Actually, what I like about Portnoy's timing is that it's NOT all metronomically precise. He's really able to push or pull, to lay back in a groove or yank back a big crash hit. Mike Mangini plays the same DT songs with even more precision and more outright technical ability but, to my ear, he loses some of the humanity that Portnoy put into the parts.
It's not the humanity, Mangini's drum tone and also his sense of precision just makes it off. Particularly live, Portnoy constantly played with his arrangements, he rarely sticks to anything too long and makes it always interesting. Did you ever heard Mangini's interpretation of the outro to Finally Free? In the recent albums too, most things Mangini spent following Petrucci's guitar lead, Portnoy with fill it up with symbals and add so much depth you just couldn't get enough of the song.
Wasn't it, that Jordan Rudess wanted to impress a little on his first writing and recording sessions and just started to play something like that and they sticked to it?
This album (Scenes from a Memory) is a programmatic rock opera, part of which takes place in the 1920’s. That’s why there is that crazy swing section in the middle. Plus, there are references to other songs in the album and other DT albums.
This is so funny. I remeber when this DVD came out, I gave it to my drum teacher hoping he would be as blown away as I was. His response, wow, he is so precise with his strokes.
Portnoy's precision and tecnique can be matched by dozens of great drummers, but when it comes to composing and to his on-stage charisma... this man is unique.
Holy shit, this is kinda surprising to me. I always make comments about Bobby and always go unnoticed. Glad to see that there is more people who like the guy.
Heard about DT in 1989 when their first album "When Dream And Day Unite" came out. Fast forward to 1992, and their 2nd record came out, "Images & Words"... Saw them in a small local venue with around 60 other people in attendance, now, I'll be 60 years old in a few days and I've seen A LOT of live shows, (Led Zeppelin, Oakland Ca. 1977 for one) but up to that point i had never seen or heard a live performance that blew me away as much as DT did in 1992... Oh yeah, and the tickets were $5.00!! Great reaction to a great drummer, and i hope to see more...
1992 was when i heard them. I was 12. My brother and friends were into them and they would get rotation on WSOU here in NJ. I never heard anything (playing and music) and proceeded to take up drums shortly after hearing him. I miss those days. I did never get to see them live, ironically.
You are so very lucky to have seen them live back in 92! I watch vids of DT live from 92-93 on UA-cam and James was an absolute BEAST of a singer then. He pretty much nailed everything he sang then. There is a vid from 93 in Germany and he just runs through Learning To Live like it's nothing. Also, while I still love JP's Majesty tone, the Ibanez tone was one of his best
@@CompleteProducer84 I completely agree on the Ibanez years with John... I've always wondered why he didn't stick with them. maybe one reason is that Satch and Vai took the limelight from John, or Ibanez wasn't interested in giving him a signature model... Oh yeah, and James's vocals that night i saw them were on 🔥
The interesting thing about this particular performance of this song is that it was the first time that Mike Portnoy had performed this song in its entirety. The album this song was on had just been released but at the time of recording this video for a drum instructional DVD, the band had yet to go on the road and tour for that album. They wrote and recorded the song in 3 sections. Portnoy had said this was the first time he had performed the song as one whole piece instead of 3 smaller sections and he wasn't sure if he was going to pull it off. As we can see by the video he obviously pulled it off quite well.
Hey guys! As a way to prioritize the amount of reaction requests I'm getting via email/instagram and in the UA-cam comments... I am going to try and do the Patreon picks first. There is no limit on the Patreon (could be $1/month). www.patreon.com/AndrewRooneyDrums I still love you if you are NOT a Patreon contributor. And I will still try and get to your pick. It's a just a reward for those that help out with costs/time involved with doing the vids. Disclaimer: No guarantees. I can only do what I can do. If a vid is blocked... it's blocked. I'll do my best! Note: Patrons also get exclusive access to the vids that get blocked :) Thanks for watching!
Everybody knows that Portnoy's timing is impeccable, and that his sound is amazing, but what I consider to be his signature is his use of ghost notes. As an example, skip to 6:46 and listen to the ghost notes on that snare....
Timing, impeccable? I'm a Portnoy fan, and I think he has more feeling than anything else, if he nudges the time a little he fixes it right away for sure.
