Customer Reviews

Dream Theater Full Score Anthology

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is NOT a complete anthology of scores.
A more correct title would be "Selected Full Scores".

The content is as follows:

Dance of Eternity
Home
Erotomania
Just Let Me Breathe
Peruvian Skies
Pull Me Under
Under A Glass Moon
Voices

I feel that this information should have been given by Amazon.com, because I was VERY disappointed when I found out that is was NOT a complete anthology, and the low rating should be seen in this perspective.
However if you buy it fully aware of the content, throw 2 more stars in, 'cause the transcriptions are top-notch, and the book is nicely wrapped.

First of all, this book is done by several different transcribers and the difference in quality between the different contribution is enormous. Those done by progressivetranscriptions.com are amazingly well done, testament to the dedication and professionality of these guys. There is hardly a mistake to be found.

However, all the other tracks are another deal. The guitar transcriptions in them are from the official guitar books for their respective albums, which means their quality is good (John Petrucci reviewed these). The keyboard, bass and drums on the other hand seem to have been done by a person without experience or talent, or even both. They are embarassingly poor, and as a transcriber myself, I found it hard to read through the scores with these glaring mistakes present. Buy it for Dance of Eternity, Peruvian Skies, Just Let Me Breathe and Home if nothing else.

Keyboard transcriptions lack true detail and often even suggest wrong tones. Guitar and bass parts are decent. I can't tell about the drum transcriptions, since I don't play drums myself. I bought this book looking forward to the keyboard transcriptions, but only to be highly disappointed. By the way this book comes only with 8 transcriptions! This is not a full album score transcription book as the cover may suggest. Even more disappointing is the fact that true Dream Theater classics like Metropolis Part I was not included. It only includes the following transcriptions: Scene Seven:The Dance of Eternity, Erotomania, Scene Six: Home, Just Let Me Breathe, Peruvian Skies, Pull Me Under, Under A Glass Moon, and Voices!! Yes that is all! We need a full album transcription of all the songs not a song book full of the most trivial Dream Theater songs (with very few exceptions: Erotomania, Home, and Pull Me Under). It would be nice if Jordan Rudess comes up with keyboard-only transcription books for the entire albums. The songs that you really need a transcription book due to their complexity are not included here.

Every-one who says the Dream Theater Full Score Anthology is disappointing has to blame himself.

The Dream Theater Full Score Anthology gives everything that is described and is absolutely nót misleading.

A Full Score Book means that the scores of all instruments are within one book.

An Anthology means a selection of works or samples by one ore more writers.

All that is promised is within the book, and I am very pleased to have it.

Besides not having Learning to Live I have found numerous errors in this book. The drum interlude part in Under the Glass Moon is EMBARRASSINGLY wrong. And for something that was supposedly reviewed by the band, it's very disappointing. It's a good book, but there's lots of improvements to be made. Also I have more recently found that Erotomania is improperly done towards the end as well!

This is a joke, they include learning to live in the list of tune, yet pull me under is listed instead. List the most meat and potatoes tune they do over one of the most texturally interesting ones. Very professional goofing the listing. I agree with the notion that score books should be made for every album of Dream Theater. Especially when you have tunes like Metropolis part one, or Learning to live. Oh well, if you dig the tunes in it, otherwise, go ahead.

The evergrowing world of bass playing is always denied the satisfaction of good transcription. The guitar parts are the easiest to hear on our favorite songs (but apparently need the most work in transcribing for the musically inept), but the bass (hardest to hear) is always left behind. This book is a great way to learn some of John Myung's best work. The Dance of Eternity bass solo is so crazy. It's nice to have this in my collection. I suggest you get it.........now, right now.....buy it, go on.......buy buy buy.

This anthology is a really incredible compilation of some of Dream Theater's classic songs. The transcriptions are pretty much much dead on and everything is arranged very well. It's nice to finally have some keyboard music to these songs, especially for Dance of Eternity. My only complaint is that "Learning to Live" is not included in this book even though it has been stated otherwise. That disappointment aside, this is an excellent buy and is a very useful book for those who are interested in every musical aspect of the songs within the collection.

I only bought this book for "Learning to live" that was listed in the description of its contents. Unfortunately this song has never been part of the book! I discovered that absence after buying it. Despite the book's interesting content I am disappointed from this purchase (I would have rated the book with 5 stars, but 2 stars were removed because of the misleading description).