Dream Theatre We will play the track “Stream of consciousness” from their Album “Train of thought”

Train of Thought album CD front cover Vinyl rear cover

Dream Theatre on stage

This is an instrumental piece The use of an instrumental composition allows us to concentrate on both the music and the technical ability of the musicians 0.00 Start the CD…… The first few bars are a very gentle beginning to this composition

This theme will be repeated Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security Wait for it……………….. The real starting point…….. We establish a steady rhythm Note both the chords and the chord progression………It’s a bit different!

1.10 When you think it is becoming a bit repetitive another layer of musical interest is added 2.03 What I refer to as a “Turkish” theme is now added 2.18 The drummer is beginning to flex his muscles. There are quite frequent changes of the time signature.

2.35 The lead guitarist is beginning to build up to something…but what? 2.55 The drummer is really using those two bass pedals very energetically 3.00 The excitement is still building….. 3.50 The lead guitarist launches into a frantic guitar solo where many notes are played in ultra quick succession.

4. 11. There are no recording tricks 4.11 There are no recording tricks. Every note on that guitar is played. You are breathless and expect that the guitar solo should finish…….. It doesn’t the guitarist continues to play with amazing virtuosity It does get a bit indulgent……….eventually 5.08 At last the solo winds down 5.24 You may be expecting a steady rhythm now but instead you find almost continuous changes of the time signature which is done in an almost subtle way

Some find the effect is a bit unsettling but there is some great drumming 7.33 Eventually we return to a variation of an earlier theme. The mood changes to being more confident and triumphant 8.37 The keyboard, (synthesiser), starts to be used more. At first the keyboards are rather in the background……….

9.05 Soon the synthesiser is in full flow………… 9.35 The guitarist echoes the mood of the synthesiser 9.54 The drummer now starts to work really hard for is money 10.20 We return to an early theme for what we expect to be a crashing finale

10.45 The drummer must be getting tired by now! 11.00 The music closes on a quiet note with a repeat of our opening theme. I hope that you agree that this work is far more than just a simple “pop song” but a complex piece of music skilfully crafted and skilfully played

Is Heavy Metal to your taste? Probably not It’s not exactly to my taste either if I am being honest However, we should not just dismiss it as “mindless rubbish”; there is far more to it than that.

The end