I think Andrew must check Dream Theater drummer auditions.. Well 9 years ago, Mike Portnoy and DT seperated ways, the band decided to find their new drummer with an audition and share the audition videos with the fans. They also were looking for the chemistry between the band and the new member, so they've called all of them to NY and played the selected songs live with these drummers.Finally they've decided to continue with Mike Mangini. The entire video durations may take long, so you might not allow to share on your channel, but even if you don't share, I recomend you to watch it. As a drummer, it's really interesting and really fun to watch the whole thing ((;
A great drummer and a beloved friend of mine once told me to go and listen The Great Debate from Dream Theater. Now i'm pretty sure that this is the best drum song Portnoy has ever written so far. The song is from the 2002 LP called Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence.
Great review. Portnoy is my favourite technical drummer. Give him a 4 piece kit, and he blows you away. I feel like drummer like he and Peart are overshadowed by their monstrous kits. I'm really, really digging your channel, and have spend most of the morning absorbed by your reviews and feedback. The sound! Dream Theater's production is incredible. They kind of went the Steely Dan route with absolute precise engineering and mixing. Check out 6:00 by Dream Theater. World class drum sound. While we're on a fusion tangent, do you ever listen to The Mars Volta? Their first two albums featured a drummer by the name of Jon Theodore, and are a clinic in prog drumming. Cicatriz ESP and Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt are two I would recommend from a drumming perspective. You go "punk-fusion?", but just grab a listen and you'll get it. Cheers, brother. Keep pumping out this quality content!
Remember, there are three other musicians who came together to make that song. So not only is Mike Portnoy an amazing and superior musician himself, but you got John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess and John Myung all top notch players. It's incredible to come across a musician who is as skilled as Portnoy alone. Just think of the cosmic forces that had to align in order to make Dream Theater happen the way that it did. I really wish Mike hadn't left the band, but he deserves the freedom to go where he wants. Im just glad we got what we did with him being a key component in the formation of Dream Theater.
Wow I literally just discovered you an hour ago thanks to your infant annihilator clip being posted to reddit. watched some of your other portnoy and peart videos, looking forward to this one haha
Good review! Mike’s stuff is not only clean and precise but it’s also tasty and dynamic. Just my opinion, but, I think Mike is the best of both worlds. Precision and passion!
Mike Portnoy plays with every piece of his soul. Tie this with the clinical precision that he has and you get this masterpiece. It's a demonstration of the genre, and it even includes motives and timing of a traditional Bulgarian folklore song.
These walls drums only is a master class in drumming, thats where he sounds like everything has triggers everything is tuned to perfection the pressure tones and hit positioning is insane accurate everytime
He also has a very interesting signature snare with different throw offs. There are 3 levels of snare sounds on his snares and he does sometimes switch in a song. He has a 13" metal snare and a 14" wood snare called the Melodey Master.
Mangini is an AWSOME drummer.....but Portnoy was the bedrock for most of these new age precusionists....He showed the way!! Peace and Love from Atlanta
Like climbing a very perilous mountain through all different individual sections continuously, he has a way of making it all appear effortless and just ready for whatever obstacle the mountain throws at him. 😊
Love Mike!! I love the character in his playing, he stands out. First notes I heard : 06:00 fro Awake, and I was a fan. Which is saying a lot, because I never even specifically noticed a drummer before... (yes, sorry drum world; it was 1993 and I’ve paid attention since)
The thing with MP is he is not only able to play the most complex songs and nail crazy timings, he is also able to copy styles almost perfectly. Give him a Rush Song and he's going to sound very much like Neil Peart. Give him a Beatles Song and it's going to sound like Ringo. Go check out his other Bands like Sons of Apollo and listen to the new Solo Album of DTs guitarist John Petrucci where he is drumming. He's just phenomenal.
