Favorite JP era?

[mesadualrec]

Well jsut been learnign a whole load of Jp's work.A bit of everything...

Old DT,new DT,LTE and some of his solo work


and I would just like to know what YOUR fav. JP era is??

ie. whats your Fav album JP has played on!



Im torn I love all his work but the stuff he has done with Big JR is all amazing.
Possibly Train Of Thought ,LTE or his owrk on Falling to Infinity was amazing,if maybe a little different form his other work


hmm to hard for me
lets hear your choice
Euan

 

[fsmith]

Images, Scenes From A Memory & Six Degrees... my favs. I have all of their CD's plus a bunch of bootlegs, some official, most not.

I love Images and Words, but Scenes and Six Degrees captures his best work for me. I like the more melodic stuff, so I gravitate to those songs on all of their albums.

fred

 

[Norrin Radd]

I have everything they've released, CDs & DVDs (and always will - these guys are definitely worthy of support!), but my favorite "era" is Awake and I&W - because I heard those first AND they are the most melodic to my ear. I think JPs playing has always been spectacular - and I also really dig Octavarium & SDOIT - great stuff!

 

[Benjamin T]

All of them.

However, I really love his stuff from scenes to tot the most.

I&W and awake are my seconds.

 

[rlarino]

I love Dream Theater to death (and I love Liquid Tension Experiment also... LTE1 is one of my favorite CDs ever)...

BUT, IMHO DT took a huge turn for the worse ever since Jordan Rudess came on board...

I love every second of every album from Falling Into Infinity back to the beginning (well, excluding the stuff before they got rid of Charlie Dominici LOL)


Jordan Rudess is amazing but he seems to have brought some really strange input to the band (I can't think of a single song I love all the way through from 6DOIT on to the current stuff, maybe one or two off Train of Thought...)

They used to write perfect melodies... lately it seems like they are doing a lot of weird, wanking that doesn't really compare to the old stuff... Under A Glass Moon... JP doesn't play anything like that anymore... now it's just about playing superfast strings of notes that don't necessarily have any melodic value anymore IMO... and this is just a generalization but you get the point.


I will always buy everything the guys release due to my loyalty and I know you can't expect a band or musician to not change over time... IMO I just think that had Derek Sherinian or Kevin Moore still been in the band they would have gone in a different direction and would have been producing much cooler music... (but we'll never know, oh well)

 

[mesadualrec]

I love Dream Theater to death (and I love Liquid Tension Experiment also... LTE1 is one of my favorite CDs ever)...

BUT, IMHO DT took a huge turn for the worse ever since Jordan Rudess came on board...

I love every second of every album from Falling Into Infinity back to the beginning (well, excluding the stuff before they got rid of Charlie Dominici LOL)


Jordan Rudess is amazing but he seems to have brought some really strange input to the band (I can't think of a single song I love all the way through from 6DOIT on to the current stuff, maybe one or two off Train of Thought...)

They used to write perfect melodies... lately it seems like they are doing a lot of weird, wanking that doesn't really compare to the old stuff... Under A Glass Moon... JP doesn't play anything like that anymore... now it's just about playing superfast strings of notes that don't necessarily have any melodic value anymore IMO... and this is just a generalization but you get the point.


I will always buy everything the guys release due to my loyalty and I know you can't expect a band or musician to not change over time... IMO I just think that had Derek Sherinian or Kevin Moore still been in the band they would have gone in a different direction and would have been producing much cooler music... (but we'll never know, oh well)

I hear what your saying,its a view MANY people/fans have.
I personally feel that Jordan Rudess had contributed ALOT more music wise to the bands entire sound.The man is an entire Orchestra and he also has a passion for really progressive bands,Gentle Giant,ELP,Yes etc and has boosted this element of the band.

I think that the Albums will stand the test of time with JR and will become fan favorites like I&W and Awake have become in the grand DT community.

Im sure this could easily e argued till the bitter end.

JR's input rules IMHO.Without JR Awake Ownes every other album ever created

 

[Mon_AM_lunatic]

If I had to pick just one era, I'd say the early to mid 90's. I&W and Awake.

I love everything by them, but that era is easily my favorite.

 

[73h Nils]

Explorer's Club- Age of Impact.

