Your experiencies covering Dream Theater

[Darkstarshades]

I tho it would be interesting to see your experiences covering DT songs, how many do you know and to which extend and what do you think. Just for fun and sharing.

This is my original post at DT should be covered thread.

DT songs on keyboard are very variable and volatile.
I think The Mirror is very easy on keyboards, didn't take me too much to learn it.
However, I can't get through the first 30 seconds of Metropolis instrumental.

Just tho I'd share this and see other people's thoughts and personal experiences covering DT.

DT songs I have covered or tried covering.
The Mirror (100%)
The Root of All Evil (I'm not, in any way, satisfied with my solo, the rest of the song is even easier than The Mirror)
I can play parts 1 and 2 of Octavarium, however, as soon as the solo kicks in, I'm pretty much done (like the first 10 seconds of it is all I can play. As far as I could tell, the solo isn't the hardest part)
The Answer Lies Within isn't hard, I just lacked interest in finishing it.

[Train of Naught]

Well, I started out as a drummer, but by the time I found out about DT I already stopped drumming, neighbours threatened to sue me for making too much noise.

I've been trying the Lost Not Forgotten keyboard intro whenever I was at my friends house who happens to have a really good keyboard. No success yet, but I don't have my own keyboard, I'm still tryin'.

[home]

Most of About to Crash and the part before the crazy instrumental section in Fatal Tragedy are very nice to play on piano, they are challenging but not extremely difficult. I tried to play the first part of Fatal Tragedy with a friend who plays guitar two weeks ago but that failed a little bit  After some practice we were able to play it at a slower pace (with metronome).

Also Forsaken is really easy for piano, I am trying to learn the guitar parts too, which are mostly quite doable.

[CDrice]

I play guitar and to be honest I haven't tried to learned too much of their songs. I know I'll never be able to play any of my favorite ones all the way through 

Anyway, I can play Peruvian Skies, most of Pull Me Under (except the solos and the fast pre-chorus), most of the non-instrumental section of Metropolis and Through Her Eyes. I also can play some random parts of other songs like the intros of The Count of Tuscany and Ytse Jam, the verses of The Test That Stumped Them All and Beyond This Life main riff.

I think that's pretty much all.

[jakepriest]

When I used to play drums I lot I could play pretty much any Portnoy song, but Mangini stuff was too crazy for me to remember and play. I could usually learn the drum part for Portnoy songs just by casually listening to the music, but I'd have to actively try to learn with Mangini and I was too lazy for that.

As for my guitar skills, the only song I learned how to play start to finish is Prophets of War. I'm really bad at soloing so DT's catalogue isn't really for me.  I love playing some riffs though.

[Crow]

i've mastered Petrucci's part in Wait for Sleep

[jakepriest]

i've mastered Petrucci's part in Wait for Sleep

Amazing. Have you tried Petrucci's vocal part in The Spirit Carries On?

[CDrice]

i've mastered Petrucci's part in Wait for Sleep

Amazing. Have you tried Petrucci's vocal part in The Spirit Carries On?

It's pointless. Nobody can match that perfomance.

[Progmetty]

Simple things, I play Constant Motion intro up to the verse, but couldn't get the chorus time right.
I spent 3 days learning the intro to Breaking All Illusions just to prove to myself that I can still learn stuff, by that point I haven't been playing much guitar.
Biggest achievement ever was back in 06/07 I managed to perfectly learn all guitar parts for Ytse Jam and was so insanely proud I wished I was flexible enough to give myself a blowjob. I'd go to Guitar Center and play it on expensive guitars casually like "oh this? easiest thing I can play really.." heh
That's pretty much it, it's too difficult for me

[Cable]

SOC on bass. Not too crazy for bass IMO.

I could do more, but haven't sat down fully. I was working through NM, but stopped. That one is fun.

That said, there are a lot of DT songs that I cannot 100% due to crazy parts. TDOE, These Walls, TROAE and HTF come to mind,

[rumborak]

Well, I played in a DT tribute band, so naturally I can (or could) play a lot of them. TGP was the toughest stamina wise. TSCO was very enjoyable. TDOE is nowhere as complex as people think it is. 6:00 doesn't work at all live.

[V_R11]

Space-Dye Vest on piano

Repentance solo on guitar. Bits and pieces from other songs on guitar too. Last one I learnt was ACOS part III

[CoT67]

I tho it would be interesting to see your experiences covering DT songs, how many do you know and to which extend and what do you think. Just for fun and sharing.

This is my original post at DT should be covered thread.

DT songs on keyboard are very variable and volatile.
I think The Mirror is very easy on keyboards, didn't take me too much to learn it.
However, I can't get through the first 30 seconds of Metropolis instrumental.

Just tho I'd share this and see other people's thoughts and personal experiences covering DT.

DT songs I have covered or tried covering.
The Mirror (100%)
The Root of All Evil (I'm not, in any way, satisfied with my solo, the rest of the song is even easier than The Mirror)
I can play parts 1 and 2 of Octavarium, however, as soon as the solo kicks in, I'm pretty much done (like the first 10 seconds of it is all I can play. As far as I could tell, the solo isn't the hardest part)
The Answer Lies Within isn't hard, I just lacked interest in finishing it.

