Trial of Tears Keyboard Solo is awesome!

[Scar]

Does anyone here with me, think that Derek's keyboard solo is one of the best, if not, the best in Dream Theater history. I tear up every time I listen to it. First there is this godly guitar solo, then what comes after it, man.

It speaks to me in a lot of ways and has one of the most feels ever. Do you guys agree?

[commanderbob]

Yes. It has always been one of my favorites of theirs! In fact, I would say it is my favorite part of that album.

[Bertielee]

Derek's work on FII is fantastic! What I didn't like about him, when I saw them on tour, was his "rocker" image, with his panther shirt and his glass of whiskey on the keyboard.

B.Lee

[Ravenfoul]

Derek's work on FII is fantastic! What I didn't like about him, when I saw them on tour, was his "rocker" image, with his panther shirt and his glass of whiskey on the keyboard.

B.Lee

I liked both but it was definitely a contrast to the rest of the DT gang.

[Shooters1221]

Derek's work on FII is fantastic! What I didn't like about him, when I saw them on tour, was his "rocker" image, with his panther shirt and his glass of whiskey on the keyboard.

B.Lee

I liked both but it was definitely a contrast to the rest of the DT gang.

Yes, I agree with all of this. I loved his work on FII, and all of his stuff on the backstage video was sooo funny. I do, however, think that he wasn't quite the right fit for the band, and I mean no disrespect, but the 80's rocker image didn't feel right and I'm so glad they found Jordan. I also love the whole WDaDR show with them both!

[JiM-Xtreme]

Totally agree with the OP on this one. That solo, along with the whole instrumental is one of my all-time favourite DT moments. The song itself I'd probably put in my Top 3, or 5 at least.

[Orbert]

I was just listening to Falling Into Infinity the other day, and was reminded how much I love that album, and Derek is one of the main reasons why.  Such a cool and different DT album.

[tarskian]

I'm glad to see the FII love here, and especially the love for DS's solo in Trial of Tears. It took a long time for me to warm to it after I first listened to the song many years ago, given that I was so used to KM's style and tone. The first time I heard it I thought DS was trying way too hard to sound like a second solo guitarist, and I do still kinda still think that, especially when listening to the first half of the solo. But any criticisms I have are negated by the pure awesomeness of 9:35-10:00. Sure, the whole band is critical in creating the build that peaks at 9:53, but DS's outro at the end of the build is fantastic. I was never really a huge fan of the Korg sound, but that part is great.

Having said that, I think that DS's best moments in the song aren't his flashy ones, like in the solo. They're the more subtle parts, that accentuate the mood of the song, like the little bit from 4:46-5:04, the restrained backing to JP's solo from 6:28 to 8:12, and especially the "lead" from 11:16 to 11:33. That's good stuff.

[Dublagent66]

Derek's done a lot of great things with DT and after.  His playing on FII is just one of the things that makes it such a great album.  Let's not forget ACOS.  He was great on that record too.

[Orbert]

I first got into Dream Theater around the time A Change of Seasons came out.  For a few weeks, I didn't even realize that the keyboard player wasn't the same as on Images and Words and Awake, the other two albums I had.  I'd sat down with the (as far as I knew) first two albums and read all the credits and gotten into them, but when I got ACOS, I just put it on and dug into it.  One day I finally got around to reading the credits, and just said "Oh, they have a new keyboard player.  Huh."

I was still adjusting my ears and brain to the whole Prog Metal concept, which was still very new at the time.  With Falling Into Infinity, there were a lot of parts that I thought were guitar, and didn't realize were keyboards until I watched Five Years in a LIVEtime.  Derek's lead sounds then (and now to an extent) do seem to mimic a guitar in some ways.  There's no question that his approach to soloing and other lead lines is similar to how a guitarist might play the same parts.  Being a keyboard player myself, I've always had mixed feelings about that.  In principle, I feel like keyboards should be distinct, just as the bass and guitar are distinct, even if they're doubling parts or whatever.  I mean, why have a keyboard player if he's just gonna play "guitar-like" stuff?  But Metal has always been about guitars, so if someone figured out a way to integrate keyboards into Metal, then I was glad to see it happen.

The basic formula to me, at the time, was Metal + keyboards = Prog Metal.  Obviously that's an oversimplification, but DT was breaking new ground, pretty much writing the rules as they went along.  Kevin's approach was more "traditional" in terms of keys, and was great, but I really liked what Derek brought to the band.  I thought it was a step forward in the evolution of the band.

[bosk1]

See, I really don't think Moore's keyboard style was more "traditional."  I was a fan since Images and Words, and I had the same reaction as you did to FII, where I was constantly questioning whether I was hearing a guitar or a keyboard.  Not just because of the tone, but just the style and phrasing of some of the leads and riffs as well.  I agree that Derek definitely took it a step further, but Moore was definitely well down that path.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

I was that way with KM.  I hadn't had enough experience with keyboard virtuosity of this level when I first got into DT, so hearing KM pull off solos like Take the Time, where the phrasing and fluidity could easily be mistaken for a guitar, was just unbelievable to me.

[Orbert]

By "traditional" (a word I'm not really 100% comfortable with, hence the quotes) I guess I meant that Kevin approached keyboards and their contribution to the ensemble in much the same way as in a classic prog band.  You have your piano and organ, pretty much stock in what they do and how they contribute to the sound.  The synths are where you have a lot more flexibility, but I think of things like "Surrounded" and the outro solo in "Learning to Live" and they're still pretty much like what Banks or Wakeman might have come up with.  Even things like the heavy organ in "Erotomania" are clearly inspired by Emerson.  Great stuff, but I don't hear a lot there which I would consider breaking the mold.

It was with Derek that the unison and harmony runs really started to become DT trademarks.  The unison runs fattened up the sound, making it more than what a guitar lead would be, yet musically serving the same function.  The harmony runs are like what you do with dual guitars, but again giving things a different sound.  I see this as enabled by Derek's "guitar-like" approach to leads, both in sound and style of playing.  With Kevin, I rarely had trouble distinguishing the keys and guitars.

[Art]

Derek is great and i love all the stuff he recorded with DT.

[Mosh]

Love both solos on this song. My appreciation for Trial Of Tears in general has grown recently.

[hefdaddy42]

Trial of Tears is glorious.

FII is not my favorite album, but it's not Derek's fault.  His playing on the album is fantastic.

[jsbru]

I really love Derek's work on FII.  Trial of Tears is probably my #1 favorite DT song of all time (although BAI, LtL, and Scarred are close).

I like his work on Lines in the Sand even better though.  Possibly the best keyboard part of any DT song.

[pcs90]

I love this song as a whole. Derek's full solo is great, but the last 3rd or so is definitely my favorite part. I tend to prefer Jordan's interpretations of Derek's solo though. I think this is mostly due to the keyboard sounds they used. Derek's signature lead wasn't fully developed on FII (or at least to me). Listening to his solo albums (which have a ton of good stuff on them BTW) his lead tones and techniques sound a bit more refined to me, but still very guitar-like.
But really, for anyone who loves Derek's playing and/or instrumental music, look at his solo stuff. It's great.