The Odd Time Signatures of "The Dance Of Eternity"

[VildStyle]

What the shit.

[progrhythmical]

@DreamTheaterFan2468 that being said, I would look into Metron. It's a metronome program that lets you do AN-E-THING! lol. I use it on my iPhone and it works great. They have an online community too. I use it for preproduction and practice. It's a god send. Best part is it only cost me $2 lol.

[DreamTheaterFan2468]

@progrhythmical thanks man :) i appreciate it.

[progrhythmical]

@DreamTheaterFan2468 I think the click you are hearing is the click from the studio software. You can't do clicks like that with the Tama Rhythm Watch like the one he pushes. Trust me. I doubt he uses that, EVER! I've owned on. They are ok but not as user friendly and functional as advertised

[DreamTheaterFan2468]

does anyone have any idea what kind of metronome this is? im trying to find a metronome that kind count odd-time signatures and ALSO automaticlaly change signatures. EXACTLY like the one in the video.

[Cthrid]

yeah we play these odd time sig by memory.. what amazes me is they composed this song haha! pure genius

[khammondbrass]

What kind of metronome program are they using? Any ideas?

[popopopopdlskfjsl485]

thats amazing. I would kill myself if i had to play that

[ChrisHaspeck]

LMFAO !!

I wish I had that chart when I was learning this crazy ass piece !!!!

Progressive Monsters !!!

We miss you MP

[RagingRhyno21]

Who else lost count when Portnoy stopped counting?

[nikitofin]

soy guitarrista, y cuando leo y toco esta cancion, los tiempos me vienen solos!! si alguien quiere aprender esto de los compases le recomiendo que empiece con canciones de tool, que son relativamente faciles, saludos!

[Luca93ScreamToSky]

So isn't a 4/4 ? ò.ò

[spyinfiltrator]

@DzagielAreq It most likely never will. This doesn't appeal to the general audience because it can be difficult to listen to.

[ustolemybeer]

That metronome is a trooper.

[Ghost7861]

this blew my mind...................

[rickleung90]

2:08 *winks*

[uberjosh2323]

must be a nightmare to remember

[konarider]

The groups of 5 5 5 6 sound awesome!

[LittleLars14]

This is why metal takes more talent then rap.

[Potidaon]

@LittleLars14 They are two completely different things. Rap is not about technicality, so it really isn't comparable.

[Subject134127]

@LittleLars14 I suggest using this as argument against anyone who says soulja-boy is talented.

[UnwillingOrigins]

This one thing (of probably many) that I just don't get about music/musical composition. All this time signature stuff is so confusing.

[Bunny0ni0n]

I'd like to see mainstream fags tap their foot to this shit. XD

[CanadianNoob17]

i guess you could say that that is Mike Portnoy's "Nightmare to Remember" hehehe

[TheRevProdigy777]

@CanadianNoob17 clever

[eviljapan666]

the metrnome is just like: fuck that shit..

[mkklmann]

i love the way it says 666 a lot of times.. DT is of the Devil

[metalmetal9]

i luv when he says -one two three four five-one two three four five-............. lol

[AgurkTomatGulerod]

One two three four five six, one two three four five six SEVEN!!!

[FullMetalJackSquat]

1 2 3 1 2 3 4 ..AH I QUIT- Im gunna play for Justin Beiber- !

[yamatodriver]

1:46 LMFAO

[mvpkovalev]

Where is the begining part of the song? (if there is an actual video footage) I like the intro time signature (with the toms, etc..) just after the marching rythim.....anyone?

[metal1man15]

@mvpkovalev i THINK, after having a 10 second go at counting it after you comment, it's 7/8

[td4owner]

@chaveznieves yeah, that's what I did with Ytse Jam!

[OneBlazedDood]

fave part:

6664,66644/556

[aburdido]

caray triplets...jaja!!

[Flaitesexy]

a nightmare to remember!!!

[jdprsaga]

i thinks this is not that much for portnoy to learn.. its most like its for the metronome for keeping the time while recording.

[ironrushscorp]

oh dear god this is ridiculous

[nirvanafrik]

i think that Portnoy himself agrees on that.

[nemogre]

and of course the more challenging thing is the tempo changes...i mean they are not obvious all the time due to the odd times. but when playing on a certain tempo, changing the time signature is possible...tempo changes on the other hand have no point of reference. there is no way you can slow down from 150 to 120bpm accurately. this requires tons of practice and inner flow of information in the band... this is why practicing with a metronome is risky..always try to practice with people

[JEDSaje15]

@nemogre they still count the song, bcuz if you watch the commentary on the "scenes for ny" dvd some times john is playing a diff time sig ovr the res of the bands time sig. so they have to be conscious of it the entire song becuz even if you know it really well they are human not mechines

[nemogre]

you can play this song by heart and kinda simplify the time signatures by just remembering the song so well, but when they composed it, there was no other way i guess to make it work as a band. playing such a complex riff makes it impossible for the other members to just "hear" what youre doing. you have to find a way to put it on paper so that everybd with musical notation experience can pick it up..of course nowadays i believe they just play it by heart. just like when i sing it into my head

[esclrocks]

the thing is, for normal music, you'd keep counting 1 2 3 4.