The songs I learned 'till now, all on guitar:

Pull Me Under (missing the clean parts during the chorus tho, and damn those shreddy parts are hard)
Overture 1928 (Need to work a bit more on the unison and the first solo)
A Change Of Seasons: The Crimson Sunrise / Innocence and parts of the intro of Carpe Diem
Lie: I actually played this live and somewhere on YT there's even a video of it I think, I did the outro solo while a second guitarist did the first.
Strange Dejà Vu: played this live too, just before Lie during the same gig. Didn't do a good job, the pre-chorus riffs aren't easy at all.
Intro/Outro solo of Count of Tuscany (plus some riffs and clean parts)
About to Crash (Reprise): the most recent I've learned, the last bars are incredibly difficult to get the right timing.
To Live Forever: most of the song and the solo from the '94 version, though it has an awesome pentatonic lick at the end I'm still struggling with.
Metropolis Part 1: Still have to get around most of the instrumental and the clean parts... the unison is pain
Lines In The Sand solo: incidentally, one of the hardest to get right because of the dynamics of the playing.

Then just bits and pieces of other songs.

[RaasMah]

I can play the beginning of TBOT solo, does that counts?

[scythe]

Whenever I sit at a piano I can't not play Wait For Sleep.

I also recorded a version of Cover My Eyes a few years back. Programmed everything that wasn't guitar and vocal, solo included.

[SchecterShredder]

I play guitar, and Panic Attack, Fatal Tragedy, Nightmare to Remember, Count of Tuscany, and On the Back of Angels are all regulars in my setlist at home. Can't say I've mastered them, but I can play them throughout and most of the solos are pretty damn close 

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

I tried playing Petrucci's part for TDEN and the outro solo for This Dying Soul. you can guess how that turned out.

I tried vocals for ANTR, but my throat hurts like heck and I could never growl.

I tried the piano for Illumination theory, the arpeggio part and I gave up.

[fischermasamune]

I tried to play parts of TDOE, HK (ending) and TCOT (James' favourite) on violin, but I sucked at it and failed horribly (maybe except for HK).

[shadow1psc]

Guitar:
Ytse Jam, Afterlife, Metropolis Pt. 1, Erotomania, Beyond this Life, The Dance of Eternity (Instrumedley), The Glass Prison, Blind Faith, The Test That Stumped Them All, War Inside My Head, As I Am, Stream of Consciousness, The Root of All Evil, Panic Attack, Never Enough, Octavarium, In the Presence of Enemies, Forsaken, Constant Motion, The Count of Tuscany, The Enemy Inside, The Bigger Picture.

Drums:
Pull Me Under, Metropolis Pt. 1, The Glass Prison, Blind Faith, As I Am, This Dying Soul, Stream of Consciousness, The Root of All Evil, Panic Attack, In the Presence of Enemies, Forsaken, Constant Motion, The Dark Eternal Night, A Nightmare to Remember, The Count of Tuscany, The Enemy Inside, The Bigger Picture.

I could probably play most DT songs, I just don't have the time to sit down and learn them any more. Been playing Piano and Guitar for about 20 years, Drums for 15 seriously (started snare in band at the same time as Piano and Guitar though). If I didn't work 10 hours a day in IT I would do much more with my music, but it's merely a hobby.

[MirrorMask]

I took singing lessons so I rehearsed among other things Wait for Sleep (must have a recording of it somewhere) and I Walk Beside You, which I actually performed "live" at an event the school was organizing.

Well, not really an "event", just an evening in a bar with people from the school singing a song each to give some "stage experience", it was actually a tournament.

[Darkstarshades]

The Silent Man has keyboard actually...

[rumborak]

TTTSTA is a bitch to play too. Especially without click, which inevitably makes you play faster than you should.

[Schurftkut]

we played a slighty shortened (9mins) version of Stream of Consciousness a few years back. Cut the ridiculous shred solo's as we didn't have time to properly learn them as we had to create a 30min set of prog in 1 month. Was a lot of fun putting all the patches and layers together!

Also played Biaxident 13yrs back, very cool tune :-)

[Implode]

Question for Rumby and others that may have performed covers. What was the audience's reactions to songs? Were they expecting DT covers? What are crowd favorites?

[DragonGuitar]

Haven't learned any all the way through yet, but I intend to eventually. Right now I can play (on guitar):

Intro/main riff to Pull me Under
First 2 minutes of A Change of Seasons (lol)
Most of Peruvian Skies
Most of the ending solo on The Count of Tuscany
Parts of Stream of Consciousness
Main riff to The Root of All Evil
Intro to Build Me Up, Break Me Down
Parts of Forsaken

I can't play his super fast solos yet though so that makes it hard to learn a lot of songs all the way through. I would definitely like to, though.

[pdurbin22]

I had a dream - nay, nightmare - that I was filling in for Portnoy at a DT gig with zero rehearsal. It seems like a dream come true, but the reality is I can only pull off about 25% of DT's catalog. We opened with "The Root of All Evil" which was manageable, and from there I asked if we could go into "I Walk Beside You," "As I Am," "Home," "Hollow Years," and "Pull Me Under."  End of set :-)

[yeah_93]

Guitar player. Haven't really bothered since I'm not that skilled, but I can manage On the Backs of Angels without the solos.

[Tiko]

Back when I used to play drums I could do SFAM, 6DOIT, Octavarium and Systematic Chaos. It's been a while since I switched to keyboards and here's some of the songs my band has covered:

Overture 1928
Strange Deja Vu
About To Crash
Solitary Shell
Spirit Carries On
Constant Motion
I Walk Beside You
Pull Me Under
Stream Of Consciousness
Hell's Kitchen

We've also played a bunch of LTE stuff... nailing the solos takes a bit of time for sure.

[Rickharris1011]

The year was 1994.  I had a rock cover band in high school. It was a show in the gym with 5 other bands.   I was the guitar player and the singer.  We played pull me under.  Terribly.  Had an amazing drummer who crushed it and I handled most of the guitar parts (except for the run at the end of the solo) with adequacy.  BUT - our bass player pretty much droned an E the whole song and my attempts at singing JLB...absolutely terrible....

still had fun doing it. 

Also played solo/acoustic versions of hollow years and solitary shell at a couple of small shows over the years.