'Don't hit that note' - John Petrucci 2019

Proof that John Petrucci is human after all

#dreamtheater #johnpetrucci #barstoolwarrior #distanceovertime #funny #fail #funnyvideo #guitarclinic

[ATK]

I’ve been playing for almost 20 years and I still can’t hear what he is doing wrong.

[sleepdeep]

What a fucking professional. Notice how he improvises a little passage in a different key to sneak the sour note in during the second example

[drductape]

literally the first time I have ever seen petrucci make a genuine mistake lol

[lionparcelpalagan]

It's the guitar's mistakes not Petrucci.

[psyberiusblack]

It’s the “Don’t hit that note” in DT font that took me out 😂😂😂

[lacinsahin]

TL;DR: In the first section, he is playing Eb by mistake, or actually, too early. Instead he should have played D. Eb is not in the key of C major. He should have landed to D. Eb is reserved for later on, when the key changes to C minor. However, since this clip is edited, and there is no reference to the original song to understand the chord progression, you don't feel it as mistake. I certainly did not feel it as a mistake :)

For the section below, please refer to these videos:


Long version: In the first part of the video he is playing the section from Barstool Warrior that starts at 01:01 (He is playing the repeat of this section at 01:19, but I’ll explain from the 01:01 section). The chords underneath are:

C, G, Dm, Fm
C, Gm, Ab, F7

In the first half, from C to Dm, the tonal center is C major. But with Fm, the tonal center shifts to C minor. This is called mode mixture/modal interchange/parallel key where you modulate to the minor version of the same key (C major to C minor in this case). You can do that by borrowing chords from the parallel minor, such as Fm (iv chord in C minor). In addition to this Fm, this key change is also implied in the descending melody by playing Ab at 01:09, which is the minor third of F, and minor sixth of C (Extra: at the end, he returns back to C major by playing E, and not Eb – remember this is the “wrong note”, and the section becomes a C harmonic major but anyways…)

You could also do this by changing the note E (which is the major third of C and the note that makes C, C major) to Eb (which is the minor third of C and the note that makes C, C minor) in the melody. But this note change is reserved by Mr. Petrucci for 01:16. And in the video, Mr. Petrucci lands on this note early, when the change did not happen yet. Anyway let’s continue.

In the second half, from C to Gm (borrowed chord, v in C minor), the tonal center shifts from C major to C minor immediately. However, this change is not implied in the melody yet (D is played, which is the perfect fifth of G and major second of C in both versions of C - major/minor). Next, the chord changes from Gm to Ab, which is the bVI chord of C minor. This chord establishes the minor tonality for sure (and the expected next chord is Bb, the bVII of C minor - But does not happen in the song - This is sometimes called “Andalusian Cadence”. I call this the “Lydian rise” because the modes that are played in sequence are Lydian and Mixolydian, which gives it a powerful rise in the melody). After this chord is played at 01:16, Mr. Petrucci plays the Eb (at last :)) which is the perfect fifth of Ab and minor third of C minor). The next chord is F7, which is again mode mixture. This time the modulation is not to the parallel key, but to C Dorian, because the F7 is the IV chord in C Dorian.

In the video Mr. Petrucci plays Eb by mistake. However, actually in the context of the arrangement, it is not a wrong note, it is only earlier than expected.

In the second part of the video, he is playing the section 04:21 from the same song. The chords are:

Gm, Eb, F, Dm

In this part, the key is G minor. When he plays Dm, he plays the note E, which is not present in the key. And in this case he should have played an Eb instead of E (Eb is the minor sixth and is present in the key, E is the major sixth and is not present in the key). The implied melody or mode on Dm is the Phrygian mode (fifth mode of natural minor/Aeolian) and the Phrygian mode includes a flat second (Eb in our case). When the note E is played it makes it sound like as if we abruptly modulated to some kind of D minor (Aeolian, or Dorian which includes the major second). But again you don't understand these in this edited version. You should watch the original video. This shows how much the context (chord progression) is important.

From a guitarist’s perspective: adding that open E (major second or major nine) to Dm, and making it Dm9, makes it sound lush in the cases where the implied modes are Aeolian or Dorian. And when you play a Dsus or Dm7 in that position you tend to add that open E and add that lush 9 sound. But, in this chord progression the mode is Phrygian, and that E sounds a little bit weird. I make that mistake all the time, like I’m supposed to add that open E in all cases :) Mr. Petrucci uses these open voicings all the time, since it makes the chord sound huge. He mentions that he is influenced by Alex Lifeson from Rush in that regard.

Last note: I did not mention the inversions of chords, pedal notes in the bass guitar etc. to avoid making the text more complex.

Cheers!

[dandylion]

Barstool warrior- I thought I was the only one making that mistake lmao

[davidrichards]

Tori Slusher hits that note. If she's okay with it, so am I.

[DanyNMacF]

there's a lot of notes James LB should not be hitting anymore

[Bearskickass]

Do we know why he's saying Don't hit that note?