Author Topic: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge  (Read 10901 times)

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Offline Lonk

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #105 on: March 21, 2021, 03:24:12 PM »
Welp...here is my very humble attempt at the outro to Innocence Faded. There are about 147 mistakes, and I totally flubbed up the speedy ending run. But hey, fake it until you make it! I’d say I’m about 80% there.

As another warning, my “amp” is literally my head phone speakers attached to a cranked up Digitech pedal from 2003. So...it sounds a little rough.

I always loved this outro, reminds me of Journey/Neal Schon on crack.

https://youtu.be/5bsae50hMiI

That's a tough part to tackle, good job though. I'm sure that with some practice you can get passed those mistakes, but over all sounds like a good start  :tup :metal
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Offline Lonk

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #106 on: March 21, 2021, 03:31:42 PM »
Alright, 2 videos from me this week. Since I didn't get a chance tp upload last week, I am uploading week 6 and 7 this week.

Week 6 - Take the time. Some obvious mistakes here and there, but really fun part to play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvE_eKaLx_0

Week 7 - Illumination Theory. Some more mistakes here, due to lack of practice. I will probably stick with this one for next week if the challenge doesn't change. Even if the challenge changes, I will probably try to learn the whole intro for my own pleasure (the arpeggios are giving me some trouble).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBSz2lAeC9c
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Offline JiM-Xtreme

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #107 on: March 22, 2021, 11:37:28 AM »
Welp...here is my very humble attempt at the outro to Innocence Faded. There are about 147 mistakes, and I totally flubbed up the speedy ending run. But hey, fake it until you make it! I’d say I’m about 80% there.

As another warning, my “amp” is literally my head phone speakers attached to a cranked up Digitech pedal from 2003. So...it sounds a little rough.

I always loved this outro, reminds me of Journey/Neal Schon on crack.

https://youtu.be/5bsae50hMiI

Sounds great to me dude, I'd be thrilled if I could play a JP lead anywhere near that well!

Alright, 2 videos from me this week. Since I didn't get a chance tp upload last week, I am uploading week 6 and 7 this week.

Week 6 - Take the time. Some obvious mistakes here and there, but really fun part to play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvE_eKaLx_0

Week 7 - Illumination Theory. Some more mistakes here, due to lack of practice. I will probably stick with this one for next week if the challenge doesn't change. Even if the challenge changes, I will probably try to learn the whole intro for my own pleasure (the arpeggios are giving me some trouble).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBSz2lAeC9c

Great job on both, I really like both those parts. Good that you're all caught up now  :tup

Just uploading my entry for this week, it will be with y'all soon...

Offline JiM-Xtreme

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #108 on: March 22, 2021, 12:55:14 PM »
Back to WD&DU with me again this week!  :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZfzI-uAE_0&ab_channel=JiM-Xtreme

Apologies about the mixing on this one, I think my bass was a little loud going in.

This is another part I have never attempted to play before this challenge. However, having heard this song dozens of times over 15 years + since I discovered DT, it didn't take me very long to learn. I also think this is due to the fact that, having been doing this challenge for a few weeks, my chops are now in really good shape and I'm finding it easier than I expected to learn new parts, and play the parts I already knew how to play better than ever before. So let me reiterate my thanks to Skeever for starting the challenge off, and the rest of you for your participation and continued support. Let's keep this going  :metal

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm certainly ready to take things up a notch, and have each week's challenge be based on a particular song, album or theme for a particular week. I think it would be really cool and fun if we did things that way going forward, and that way it might seem more that we are all in it together. But equally, if the majority of people just want to keep it open I'm cool with that too. I certainly have no shortage of ideas for things to learn and practice over the coming weeks  ;D

Offline Lonk

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #109 on: March 22, 2021, 05:42:21 PM »
Nice work! Love that song and you did justice to it :tup

I agree that maybe we should move towards themed challenges. Finding free time it's always the challenge for me, so I'll continue my best in keeping up  :metal
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Offline Skeever

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #110 on: March 22, 2021, 06:34:33 PM »
Nice work! Love that song and you did justice to it :tup

I agree that maybe we should move towards themed challenges. Finding free time it's always the challenge for me, so I'll continue my best in keeping up  :metal

I am totally cool if somebody wants to think of themes. The work/parent from home life has been really getting me the last few weeks though so if somebody else wants to pick up the ball from here at least in terms of coming up with challenges I am totally fine with that.