A few things to note about this snare, it’s and early signature snare that mike produced with Tama it was a 14x5.5 maple snare, what made this snare unique is that it had a cable system attached to the snare throw off attached to hi-hat pedal this would allow him unlimited sounds ranging from completely off to a really tight snappy snare, but due to price and complexity this was changed to the melody master snare he now uses
Andrew. Love your channel. Got even more interested when I found out you're from Auckland, where I've lived for 6 months studying English and working in the night market. Would love to go back to your country one day. I think you would really appreciate Acid Rain from Liquid Tension Experiment, live in L.A from 2008. Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess and Tony Levin just doing what they do best.
I don't know how I didn't see this drum teacher reaction video until now. This song is absolutely considered one of Dream Theater's most technically difficult songs to perform along with "A Nightmare to Remember" and "Erotomania" (just to name a couple of his absolutely punishing drum performances). As a former teacher myself, I love seeing people genuinely react to hearing someone like Mike Portnoy play when they hadn't heard his work before. Like any rock/metal lover, I gravitated first towards Neil Peart who is the North American Godfather of drums, but when I wanted to go more "metal" I thankfully gravitated towards Mike Portnoy and Mark Zonder (ex-Fates Warning) rather than weaker drummers in the metal genre (Lars Ulrich's name is often thrown out, erroneously, as a weaker drummer). Sticking towards the progressive metal genre allowed me to play music that isn't exclusively in the easier time signatures and taught me how to really use ghost notes. Playing along to Mike and Neil has made it possible for me to play in nearly any time signature and practice makes it possible to be proficient in those measures - measures people often avoid because they won't even attempt to play them. Mike is also a class act who rarely has a bad thing to say. For example, Dream Theater had a well-publicized acrimonious split in 2010/2011 and ultimately Mike Mangini (another drum legend) took his seat. Mike has never said anything bad about Mike and vice versa because they have mutual respect for each other's abilities and both bring unique talents to the table. I prefer Portnoy slightly over Mangini, but that doesn't mean that I don't love me some Mangini drum work - he's amazing. But, you can't attend 12 Portnoy drum clinics in the 1990's and not be fond for the guy. I literally went to every clinic he taught within a 250 mile radius of my home. Turns out the dude lives one town over from me.
Hear Me - Devin Townsend (Drummer is 66Samus) thats probably one of my favorite drum throughs to watch or Singularity Devin Townsend with Anup drumming are both amazing and mind blowing drumming
I feel like Portnoy is just the right blend of robotic play and human feel, as opposed to Mangini who pushed it one step further on the robotic side both in his playing and composition. I can feel things hearing Portnoy play, right ? As perfect as he plays, he has a lot of "emotions" in his hits imo.
This track was also one that the band used to choose Mike’s replacement when he left the band too ! Along with The Spirit Carries On these were the two tracks that destroyed the drummers that were auditioning as combined they are over 13 minutes long !!!
I’m glad you found this one. As I commented on “As I Am”. I lost this VHS tape 😂. On that same tape he showed how to play Under A Glass Moon and Fatal Tragedy. He showed how to play odd signature and how to subdivide a typical 4/4. Another one on that same tape was LTE “Paradigm Shift” on a smaller improvised kit.🤘🏼
There's a video you should watch that shows Mike Portnoy with a huge sheet with all the time signature changes of this song and he breaks it all down. Definitely check it out!
As technical and talented he is, what i like the most of all Mike Portnoy drum parts is the vibe, the headbanging he can add to a song, always on the spot
I downloaded this entire drum video too my computer and watched it many times during in the 90's, and I'm NOT EVEN a drummer! That shows how crazy it was to watch this guy play. Certainly he was at the peak of his drumming on this album. Also, funny to think how much influence this song\video had on drummers such as Blake Richardson from Between the Buried and Me.
Hey mate, so glad you got to hear this song for the first time and showed us your reactions! Keep the channel going! Wanted to suggest you check out Matt Gartska - Tooth and Claw and Matt Halpern - 22 Faces. Cheers!
I know I'm late and I'm not sure if anyone said it or not, but i think it's worth noting that Mike also played with the stick backwards in his left hand because he likes the way the end of the stick sounds on the snare. Still hasn't changed it to this day. Cheers mate!
There is a clip of Marco Minneman playing this piece here YT. It is a really old clip with really bad audio, but you get to see what another exceptional drummer can do when having some fun playing others music 🙂
Marco Minnemann learned this song in a weekend before auditioning for Dream Theater. Good thing he wasn't super serious about joining the band, because we got The Aristocrats!