But in prig music, there are different times signatures which are harder to play. This song keeps shifting time signatures and that's what makes this song so harf to play.

[VexylMusic]

That's how I like it too.

If you look at most main stream music, or even some of the most famous music, you'll find 4/4 all day!

[ruruio]

Well,not only in prog music XD.

[asesina80b]

I don't seem to receive this video in its full context cause I'm not a very musically inclined person. What is it that is so impressive besides him being able to say 1,2,3,4,5.. very fast?

[evolutionist79]

This song is absolutely ridiculous. I think the time signatures are a little UNNECESSARILY convoluted....hmmm it would be a task though to figure out how to make it more readable....

[chaveznieves]

this song is a LOT more daunting to play (on all instruments) if you let the time signatures overwhelm you. what worked for me was, before i started learning it, i listening to the song over and over until i had the entire song memorized in my head. even if i couldn't recite the time sig. off the top of my head when the song played i knew when each part was coming and then when i started learning all i had to do was insert the notes and boom.

[yourself1001]

Yeah, i have just the same way on how to learn strange odd times. When it comes to "Dance of Eternity" i belive you COULD learn to play the notes by itself and play the oddtimes by memory. If you listen alot to DT you would probably know these oddtimes anyways

[chaveznieves]

yeah, i listen to dream theater almost exclusively so i can pick that shit out like nothing

[xXQcAresiusQcXx]

@yourself1001 I agree with you. If you listen a lot to DT, after a while, the odd time signatures come naturally! So much that I don't even have to count in my head (though I never counted in my head lol). But what helps me a lot with learning DT songs, or any other kind of songs, is that I have this natural reflex to figure out what's the next part of the song, which transition is coming up! Kinda like Guitar Hero, where you have a fraction of a second to play the note! You know what I'm sayin?

[Vicrattledeth]

This song isn't actually all that hard. Just alot of things to memorize and digest. If you have some basic rduementary skills and can count odd time sigs decently you should be able to learn this in a week or so.

[mewtwo1928]

Post a video then... of you and your bandmates playing this...

[amaltoadie]

This song is surprisingly easy :O

It's just lots of time signatures, which are daunting at first but after you get used to the song, it's not all that difficult to play along with.

[DemonEyesDara]

someday i wanna be just like Dream theater. Better get used to this stuff lol :D

[yourself1001]

True that!

[Makenstein]

Damn, that's insane! i'm showing my drummer this!

If he has a problem with OUR time signature changes, wait til he gets a load of this.

[kneedragger81]

LOL....stuff like this will make any regular, 4/4, major power chord stuff sound boring ass heck. Ramones are cool, but sonic palette will be expanded with non 4/4 time/feels. What did your drummer say about this?

[Makenstein]

Haha, well he's quit the band now if that answers your question. xD

[JiMxtreme]

XD That was soooo funnny!!! LMAO

[Rickles]

Lol the one part is called crazy triplets... : 0

[asdfasdsfsa]

loool... so funny how even he gets lost in some parts..

[pastryhat]

yeah fucking youtube is deleteing shitloads of videos left and right. anything that they think is copyright infringement, there just trying to safe their asses.

[joezafro2]

What happened to the original video? I remember watching one where he begins with...

"A lot of people ask me, 'How the hell do you remember all that stuff?!'" and so on... As I remember, this is only the second half of a 4 or 5 minute video. :(

Is YouTube cleaning out the old videos or something? because last night it was a nightmare trying to find Part 2 of "Beyond This Life, Live at the Budokan"

... I swear they used to have all these videos... I can't find them anymore.

[LaKuPuLa]

I think youtube has also taken away parts of "chaos in motion". I can't find some of the parts, which were uploaded some time ago. I don't know if it's because of copyright or whatever...

BTW, this video forms part of which DVD?

[TruNikkaz]

wtf lol

dt owns

[komkipi1]

damn!!!!!

[3shiftgtr]

Uhhh...huh huh...uhhh...Thank God they can't count past 10!

[darylguitar21]

lol

[vetlerradio]

There is some 15/16 signature in DT song... But that easy to understand.... maybe because I play drum and sing all dream theater songs but, I needed some practice to understand this stranges odd signature

[JEDSaje15]

@vetlerradio thats what alot of people dont understand... when you play drums you NEED to know the time sig, becuz the patters you just cant go by knowing how it sounds, idk its hard to explain but i know what you mean. i play both guitar and drums and guitar songs with odd times are easier than drums becuz of how drum patterns are compared to notes played on the guitar

[Nubnut]

@3shiftgtr Ya, that comes earlier in the song haha.

[SigDrums]

Oh, my head. :'|