I gave myself a couple days in a row off this week so that I could just chill out and watch the Snyder cut lol. not sure this is as much of an improvement as I wanted it to be but at least I got the speed up and I will try it for one more week unless I get bored and lose the inspiration.

https://youtu.be/Xsvb_i_CZi8


Offline nattmorker

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #111 on: March 22, 2021, 06:45:07 PM »
Back to WD&DU with me again this week!  :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZfzI-uAE_0&ab_channel=JiM-Xtreme

Apologies about the mixing on this one, I think my bass was a little loud going in.

This is another part I have never attempted to play before this challenge. However, having heard this song dozens of times over 15 years + since I discovered DT, it didn't take me very long to learn. I also think this is due to the fact that, having been doing this challenge for a few weeks, my chops are now in really good shape and I'm finding it easier than I expected to learn new parts, and play the parts I already knew how to play better than ever before. So let me reiterate my thanks to Skeever for starting the challenge off, and the rest of you for your participation and continued support. Let's keep this going  :metal

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm certainly ready to take things up a notch, and have each week's challenge be based on a particular song, album or theme for a particular week. I think it would be really cool and fun if we did things that way going forward, and that way it might seem more that we are all in it together. But equally, if the majority of people just want to keep it open I'm cool with that too. I certainly have no shortage of ideas for things to learn and practice over the coming weeks  ;D

Good choice and great playing! I like the notes you added on the B string. And yeah, it would be fun to do a particular theme each week. I'm up for that.

Offline Fiery Winds

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #112 on: March 22, 2021, 10:01:31 PM »
Great job this week guys! Glad to see so many sticking with this, hope it's just as enjoyable to the viewers as well (please join in!)  :)

I'm definitely up for a more focused challenge as well! I'm not quite sure how best to select the theme/song, but I'll think about it and share any suggestions I come up with.

I apologize for having to skip out on another week; a routine dishwasher replacement required more extensive plumbing repairs and took up all my free time this weekend.  :sadpanda:


Offline Lonk

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #113 on: March 23, 2021, 07:17:37 AM »
Does anyone have any suggestion for a theme? it could be anything from

1) Play any part of "X" song
2) Play any part of "X" album
3) Play a part that changes time signature
4) Play a part that goes above "X" BPM

 :justjen
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Offline JiM-Xtreme

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #114 on: March 23, 2021, 12:48:54 PM »
Does anyone have any suggestion for a theme? it could be anything from

1) Play any part of "X" song
2) Play any part of "X" album
3) Play a part that changes time signature
4) Play a part that goes above "X" BPM

 :justjen

Any of these could work, I guess it depends with how crazy people want to get with the challenges! I think it's more important at this stage that we work out who is going to set the challenges going forward. I would be happy to think of one for this week, but beyond that, it would be cool if we could maybe take turns or something because I personally would find it fun to have challenges set for me by other people.

So, yeah. Maybe we could draw up a rota or something. But then, I guess that could get complicated if certain people aren't able to do the challenge each week...  ???

Offline Lonk

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #115 on: March 23, 2021, 01:20:13 PM »
Here is an idea (maybe).

I am ok with you picking the challenge for this week. I was going to suggest that since you've been the most active out of all of us (have not missed a week if I'm not mistaken), you get to pick the challenge for this week, but did not want to throw your name out  :lol

After that, I think it could be something that, whoever the first person to submit is for that week, has the choice to pick the challenge or grant the next person the choice to pick the challenge. It would give everyone an equal chance to pick a challenge, as long as they are first to submit their challenge for the week, and also serves as a little competition as to "who will be the first to submit". We can set a submission times frame if that helps.