I remember hearing him say on the commentary track of the DVD that this came off of that this was the first time that he had played the song since recording it for the album and he couldn't play the whole thing all the way through. Instead it was done in sections and then edited together so that it looked like it was all one take. There were different camera angles available to watch and on the other angles it was obvious where the cuts were, but the main one, which most people watched you couldn't tell. Obviously he has since played it all the way through hundreds of times, but I just though that it was interesting that even Mike Portnoy couldn't play the whole track in one go without lots of practice.
Every member of DT (past and present) have to put a lot of effort into practicing their songs despite being prodigal level players. If they stopped constant practicing (like some succesful older musicians do) it would most likely start showing fairly quickly. I don't mean to diss them, it just means they're human even if it doesn't seem like it. It is interesting and a good reminder about gaining and maintaining skills.
What I like about Portnoy is that he's got FEELING. As a drummer that's hard, or at least it's harder for listeners to grasp. But with Portnoy you can just hear it's him.
If you were blown away my Mike Portnoy, check out his successor with Dream Theater, Mike Mangini. The drum solo on Live at Luna Park is just as over the top as anything Portnoy played. Mangini was a percussion instructor at Berkley School of Music, prior to inheriting the role of drummer for Dream Theater. He also has a DVD course out, called "The Grid", where he describes his compositional technique. I guarantee you won't be disappointed, this guy is another freak of nature that leaves drummers like me speechless.
you should check out this song live at budokan its called instrumeadly, more refined i guess or just different version of the dance of eternity but LIVE
Andrew! i love your vids! I dunno if you already know this, but i would like to imply some keyboard shortcuts to you for youtube :) K or Spacebar : pause/unpause the vid J or L: Skip behind/ahead 10secs Arrow keys Left or right: Skip Behind/Ahead 5 secs (while video is paused) < or > keys to go through frame by frame. Side note: Mikes snare was always my fav snare sound, especially from the Purple Monster kit.
DT fans in the House!!
Come on in Michael!
DT or DT
(Dream theatre or Devin townsend)
@@rebelfiend1193 Yes.
Mike Portnoy era? Yes.
@@Ziri0615 I like mangini as well
Actually, what I like about Portnoy's timing is that it's NOT all metronomically precise. He's really able to push or pull, to lay back in a groove or yank back a big crash hit. Mike Mangini plays the same DT songs with even more precision and more outright technical ability but, to my ear, he loses some of the humanity that Portnoy put into the parts.
It's not the humanity, Mangini's drum tone and also his sense of precision just makes it off. Particularly live, Portnoy constantly played with his arrangements, he rarely sticks to anything too long and makes it always interesting.
Did you ever heard Mangini's interpretation of the outro to Finally Free? In the recent albums too, most things Mangini spent following Petrucci's guitar lead, Portnoy with fill it up with symbals and add so much depth you just couldn't get enough of the song.
@@subutaynoyan5372 There is a LOT of footage of Mangini playing live... People can decide for themselves
I always wanted to explain your point, but you find the right words, so thanks a lot.
well put.
Not some. All.
Side note, the ragtime-like section was there because part of the story of the concept album Dance of Eternity comes from takes place in the 1920's.
#Facts
My favorite part of the song easily. It really freaks out the “normies.”
Wasn't it, that Jordan Rudess wanted to impress a little on his first writing and recording sessions and just started to play something like that and they sticked to it?
Glass Prison is somehow overlooked a lot as a drum masterpiece. Definitely worth checking out.
Thank you!
@@AndrewRooneyDrums The Great Debate too, both songs are featured on one of his DVDs.
Old school track scarred has an impossible drum pattern.
@@Jag211313 That song is awesome !!!
The song is a masterpiece, period.
Not only is he absolutely technically perfect and proficient it’s his writing that makes him stand out. He’s so creative with what he writes.
His stuff on the Dream Theater album Systematic Chaos is wild. He seems like he's just playing guitar riffs on drums. It's insane.
