Kawai Piano Prices: Dream Theater Keyboard Anthology [Paperback] Review

So, if any of you are purchasing this transcription book, I presume you to be a rather skilled pianist (probably classically trained) with a keen fascination for Dream Theater and lust for complex rhythmic structures.Thus, this is an essential book for any such trained DT enthusiast.Nothing is wrong with this book.It is wonderful, and I have yet to come across any obvious mistakes (though, the lead on Learning to Live seems questionable at some parts...).However, I must warn you, this is NOT a book for the student who lacks a confident ability to read rhythms.Aside from the vast array of complex time signatures Dream Theater employs, many of the keyboard parts are solos... TOUGH solos.When you get down to transcribing so accurately every little detail of a rapid fire Jordan Rudess solo, you get some insanely hard to read rhythmic notation and notes.For instance, one large group of notes will be written with a bracket reading "17:12" meaning to play the 17 notes as if they were a twelve-tuplet (or however you say that).Also, all of the chord "comping" is written out exactly to the most intricate detail, so what may seem like natural rhythmic jazz comping to Jordan becomes an incredibly difficult passage of music for the student to read.Most notably, if you don't have a Kurzweill K2600xs, you're not going to be able to get a lot of the sounds Jordan uses.The book does not describe the exact sounds either, but instead uses notations like "saw lead" or "percussive attack."This is beneficial if you have a different keyboard, but slightly annoying if you DO have the Kurzweil (which I do) where you want to be able to construct the EXACT sounds used.But either way, the sounds Jordan uses could be another novel in itself, so I don't detract any stars from this book because of that.Anyways, I guess to say that if you don't know what 13/16 means (the time signature), you may be better off getting a theory book and reading through that first before tackling any of the material in this book.You're definitely also going to want to have an audio sample of the song you're trying to learn at hand to help out with the rhythms.So, if you have a strong foundation in music theory and lust for challenging material with the technical skill of a classical pianist and the theoretical knowledge of a jazz pianist, this is the book for you.I would recommend actually starting out with some of the songs by Kevin Moore (Metropolis, Learning to Live, Wait for Sleep, etc.).They are quite tough to read through, but not as tough as Rudess's stuff.If you can tackle Moore's stuff in this book, you're ready to hit the number of Rudess hits contained in this musical masterpiece.Good luck!

---Sean

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Product Description:
One of the post popular metal bands of all time, Dream Theater, is known for not compromising their musical vision and staying true to their unique style.Transcriptions for all the keyboard parts to 15 Dream Theater songs.Titles are: Learning to Live * Metropolis Pt. 1 * Wait for Sleep * 6:00 * Scarred * Scene Two: 1. Overture 1928 * Scene Three: I. Through My Words * Scene Three: II. Fatal Tragedy * Scene Four: Beyond this Life * Scene Nine: Finally Free * The Great Debate * Selections from Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: About to Crash, War Inside My Head, The Test That Stumped Them All, Goodnight Kiss, Solitary Shell * Endless Sacrifice * Stream of Consciousness * Vacant.

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