John Myung Is The Best Metal Bass Player In The World Right Now, And Here’s Why

When it comes to bass, Dream Theater’s John Myung is unrivaled in every aspect of the instrument.

Posted Jul 13, 2019 02:45 PM

It is said that to truly master virtually anything regardless of one’s initial talent, one needs to put 10, 000 hours of his time in one’s chosen craft. When the two childhood friends John Myung and John Petrucci , who would eventually come to form the giant of progressive everything that is the Dream Theater of today, first started jamming together, they vowed that from that point on, each would practice his instrument for at least six hours each and every day. If we were to take the aforementioned six-hour practice sessions into account, a bit of simple math leads us to the conclusion that John Myung is at least an eight-fold master in the art of bass playing. This alone is an example of tremendous amount of dedication that the Dream Theater virtuoso bassist has for his weapon of choice, but there’s more. However, before we continue, let’s have a brief reminder of just how big an amount of genius is concerned here:

Now, it is obvious that Dream Theater could not have become the ultimate progressive metal band without bucketfuls of talent, drive, and perhaps most importantly, passion, in addition to simple diligence, all of which are also exemplified in its founding members John Myung. John Myung, alongside his friend and band member John Petrucci enrolled at Berklee Musical college only to drop out a year after. At first, this seems like an argument against his creative and professional drive rather than for it, but the fact that he dropped out because he thought that formal education would only hinder him in his musical development and his assurance in his own ability to learn more, learn faster focus on his chosen genre is proof enough that John Myung’s purpose on this earth is to simply be the best metal bass player there is - and specifically as one playing in Dream Theater - not for the sake of competition, but for that of beauty and perfection. Although the year at Berklee did him good by helping him acquire a worldly educated musician’s mindset, it turned out that Myung was rightfully convinced in his decision since we know him as a bass player of tremendous virtuosity who holds every bass playing technique in his back pocket. In this demonstration of what we were just talking about, we also see Myung’s unforced modesty - he begins by saying that he doesn’t really do much tapping, but then proceeds to absolutely murder it in the video:

However, when playing in a band, the notion that one after all is a part of a larger whole and the ability to provide support to the rest of the band members’ collective performance (which is especially true for the bass) is of equal importance as one’s individual virtuosity, and John Myung isn’t lacking in that department either, but quite on the contrary. As we’ve seen, he is a masterful musician who’s not afraid of taking the spotlight from time to time and making use of it in the best way possible, he arguably shines the most as a rock-solid musical foundation upon which the magic of Dream Theater is woven, both on-stage and in the writing room. Myung is very conscious of the bassist’s role and seems to actually enjoy his intrument’s more intermediate way of expression, as we can see in a previous interview. When asked why he didn’t do more on-stage solos, he said:

“I’m not a solo guy. I play bass to play with people. I don’t feel like I have to solo, which is why I don’t.”

Simply put, John Myung is a vastly talented, perfectly rounded musician driven by purpose, who lets his playing speak for himself and for whom his band’s musical integrity is of paramount importance, and as such is without a shadow of a doubt the greatest metal bassist in the world right now - or ever before.