Just my thought, happy to hear other ideas.
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Offline Elite

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #116 on: March 23, 2021, 02:58:27 PM »
Alrighty then, after a few weeks of not doing anything (well, I did play a lot of guitar..) here's another thing I threw together just now. I was messing around with this song and then thought; why not record it? It's a little bit sloppy, but I must admit that I had enough after about 5 takes and decided to go with the first one I recorded.

Here's the main riff to the best Dream Theater song since 2002 ( :) ), The Enemy Inside: https://youtu.be/Z0f9RxkVXU4
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
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Offline JiM-Xtreme

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #117 on: March 24, 2021, 07:26:19 AM »
Alrighty then, after a few weeks of not doing anything (well, I did play a lot of guitar..) here's another thing I threw together just now. I was messing around with this song and then thought; why not record it? It's a little bit sloppy, but I must admit that I had enough after about 5 takes and decided to go with the first one I recorded.

Here's the main riff to the best worst Dream Theater song since 2002 ( :) ), The Enemy Inside: https://youtu.be/Z0f9RxkVXU4

FTFY  :P

But in terms of your playing man, really well done and very tight! Pretty good tone too  :D

Here is an idea (maybe).

I am ok with you picking the challenge for this week. I was going to suggest that since you've been the most active out of all of us (have not missed a week if I'm not mistaken), you get to pick the challenge for this week, but did not want to throw your name out  :lol

After that, I think it could be something that, whoever the first person to submit is for that week, has the choice to pick the challenge or grant the next person the choice to pick the challenge. It would give everyone an equal chance to pick a challenge, as long as they are first to submit their challenge for the week, and also serves as a little competition as to "who will be the first to submit". We can set a submission times frame if that helps.

That works for me, I think we should run with that general idea for now unless anyone has any other suggestions.

Ok then guys, so here is your challenge for the week (what's left of it). I've decided to keep it still fairly simple and open at this stage, but perhaps we can get more specific with the challenges as we go on. I've also picked an album which I see has gone completely unrepresented up until now...

So, by no later than Monday 29th March, your challenge is: Play any part from Falling Into Infinity.

Whoever submits first (can be earlier than the above date) gets to decide the next challenge.

Best of luck, look forward to seeing what you guys can bring  :D

Offline nattmorker

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #118 on: March 24, 2021, 09:18:02 AM »
Alrighty then, after a few weeks of not doing anything (well, I did play a lot of guitar..) here's another thing I threw together just now. I was messing around with this song and then thought; why not record it? It's a little bit sloppy, but I must admit that I had enough after about 5 takes and decided to go with the first one I recorded.

Here's the main riff to the best Dream Theater song since 2002 ( :) ), The Enemy Inside: https://youtu.be/Z0f9RxkVXU4

Great playing! It sounds really tight and heavy, great choice and awesome guitar BTW.

Offline nattmorker

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #119 on: March 24, 2021, 09:18:49 AM »

Ok then guys, so here is your challenge for the week (what's left of it). I've decided to keep it still fairly simple and open at this stage, but perhaps we can get more specific with the challenges as we go on. I've also picked an album which I see has gone completely unrepresented up until now...

So, by no later than Monday 29th March, your challenge is: Play any part from Falling Into Infinity.

Whoever submits first (can be earlier than the above date) gets to decide the next challenge.

Best of luck, look forward to seeing what you guys can bring  :D

This sounds good, it should be fun. Count me in.

Offline Elite

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #120 on: March 28, 2021, 04:13:00 AM »
Ok then guys, so here is your challenge for the week (what's left of it). I've decided to keep it still fairly simple and open at this stage, but perhaps we can get more specific with the challenges as we go on. I've also picked an album which I see has gone completely unrepresented up until now...

So, by no later than Monday 29th March, your challenge is: Play any part from Falling Into Infinity.

Whoever submits first (can be earlier than the above date) gets to decide the next challenge.