I'll just dig this comment one year later just to say that the guitar solo in Constant Motion is one hell of a drum solo
The part "not on the beat" is actually in the studio version, so he meant that lol. Such a good player, loved your reaction
Thank you Gabriel! 🙏
This album (Scenes from a Memory) is a programmatic rock opera, part of which takes place in the 1920’s. That’s why there is that crazy swing section in the middle. Plus, there are references to other songs in the album and other DT albums.
This is so funny. I remeber when this DVD came out, I gave it to my drum teacher hoping he would be as blown away as I was. His response, wow, he is so precise with his strokes.
Dude is outrageously consistent!
Portnoy's precision and tecnique can be matched by dozens of great drummers, but when it comes to composing and to his on-stage charisma... this man is unique.
And he puts such feel into it!!!
And his drum sound is always immaculate. Similar to Pearts Moving Pictures kit.
Perfectly said, case closed..
A change of seasons has the best drum sounds on the planet! Love that snare!!
An yes Portnoy has the best sounding kits. His engineers are amazing. Live and in studio.
Thnxs for the love 🙏🏾… It’s always a pleasure to do the engineering for Mike and DT 😊.
@SonyStudioPro how the hell did you find this comment
@@Ashtoobaked Thats not Mikes engineer lol
Dream Theater - Instrumedley (Live at Budokan) - Mike Portnoy drumcam.
That has EVERYTHING and 100% live.
Also, Bobby Jarzombek - School. Extremely prog and criminally underrated
Dude is insane!
Peppered Cancer and So It Ain't. He's not human.
he's great in Fates Warning and Arch Matheos as well
Yeah, Bobby is crancked all the way to 100 out of 10 in everything. His drum focused recordings are just a huge WTF I just watched?!!!
Holy shit, this is kinda surprising to me. I always make comments about Bobby and always go unnoticed. Glad to see that there is more people who like the guy.
Every time I listen to that video of Mike Portnoy playing the dance of eternity I get an eargasm❤❤❤
Heard about DT in 1989 when their first album "When Dream And Day Unite" came out. Fast forward to 1992, and their 2nd record came out, "Images & Words"... Saw them in a small local venue with around 60 other people in attendance, now, I'll be 60 years old in a few days and I've seen A LOT of live shows, (Led Zeppelin, Oakland Ca. 1977 for one) but up to that point i had never seen or heard a live performance that blew me away as much as DT did in 1992... Oh yeah, and the tickets were $5.00!! Great reaction to a great drummer, and i hope to see more...
1992 was when i heard them. I was 12. My brother and friends were into them and they would get rotation on WSOU here in NJ. I never heard anything (playing and music) and proceeded to take up drums shortly after hearing him. I miss those days. I did never get to see them live, ironically.
You are so very lucky to have seen them live back in 92! I watch vids of DT live from 92-93 on UA-cam and James was an absolute BEAST of a singer then. He pretty much nailed everything he sang then. There is a vid from 93 in Germany and he just runs through Learning To Live like it's nothing. Also, while I still love JP's Majesty tone, the Ibanez tone was one of his best
@@CompleteProducer84 I completely agree on the Ibanez years with John... I've always wondered why he didn't stick with them. maybe one reason is that Satch and Vai took the limelight from John, or Ibanez wasn't interested in giving him a signature model... Oh yeah, and James's vocals that night i saw them were on 🔥
His Constant Motion video has some of the craziest playing I’ve ever seen.
Sounds good Brandon!
Transatlantic stuff is also rather nice. Very song writer orientated prog.
@@AndrewRooneyDrums yes! Please review his constant motion drum video! Im sure you'd be amazed, especially during the solo
YEAH! You have to do constant motion!!! The interlude part is out of this world. You almost have to watch it in slow motion to catch all the hits.
Absolutely agree!
The interesting thing about this particular performance of this song is that it was the first time that Mike Portnoy had performed this song in its entirety. The album this song was on had just been released but at the time of recording this video for a drum instructional DVD, the band had yet to go on the road and tour for that album. They wrote and recorded the song in 3 sections. Portnoy had said this was the first time he had performed the song as one whole piece instead of 3 smaller sections and he wasn't sure if he was going to pull it off. As we can see by the video he obviously pulled it off quite well.