JP absolutely SLAYS on that CD! 16 guitar solos and he only had a day to record/write them all! (I read that from an online interview with him)

DT-wise: Awake, Train of Thought, 6DoIT, SC, Octavarium, Im....ah, screw it

BTW: JR is a keyboard God. The only things I don't really like are some of his quirky patches. If he only used piano, that would be sooooo good. Outro to ITNoG > All.

 

[roburado]

In all my years of being a JP and DT fan, my answer to this question is always the same whenever anyone wants to discuss it, which is generally everytime another album comes out. My favorite era is the current one.

 

[dmullen]

Same here...the new recording is my favorite.

 

[roburado]

I'm sure that after the next recording comes out, that will be my new favorite era. It always happens that way.

 

[gator99]

Explorer's Club- Age of Impact.

JP absolutely SLAYS on that CD! 16 guitar solos and he only had a day to record/write them all! (I read that from an online interview with him).

+1. I think that was a great album and it came out around the same time as LTE2. Those 2 albums make up my favorite JP era.

 

[Multiversal]

Lately, I've been listening to Images and Words more than anything. That album is perfect. Right now, that era is my favorite.

 

[chrisglancy]

AWAKE ERA --- NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!!!!

One of my top 5 albums!

 

[emkey]

It's very hard to tell. As far as I'm more into heavy stuff, it'd be TOT, but I love everything in general. There are great, inspiring notes, parts, riffs everywhere. 6 Degress are awesome, so Images and Words, the same with LTE...can't pick one favorite era these days!

My answer is: all is great!

 

[idoc]

Images and Words/Awake are my favorite from beginning to end. Everything after that I tend to just really like sections. Granted, the sections wind up being equal to about 60% of the album. I do agree about the songs having a different feel since JR entered the band. I feel the songs are not as melodic from beginning to end.

 

[greenwizard]

I'll have to go with now. Systematic Chaos is imho one of the most solid albums they've put out to date. If I had to choose an earlier one I'd go with Scenes from a Memory.
And I'm still praying for something like another LTE album.
And a JP solo album would be nice.
Or another Evening With.
Six Degrees was awesome too.
Man Images and Words was some good stuff though.
Wouldn't it be cool if they did Train of Thought again?
So yep,
the best era is all of them....
....EXCEPT FALLING INTO INFINITY

 

[leftyguitarblue]

I love everything they do, but I guess i love the I&W and Awake era the best because it's my first memories of them and i played both those CD's non-stop for a long time. But, a very close second era is their new stuff now. Systematic Chaos is phenomenal.

 

[lonewolf74]

For me, I still point to Scenes From A Memory as one of their best works. Listening to where the band is now, stuff like Images & Words and Awake seems a bit "raw" - or just not up to their full potential.

Just check out the video for Pull Me Under. I'm glad they eschewed the look of another MTV hair band and decided to just play the music THEY wanted to play. They're grown a lot musically since then, IMHO.

I also really like the two LTE albums (lately been listening to "When The Water Breaks" a lot), as well as most of Systematic Chaos.

For what it's worth, I'm in the pro-Jordan camp. I think he brings a TON of experience and talent to the band. Does he overplay sometimes? Yeah... but that's OK. I'd rather have the band with him than without him.


On a related note... how do you guys go about learning DT material? I'm a very average guitar player (maybe even below average) and would like to improve, but for me to try to play JPs stuff is like me trying to play basketball at Michael Jordan's level. Any tips / ideas / other motivation?

 

[rlarino]

On a related note... how do you guys go about learning DT material? I'm a very average guitar player (maybe even below average) and would like to improve, but for me to try to play JPs stuff is like me trying to play basketball at Michael Jordan's level. Any tips / ideas / other motivation?

you can start by learning some basic music theory and 3 note per string modes (that's probably JP himself would teach you first) speckled with some derivative licks and passages... and use a metronome to build your chops [(i took lessons from a former student of JP's)... check out his rock discipline video, it's boring as hell but it can be very useful]

also, vibrato is one of the biggest keys to playing like a pro aside from raw technical skill... along with all of the other little quirky things you can do when executing every little note (slides, legato, etc)

and concentrate on your playing, make sure that you don't develop any bad habits (stuff that doesn't sound good)

pick a JP lick that you like, something that's not too hard, and practice it until you can execute it well and make it sound as much like his original playing as possible... but remember to develop your own musical identity, don't become a clone of anybody out there