Best of luck, look forward to seeing what you guys can bring  :D


Alright! Here we go then :)
I recorded this one this morning. The guitar solo in Peruvian Skies. I picked this one, because I think it's underrated; it's one of my favourite Petrucci solos because it's melodic and very fitting as a great bridge between the first and second half of the song. Took me a couple of takes to get everything right, but it's fun to play (as is the rest of the track, to be honest, but I didn't record that).

Enjoy: https://youtu.be/9hpKqeZcecE
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
Squ
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Offline Elite

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #121 on: March 28, 2021, 05:47:29 AM »
But in terms of your playing man, really well done and very tight! Pretty good tone too  :D
Great playing! It sounds really tight and heavy, great choice and awesome guitar BTW.

Thanks, both of you! This guitar is amazing to play. It's an eight-string, but truth be told I don't use the eighth string all too often. Ever since I got this one, about 10 months ago, my seven string hasn't left its case. For this video I recorded the guitar in a DAW and mixed it with the original song for the final video. I couldn't get it to sound right when recording through my phone, probably too much low end that made it muddy. This way I could turn up the guitar a little and still have it sound good in sync with the music. I used a Kemper Profiler with a pretty random Marshall profile that sounds quite good for this sort of stuff and that's become my go-to sound for practising heavier stuff.
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
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Offline Lonk

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #122 on: March 28, 2021, 05:50:43 AM »
Peruvian skies rocks! second favorite track for the album. Sounds good  :metal I like how you turned your mirror into a guitar  :lol Just joking, great job.

I recorded my part yesterday, but was not necessarily happy with it. I was hoping to be able to do another take today but my day is looking pretty busy, so we will see. I'll post later today either way.
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Offline Skeever

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #123 on: March 29, 2021, 12:27:12 PM »
Great job Elite! Peruvian Skies is a song I've just recently been starting to appreciate more (I used to skip it quite often).

I'm still kinda stuck on the 2nd Erotomania solo, the last part where it's 16th notes at 100~ bpm. Ugh. No "week" of practice is gonna get me there, so I just have added that part to my regular warmups (I can do it around 70-80ish if I'm warmed up).

I didn't get around to FII but I want to. Not sure what the theme will be this week but I've been listening to FII this week to see what I'd like to learn from it.

Offline JiM-Xtreme

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #124 on: March 29, 2021, 02:13:00 PM »
Ok then guys, so here is your challenge for the week (what's left of it). I've decided to keep it still fairly simple and open at this stage, but perhaps we can get more specific with the challenges as we go on. I've also picked an album which I see has gone completely unrepresented up until now...

So, by no later than Monday 29th March, your challenge is: Play any part from Falling Into Infinity.

Whoever submits first (can be earlier than the above date) gets to decide the next challenge.

Best of luck, look forward to seeing what you guys can bring  :D


Alright! Here we go then :)
I recorded this one this morning. The guitar solo in Peruvian Skies. I picked this one, because I think it's underrated; it's one of my favourite Petrucci solos because it's melodic and very fitting as a great bridge between the first and second half of the song. Took me a couple of takes to get everything right, but it's fun to play (as is the rest of the track, to be honest, but I didn't record that).

Enjoy: https://youtu.be/9hpKqeZcecE

Nicely played dude  :)

Here's my effort for this week. It's only a partial success for me, ultimately I think I needed to give this one a bit more time and polish. Also, I really wanted to include the crazy fill that comes at the end of this section but just couldn't get it up to speed in time. Oh well... onwards and upwards!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkKRqJ3XRxM&ab_channel=JiM-Xtreme

Offline Lonk

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #125 on: March 29, 2021, 04:20:26 PM »
Jim, nice work :tup yeah the part after that its crazy, but I'm sure you can get it. I don't think that part needs more polishing, sounds good to me  :metal

Alright, here is my attempt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ0KPOlhg7o

I kept messing up different parts as I was recording. I think this was the most consistent one I got. I will continue to clean it up and maybe go for the full song, we will see.
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Offline Fiery Winds

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #126 on: March 29, 2021, 08:16:57 PM »
Close call getting this one in, and I've got quite a bit of polishing up left to do (along with a fresh set of strings on closer listen), but in the spirit of this challenge, I attempted my favorite solo on this album:

Lines in the Sand

@Elite: Awesome job on Peruvian Skies! My second favorite solo on that album  :lol  That guitar is killer looking too, with matching pickups!