Scenes from a memory is s fantastic album. I've heard it countless times. Master piece
Gosh, I been listening to and watching Portnoy for a decade and it still completely blows my mind
Hey guys! As a way to prioritize the amount of reaction requests I'm getting via email/instagram and in the UA-cam comments...
I am going to try and do the Patreon picks first. There is no limit on the Patreon (could be $1/month).
www.patreon.com/AndrewRooneyDrums
I still love you if you are NOT a Patreon contributor. And I will still try and get to your pick. It's a just a reward for those that help out with costs/time involved with doing the vids.
Disclaimer: No guarantees. I can only do what I can do. If a vid is blocked... it's blocked. I'll do my best!
Note: Patrons also get exclusive access to the vids that get blocked :)
Thanks for watching!
Everybody knows that Portnoy's timing is impeccable, and that his sound is amazing, but what I consider to be his signature is his use of ghost notes. As an example, skip to 6:46 and listen to the ghost notes on that snare....
Mmmmm yeah keep talking to me about those ghost notes I'm close
Those seem more hard pronounced hits than ghost notes.
You must be a guitar player.
Timing, impeccable? I'm a Portnoy fan, and I think he has more feeling than anything else, if he nudges the time a little he fixes it right away for sure.
Are those really ghost notes though?
@Andre Rooney Drums Thankyou for putting this up...Portnoy at his finest !
I think Andrew must check Dream Theater drummer auditions.. Well 9 years ago, Mike Portnoy and DT seperated ways, the band decided to find their new drummer with an audition and share the audition videos with the fans. They also were looking for the chemistry between the band and the new member, so they've called all of them to NY and played the selected songs live with these drummers.Finally they've decided to continue with Mike Mangini. The entire video durations may take long, so you might not allow to share on your channel, but even if you don't share, I recomend you to watch it. As a drummer, it's really interesting and really fun to watch the whole thing ((;
Agreed. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the auditions and seeing the different drummers' approaches.
Loved portnoy since i was 12 years old. So relaxed, unreal drummer and unreal showman.
A great drummer and a beloved friend of mine once told me to go and listen The Great Debate from Dream Theater. Now i'm pretty sure that this is the best drum song Portnoy has ever written so far. The song is from the 2002 LP called Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence.
Mike is a fanatic about drum tuning. His toms, cymbals, and bass all sound great EVERY time.
Great review. Portnoy is my favourite technical drummer. Give him a 4 piece kit, and he blows you away. I feel like drummer like he and Peart are overshadowed by their monstrous kits.
I'm really, really digging your channel, and have spend most of the morning absorbed by your reviews and feedback.
The sound! Dream Theater's production is incredible. They kind of went the Steely Dan route with absolute precise engineering and mixing.
Check out 6:00 by Dream Theater. World class drum sound.
While we're on a fusion tangent, do you ever listen to The Mars Volta? Their first two albums featured a drummer by the name of Jon Theodore, and are a clinic in prog drumming. Cicatriz ESP and Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt are two I would recommend from a drumming perspective. You go "punk-fusion?", but just grab a listen and you'll get it.
Cheers, brother. Keep pumping out this quality content!
Have you seen the video of Portnoy playing the tiny little Hello Kitty kids' drum kit? It's pretty great
Glad you decided to check out one of his more complex songs this time. I dig your videos, will definitely check out the rest.
More to come!
You found Portnoy! I'm so happy for you
Remember, there are three other musicians who came together to make that song. So not only is Mike Portnoy an amazing and superior musician himself, but you got John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess and John Myung all top notch players. It's incredible to come across a musician who is as skilled as Portnoy alone. Just think of the cosmic forces that had to align in order to make Dream Theater happen the way that it did. I really wish Mike hadn't left the band, but he deserves the freedom to go where he wants. Im just glad we got what we did with him being a key component in the formation of Dream Theater.
I'm in the 'Mike got me into drumming' camp. I probably use the four on the hands, four/two on the feet fill wayyyy too often, I can't help it.
I overuse that fill also :)
Hahaha a trick of perspective at 6:55 makes his arms look absolutely tiny. Brilliant.
