they're all pretty bass-sick..

FTFY

FTFYAY

[lyfeternl]

JM's hardest bass song? I'm pretty sure it's Vacant

[OsMosis2259]

Wait for Sleep

[Dark Castle]

I'm not a bassist, but that part in the solo during Metropolis Pt.1 sounds nuts and gives me goosebumps.

[PwnsomeWin]

I'm not a bassist, but that part in the solo during Metropolis Pt.1 sounds nuts and gives me goosebumps.

If you mean the solo, it's actually not too bad. I can play that.

[Dellers]

Yup, the solo isn't that bad. There are more difficult sections in most DT songs.

[Daso]

I don't know how hard it is, but I've always found 6:00 to have a very interesting bassline.

[JiM-Xtreme]

I find that most DT basslines are not particularly challenging as a whole, but there are always little random crazy bits that just make it a nightmare to try and play the whole thing flawlessly!

Examples:

-The Root of All Evil: That random crazy tapping unison part.
-These Walls: Really easy song that has a random crazy fast fill right at the end.
-Never Enough: The main riff is solid. Rest of the song is easy.
-Honor Thy Father: Don't cross the crooked step!

[Dellers]

-The Root of All Evil: That random crazy tapping unison part.

I always grant myself a 4 bar pause right there, lol. I have no idea what the flip is really going on. The rest of the song is ok though, although it's kinda painful for me since I have small hands. Then again I use standard tuning instead of Bb standard which I assume Myung was using.

[JiM-Xtreme]

-The Root of All Evil: That random crazy tapping unison part.

I always grant myself a 4 bar pause right there, lol. I have no idea what the flip is really going on.

I didn't either, until I got the isolated stems from Jammit. That was a mistake.

Oh, to be blissfully ignorant again!

[TheDisposableHero]

I find that most DT basslines are not particularly challenging as a whole, but there are always little random crazy bits that just make it a nightmare to try and play the whole thing flawlessly!

Examples:

-The Root of All Evil: That random crazy tapping unison part.
-These Walls: Really easy song that has a random crazy fast fill right at the end.
-Never Enough: The main riff is solid. Rest of the song is easy.
-Honor Thy Father: Don't cross the crooked step!

Also, to add on to your point, right before the first solo before the first chorus in Pull Me Under: GAH!!!

[foxiqopher]

People are forgetting about When Dream And Day Unite, but of all DT albums, that is the album where Myung had REALLY complex bass parts on most songs.