Your favourite Dream Theater chord progressions (discussion)

[johnpetruccisbiceps]

This is a subject I love thinking about, and thought would be nice to get the opinions of those here that are more musically educated than myself.

I feel that DT has a sophisticated sense of harmony and sometimes come up with very interesting chord progressions (though maybe no band is as good at this as the mighty Beatles were!!). I love "Disappear", for example. Also, "Far From Heaven".

But also, I'd say that they have become less adventurous in this regard, and certainly the last 3 albums have had fewer surprises as far as unexpected, awesome chords that surprise me. What do you guys think? What are your favourite "unusual" chord progressions in DT songs? And anyone want to point me to moments like these in the ADTOE and DT12 that I might have missed?

[BlobVanDam]

Octavarium has many great chord progressions, such as the first verse progression on the 12 string guitar, the chord progression of the main melody that gets reused (the very end of the song), and the progression behind that amazing outro guitar solo. It doesn't always stick to the key, or to familiar patterns, so the whole song sounds unique.

And speaking of solos, the chord progression behind the solo of The Spirit Carries On makes that solo something special, and I recall that JP had to put a lot of time into figuring out which notes to land on for each change to get it all sounding as great as it does.

Just a couple off the top of my head.

[Zyzzyva17]

Favorite single progressions:

-The Spirit Carries On verse
-In the Name of God chorus
-Octavarium main theme
-The Best of Times guitar solo

Favorite overall harmonies in songs

-Anna Lee
-Vacant / Stream of Consciousness
-The Count of Tuscany
-Lost Not Forgotten
-Far from Heaven

[adamack]

Man, there are so many!

First one that comes to mind is in The Ministry Of Lost Souls. It is the main progression which begins at 1:03 with JP. The chord selection is brilliant. The second chord in the passage is a minor chord on the first run, then it is the same chord in major every other time. This progression is also behind the very end solo section that JP plays, which just happens to be one of my favorite melodic guitar moments ever.

I also love the chord progression behind the chorus to Finally Free ("This feeling..."). Love how the last chord is suspended, and then resolves to its standard counterpart.

I agree with Blob and Zyzzyva about that Octavarium progression.

I was figuring it out on my acoustic the other day, and it is amazing! The way it is structured gave me a new appreciation for that part.

It begins around the time that James comes in ("I never..."). Just counting in my head, there are like 23 chord changes, in just ONE section of the verse! Probably 15 or so of those are different chords.

I also really love the progression behind the "Whooaaa-Ohhh" section in TCoT.

[johnpetruccisbiceps]

Octavarium has many great chord progressions, such as the first verse progression on the 12 string guitar,

And speaking of solos, the chord progression behind the solo of The Spirit Carries On makes that solo something special

Totally agree! Both these are among my favourite DT moments, and that's mainly because of how uniquely the harmony moves. The Octavarium chord progression is a marvel!

Man, there are so many!

First one that comes to mind is in The Ministry Of Lost Souls. It is the main progression which begins at 1:03 with JP. The chord selection is brilliant. The second chord in the passage is a minor chord on the first run, then it is the same chord in major every other time. This progression is also behind the very end solo section that JP plays, which just happens to be one of my favorite melodic guitar moments ever.

I also love the chord progression behind the chorus to Finally Free ("This feeling..."). Love how the last chord is suspended, and then resolves to its standard counterpart.

I agree with Blob and Zyzzyva about that Octavarium progression.

I was figuring it out on my acoustic the other day, and it is amazing! The way it is structured gave me a new appreciation for that part.

It begins around the time that James comes in ("I never..."). Just counting in my head, there are like 23 chord changes, in just ONE section of the verse! Probably 15 or so of those are different chords.

I also really love the progression behind the "Whooaaa-Ohhh" section in TCoT.

Yeah! The thing you pointed out in TMOLS is almost Beatles-esque! That little kind of attention to detail (switching a chord from major to minor instead of just repeating) is what makes the best bands stand out from the rest for me. So cool.

Also love the Whoa section of TCoT. Though I would say that's more a case of a pretty standard but extremely satisfying chord progression than anything too unique. But it is a perfect, triumphant resolution for ending the song.

Any examples from ADToE?

[Nearmyth]

There are a ton, but the first one that comes to mind for now is The Great Debate at 1:20 

[Mosh]

Trial of Tears guitar solo.

[TheCountOfNYC]

The Ministry of Lost Souls ending. The chord progression itself isn't standard with an unclear tonic and the way the theme keeps changing keys adds to the funky-ness of the section. It all makes for one of the more interesting sounding moments in Dream Theater's discography.

[?]

I love the chord progression in the chorus of Strange Deja Vu, and the subtle key change at the end is really cool. PMU also has a nice progression in the pre-chorus.

[vbrodrigues95]

Losing time, especially the change around 1:06 (...she'd been miles away...Absence ooof)

Octavarium I guess it's the one that every one agrees, maybe Finally Free as well.

The ending of Hell's Kitchen.

[johnpetruccisbiceps]

The Ministry of Lost Souls ending. The chord progression itself isn't standard with an unclear tonic and the way the theme keeps changing keys adds to the funky-ness of the section. It all makes for one of the more interesting sounding moments in Dream Theater's discography.

Oh, I forgot about this one! Love it, it sounds so cool.

I definitely feel after reading all the examples in this thread that this is one of the underrated aspects of DT. Most of the time people only talk about the time signatures and the unusual song structures, but really, they are also awesome at coming up with moments like these.

[sneakyblueberry]

End of Hell's Kitchen. 

[weezul]

Definetly the start / end of octavarium... the Fm, Dbm, Eb, Abm stuff. Real nice. That coupled along with when the main theme comes in with strings, (Fm), Cm, Bbm, Fm, Eb/G, Ab, C7, Fm, Fm7/Eb, Ddim, Bdim, C7 --- and then BOOM to D minor, Csharp Minor etc... so so so nice. I asked them who wrote it when i was at a meet and greet, but was too nervous to explain the bit I meant! No one would own up haha