Yep, I fell in love with Dream Theater in the mid-90’s and it was the first band that got me interested in the other instruments, namely drums first and it just clicked so much faster than guitar did. Possibly because I was watching drum instructional videos for entertainment. A killer drum groove will floor me faster than any technical guitar solo.
Vocals came next and that was a struggle and a half for 15 years, it’s the primary reason why I believe the “you have to be born with it” is such a bunk, bullshit excuse to not put effort into something and does more for self-defeat than anything. First I wanted to sound like Geoff Tate (I wish I had recordings of that), then it was nothing but Layne Staley until I got really into Pantera and Lamb Of God, I spent so damn long trying to figure out that screaming thing, ultimately blew my throat out and couldn’t sing for 2 years straight, I had to learn all knew habits and forget everything I used to do. Now that scream sound is so fucking easy it feels like cheating because it’s all technique, mic gain and compression.
Keys/piano I’ve played at a half-ass level since my teens, I can sit down and learn something, practice the shit out of it and get it nearly perfect, but I’ll forget it immediately. Perfect example is the end of Faith No More’s “Epic”, once every couple years I re-learn it but if you ask me to play it now I’d be lost. I have all the note names written on the keys on my MIDI keyboard because I just suck with memorization. Generally force myself to play the parts instead of writing them in MIDI for my own stuff, but a lot of times I’m just playing the basic chords while doing anything intricate by writing it in.
Bass came last, I just never really had an interest. Then I got stoned one night while tracking a bass part and it hit me, like “Ohhhhhh, this is why it’s fun to play bass” and then I got REALLY into it, at least enough to not sound like a guitar player playing bass. So many styles I want to explore with it and I really dig the two-handed/percussive approach to it, particularly Ryan Martini from Mudvayne’s playing, dude is a fucking beast.
The intro/verses aren’t much in this song, but the chorus is doing some really cool two-handed tapping using all octaves, not a usual bass part by any means-
And I‘ve been trying to learn how to play this Thundercat tune that was recorded with a 6-string, on a 4-string this week-
I’ve posted this stuff here before, but everything in these songs was done by me in my home studio. Drums are programmed because I can’t fit a kit, not even an e-kit, in my apartment, it’s so fucking time consuming it’s ridiculous, but I’d rather use them than not do anything at all-
Modern-ish metal-
Floyd rip-off-
AIC rip- (first song I recorded when I started teaching myself to track/mix…I think it’s a Thermionik Friedman amp sim on the whole song but the acoustics….which isn’t a real 12-string, but an acoustic tracked in different octaves)
