Friday, April 1, 2011

#19 Melbourne




The Feeling:
       Melbourne.  The epic album ender 11th song from the 3rd album Tales Of Human Struggle.  Originally, just the intro riff was written Summer 2010 (while living in Melbourne, FL) and that was it.  But it was such an awesome riff that this song just had to be longer than 12 min (plus the rest of the songs on TOHS are all around 5min).  So there the riff sat until I finally picked this song up and began writing in February 2011 which looked like the picture below:

Only a few sections were reordered or changed from this original "big idea" sheet and ended up becoming the full 17min epic you're hearing now.  The feeling is obviously epic.

Inspiration:
        Dream Theater - The Best Of Times:  For the structure, mostly how the song breaks up into distinct sad, then happy, then sad sections and how those transitions work, plus the ending solo which I just love to play.

       Dream Theater - The Count of Tuscany: Also for the structure, when the acoustic section enters after the ebow section, and how the epic ending compounds on itself.

       Dream Theater - Trial of Tears: The first acoustic section in Melbourne takes from the ToT bass riffs and guitar strums.

       Dream Theater - In the Presence of Enemies pt 1: The mid section riff in D and later the higher E take from the itpoe opening guitar riff on the D string.

       Eye Of The Beholder - ES15: A riff, prechorus, and chorus I wrote back in 2004.  Oldie but goodie that gets good screentime in this song not only in the happy 2nd section, but also much later in the 3rd section with the same riff on top but dark minor chords on the bottom.

       Eye Of The Beholder - ES40: that clean 13/8 riff that appears twice (first in Ebm in the first section, then in Bbm slower in the 3rd).  The little 17/8 flick on the second time through was added while recording.  Love it.

       Eye Of The Beholder - The History Of War: For the tapping 2nd verse used here in the last part of the 2nd section, same pattern, different notes.

Technical:
       Waaaaaay too much to talk about.  Maybe I'll post more later.  For now, here's the structure:



11. Melbourne


Concept::
Main character introduces himself, saying he remembers happier times
Jump to reminisced interwoven stories about how great life was then
(end of chorus: “...and that’s living in Melbourne!”)


After the stories, back in the present
Character reveals none of these stories actually happened, but even thus he will continue to invent them
(end of last chorus: “...and that’s living in Melbourne”)


Part I – Present Day


(0:00 - 0:48) Intro solo
(0:48 - 1:21) Intro riff 3x
(1:21 - 1:31) Scale  G# F# E~~~~ D~~~~  C#~~~~
(1:31 - 1:50) ToT bass riff preverse1
(1:50 - 2:22) Verse1: - IF strumming over bass ToT jam
(2:22 - 2:38) C# pm riff
(2:38 - 3:06) Verse2: - C# pm riff 2x
(3:06 - 3:11) Scale  G# F# E~~~~~  Eb~~~~
(3:11 - 3:53) Verse3: - 13/8 arpeggios in Ebm
(3:53 - 4:06)  3/4 riff with slowdown
(4:06 - 4:21) Verse4: C# pm riff slower
(4:21 - 4:34) Scale  G# F# E~~~~ D~~~~~~~~


Part II  – Happy memories


(4:34 - 4:58) Intro riff in D 2x
(4:58 - 5:51) Verse1: itpoe riffs in D
(5:51 - 5:55) 3/4 scale transition
(5:55 - 6:18) ES15a riff in D 2x
(6:18 - 6:40) Verse2: - ES15a verse
(6:40 - 7:02) Chorus1: ES15a chorus
(7:02 - 7:20) ES15a riff in D 1.5x
(7:20 - 7:33) ES15a riff in E 1x
(7:33 - 8:19) Verse3: itpoe riffs in E
(8:19 - 8:26) Scarred transition - pm E’s - slight slowdown
(8:26 - 8:56) Verse4: - [D C melb] powerful
(8:56 - 9:00) Drum solo
(9:00 - 9:26) Verse5: - THOW taps 4x
(9:26 - 9:51) Chorus2: ES15a chorus
(9:51 - 10:10) Descending scale transition


Part III – Sad realization


(10:10 - 10:42) Intro solo reprise
(10:42 - 12:02) Verse1: - underlying solo chords
(12:02 - 12:45) Verse2: - 13/8 arpeggio riff in Bbm slower
(12:45 - 13:17) Major power solo over F Db Eb F   4x
(13:17 - 13:44) Major power solo over Bb Ab Gb Eb Db  2x
(13:44 - 14:03) Verse3: - 3/4 riff from part 1, changing key  4x
(14:03 - 14:08) 3/4 scales transition from part 2
(14:08 - 15:21) Verse4: - Descending ES15a riff
(15:21 - 17:12) Solo section/Outro aka the super win section


*seagulls*


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