Reverse engineering DT

[JLa]

Came across this video and found it surprisingly interesting! I don't know enough music theory to fully understand all he's saying, but interesting nevertheless. #nerdalert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc9KH5nMvjg

The 'copycat' riff he ends up with is really cool! 

[Another_Won]

Yes, very cool.  A good watch.

[TAC]

That was awesome!!

I didn't understand a f'n word!

[Lonk]

That was a pretty cool video. Took me back to my college years when we used to do this kind of analysis.

[nattmorker]

Cool video, it's always cool to know more about DT and know why those sections sound the way they sound.

[Cool Chris]

I didn't understand a f'n word!

No kidding!

I get while people who study music either for a living or for personal interests would enjoy this, but to me it is not only a foreign language, it sorta takes away the magic of music. I used to love watching the bonus features on DVDs where they talk about the film making process. I found it fascinating, until it started informing how I viewed the film too music. Now I just want to watch a film, and not be aware of how they did the CGI work, or the editing process, or any of that. Same thing applies to music.

[Darkstarshadesreborn]

I covered this song on the keyboard a while ago, and I can say that the part at 4:37 of the video, which is the first part of the instrumental section of the song, actually confused me greatly when I first attempted to play that.
i would get confused and think I had gotten out of tempo, because the kick was landing wrong

[Setlist Scotty]

That was awesome!!

I didn't understand a f'n word!

Me too - very interesting, but since I'm better at playing a CD player rather than a guitar, most of that went way over my head. Nonetheless, it is pretty cool to get an idea of the kind of thought that went into writing that section!

[Lonk]

I didn't understand a f'n word!

No kidding!

I get while people who study music either for a living or for personal interests would enjoy this, but to me it is not only a foreign language, it sorta takes away the magic of music.

While I was still in college, I went through a period of a few months that I refused to listen to any music, specially Dream Theater, because of that same reason. It got to a point that I wasn't enjoying Dream Theater anymore because I was too concentrated on figuring out what was going on and how they did it. I had to train myself to listen to music again and know when to analyze.

Honestly, analyzing their music made me appreciate it a lot more, because it shows you all the effort they put into their writing.

[El Barto]

Really cool video. Music theory was 35 years ago, and I hated it so much I haven't played the piano since, but he did a fine job of explaining it all. I could never do what he does, but I can at least follow along as he does it.

Here's what jumped out at me, though: Does anybody still consider I&W their signature sound? Seems to me they never really sounded like that again, and have been steadily moving away from it with each album. Even ADToE, which many people think is essentially a reconstructed I&W (like he just demonstrated) doesn't really sound much like it, either tonally or stylistically.

[Darkstarshades]

Really cool video. Music theory was 35 years ago, and I hated it so much I haven't played the piano since, but he did a fine job of explaining it all. I could never do what he does, but I can at least follow along as he does it.

Here's what jumped out at me, though: Does anybody still consider I&W their signature sound? Seems to me they never really sounded like that again, and have been steadily moving away from it with each album. Even ADToE, which many people think is essentially a reconstructed I&W (like he just demonstrated) doesn't really sound much like it, either tonally or stylistically.

The breakthrough album is always considered the signature sound simply because most people are used to it, and the newcomers are influenced by the opinion of the previous ones.

Picking an album that represents their signature sound best is difficult because every album feels different in many ways. Hell, even Awake was radically different from I&W

[Orbert]

I love music theory, even if I rarely get to apply it.  This guy was on top of it all the way.

[El Barto]

Really cool video. Music theory was 35 years ago, and I hated it so much I haven't played the piano since, but he did a fine job of explaining it all. I could never do what he does, but I can at least follow along as he does it.

Here's what jumped out at me, though: Does anybody still consider I&W their signature sound? Seems to me they never really sounded like that again, and have been steadily moving away from it with each album. Even ADToE, which many people think is essentially a reconstructed I&W (like he just demonstrated) doesn't really sound much like it, either tonally or stylistically.

The breakthrough album is always considered the signature sound simply because most people are used to it, and the newcomers are influenced by the opinion of the previous ones.

Picking an album that represents their signature sound best is difficult because every album feels different in many ways. Hell, even Awake was radically different from I&W

I agree that Awake was a significant departure, which is kind of my point. I'd call I&W an outlier insofar as their "sound" goes. Awake is probably closer to their "signature sound" than I&W, but at this point I'd be looking much, much later. If we're being generous SFaM or 6D would be reasonable choices, but it's likely something closer to BC/SL or the post-Portnoy era. What I'm sure of is that it's not I&W which really is unique within their catalog.