@JiM-Xtreme: Great job, that tapping was really smooth, and you've got the groove!

@Vmadera00: I admit, this is a song I usually skip, but way to rock out those licks at the end!  :metal


Offline Lonk

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #127 on: March 30, 2021, 06:52:22 AM »
Close call getting this one in, and I've got quite a bit of polishing up left to do (along with a fresh set of strings on closer listen), but in the spirit of this challenge, I attempted my favorite solo on this album:

Lines in the Sand

My favorite solo as well, and I almost played the same for this challenge  :lol glad I didn't because you sound way better that I would have. BTW, I did not ignore your request to read my essay on SOC, just have to dig through an old computer and once I do, I'll send it over  :tup

We need a new theme for this week's challenge, but not sure if Elite will come back to provide one  :huh:
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Offline Elite

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #128 on: March 30, 2021, 08:33:05 AM »
I will come back! Let me think on it!

Thanks for the responses to mine. I was quite happy with how that one turned out to be honest. The guitar is a bit weird, yes. It's actually a hollowbody with mini-humbuckers and - indeed - a mirror :lol This is the only six-string I have with decent access to the higher frets, so that's why I picked this guitar for the last lick. Technically playable on any 22-fret guitar, but the six-strings I own make it difficult to reach.

All of you guys; nice work! I'm watching every video, but I'm often watching a bunch in a row, so excuse me for not commenting on ALL of them..

Bass intro to Lines in the Sand: nice! Cool to see you tapping that stuff :)
You Not Me riff/thing: that's actually a really cool part of the song! I kind of forgot that was there, great choice! Doesn't sound or look 'easy' either.
Lines in the Sand solo: that was great! I might try that one myself as well. Looks fun to play!
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
Squ
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Offline T-ski

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #129 on: March 30, 2021, 02:54:22 PM »
I’m enjoying everyone’s playing in this thread, lots of talented people here.

Keep it up!
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Offline JiM-Xtreme

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #130 on: April 18, 2021, 11:31:46 AM »
For three weeks, where have I been?

After this unscheduled break from the challenge, this felt like an appropriate thing to record...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAx00PgP7jA&ab_channel=JiM-Xtreme

Obviously it's quite a bit longer than previous videos which hopefully should make up for the missed weeks. Hope you guys like it! This is one of my favourite sections of any DT song ever...

Is anyone else still wanting to be involved in this? I'm happy to set challenges going forward if no one else can think of any. If not, maybe I'll just carry on doing this on my own...

Offline Lonk

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #131 on: April 18, 2021, 12:30:08 PM »
Nice work, I love the vibe on that part of the piece.

I'm down to coming back to the challenges. I've been doing my own challenges, some outside of DT (Mastodon is really fun to play).
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Offline Elite

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #132 on: April 18, 2021, 12:34:31 PM »
Yeah, uh, I'm sorry for not posting a theme. I actually thought about this thread today! I have been rather busy myself and playing lots of other stuff as well to be fair. If anyone wants to st a challenge, go ahead. I'll join in when I find the time :)

How's the OP doing? Since he set this up initially :biggrin:
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
Squ
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Offline kirksnosehair

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Re: Dream Theater - Weekly Musicians Challenge
« Reply #133 on: April 20, 2021, 11:44:02 AM »
Close call getting this one in, and I've got quite a bit of polishing up left to do (along with a fresh set of strings on closer listen), but in the spirit of this challenge, I attempted my favorite solo on this album:

Lines in the Sand

@Elite: Awesome job on Peruvian Skies! My second favorite solo on that album  :lol  That guitar is killer looking too, with matching pickups!

@JiM-Xtreme: Great job, that tapping was really smooth, and you've got the groove!

@Vmadera00: I admit, this is a song I usually skip, but way to rock out those licks at the end!  :metal


Great playing by all of you.  Very impressed  :hefdaddy