Dream Theater Keyboard Anthology

So, if any of you are purchasing this transcription book, I presume you to be a rather skilled pianist (probably classically trained) with a keen fascination for Dream Theater and lust for complex rhythmic structures. Thus, this is an essential book for any such trained DT enthusiast. Nothing is wrong with this book. It is wonderful, and I have yet to come across any obvious mistakes (though, the lead on Learning to Live seems questionable at some parts…). However, I must warn you, this is NOT a book for the student who lacks a confident ability to read rhythms. Aside from the vast array of complex time signatures Dream Theater employs, many of the keyboard parts are solos… TOUGH solos. When you get down to transcribing so accurately every little detail of a rapid fire Jordan Rudess solo, you get some insanely hard to read rhythmic notation and notes. For instance, one large group of notes will be written with a bracket reading “17:12″ meaning to play the 17 notes as if they were a twelve-tuplet (or however you say that). Also, all of the chord “comping” is written out exactly to the most intricate detail, so what may seem like natural rhythmic jazz comping to Jordan becomes an incredibly difficult passage of music for the student to read. Most notably, if you don’t have a Kurzweill K2600xs, you’re not going to be able to get a lot of the sounds Jordan uses. The book does not describe the exact sounds either, but instead uses notations like “saw lead” or “percussive attack.” This is beneficial if you have a different keyboard, but slightly annoying if you DO have the Kurzweil (which I do) where you want to be able to construct the EXACT sounds used. But either way, the sounds Jordan uses could be another novel in itself, so I don’t detract any stars from this book because of that. Anyways, I guess to say that if you don’t know what 13/16 means (the time signature), you may be better off getting a theory book and reading through that first before tackling any of the material in this book. You’re definitely also going to want to have an audio sample of the song you’re trying to learn at hand to help out with the rhythms. So, if you have a strong foundation in music theory and lust for challenging material with the technical skill of a classical pianist and the theoretical knowledge of a jazz pianist, this is the book for you. I would recommend actually starting out with some of the songs by Kevin Moore (Metropolis, Learning to Live, Wait for Sleep, etc.). They are quite tough to read through, but not as tough as Rudess’s stuff. If you can tackle Moore’s stuff in this book, you’re ready to hit the number of Rudess hits contained in this musical masterpiece. Good luck!

—Sean
Rating: 5 / 5

This is a must have for any DT fan that plays keyboards! Even if you just have a piano, you can play stuff like “Wait for Sleep” or “Through my Words.” The music is extremely accurate even telling you when to bend notes and how to make different effects i.e. holding a higher G while trilling with a lower G and bending the note while doing so. Some of the music is pretty challenging though, so I wouldn’t reccomend it for beginners. If you’re at a moderate level, you can probably play most of Kevin Moore’s stuff, but maybe not all of Jordan Rudess’s.
Rating: 5 / 5