Wow I literally just discovered you an hour ago thanks to your infant annihilator clip being posted to reddit. watched some of your other portnoy and peart videos, looking forward to this one haha
Infant Annihilator are complete nutters. I discovered Andrew the same way!
Delighted to see you react to my favourite Mike Portnoy performance.
I did that exact thing you mentioned with the cs snare dot and the top after this DVD came out lol
Portnoy is the BEST!!!!!!!!
Oh my goodness, cleanest striker of the drum 🥁 head. Daaaaammmnnnn!
Oh yeah Sean! CRISP!
Good review! Mike’s stuff is not only clean and precise but it’s also tasty and dynamic. Just my opinion, but, I think Mike is the best of both worlds. Precision and passion!
Mike Portnoy plays with every piece of his soul. Tie this with the clinical precision that he has and you get this masterpiece. It's a demonstration of the genre, and it even includes motives and timing of a traditional Bulgarian folklore song.
Mike Portnoy.. Amazing
YES
so glad i saw DT during the Portnoy years 6 times! :)
The snare sound of the Purple Monster is the first drum sound that got my ears to perk up, as a guitarist and only casual drummer, back in the day.
If I were Geddy Lee, or Alex Lifeson and I decided I wanted to tour again, this would be who I'd be calling first.
Great call Michael!
These walls drums only is a master class in drumming, thats where he sounds like everything has triggers everything is tuned to perfection the pressure tones and hit positioning is insane accurate everytime
He also has a very interesting signature snare with different throw offs. There are 3 levels of snare sounds on his snares and he does sometimes switch in a song. He has a 13" metal snare and a 14" wood snare called the Melodey Master.
Mangini drum solo at Luna Park. Amazing as well!🙏🏻
Hes not reaction drum solo ..
Hes reaction drumming in the song
Mangini is an AWSOME drummer.....but Portnoy was the bedrock for most of these new age precusionists....He showed the way!! Peace and Love from Atlanta
Been waiting for more Dream Theater! Thanks man!
The thing that is truly unbelievable about this song is the number of time changes. It continually changes throughout the song.
Like climbing a very perilous mountain through all different individual sections continuously, he has a way of making it all appear effortless and just ready for whatever obstacle the mountain throws at him. 😊
That snare drum he used there was custom made by Tama and is controlled by a foot pedal. It's actually a really badass snare drum.
Nice Matthew!
Love Mike!! I love the character in his playing, he stands out. First notes I heard : 06:00 fro Awake, and I was a fan. Which is saying a lot, because I never even specifically noticed a drummer before... (yes, sorry drum world; it was 1993 and I’ve paid attention since)
Btw, Mike’s a massive Peart fan and friend- like that video too 😊
The thing with MP is he is not only able to play the most complex songs and nail crazy timings, he is also able to copy styles almost perfectly. Give him a Rush Song and he's going to sound very much like Neil Peart. Give him a Beatles Song and it's going to sound like Ringo. Go check out his other Bands like Sons of Apollo and listen to the new Solo Album of DTs guitarist John Petrucci where he is drumming. He's just phenomenal.
I love the chameleons of drumming like he and Vinnie.
Mind blowing ability
A few things to note about this snare, it’s and early signature snare that mike produced with Tama it was a 14x5.5 maple snare, what made this snare unique is that it had a cable system attached to the snare throw off attached to hi-hat pedal this would allow him unlimited sounds ranging from completely off to a really tight snappy snare, but due to price and complexity this was changed to the melody master snare he now uses
Andrew. Love your channel. Got even more interested when I found out you're from Auckland, where I've lived for 6 months studying English and working in the night market. Would love to go back to your country one day.
I think you would really appreciate Acid Rain from Liquid Tension Experiment, live in L.A from 2008. Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess and Tony Levin just doing what they do best.
Yo thanks Bruno!
His Majesty, Mr Portnoy. My favourite drummer.
I don't know how I didn't see this drum teacher reaction video until now. This song is absolutely considered one of Dream Theater's most technically difficult songs to perform along with "A Nightmare to Remember" and "Erotomania" (just to name a couple of his absolutely punishing drum performances). As a former teacher myself, I love seeing people genuinely react to hearing someone like Mike Portnoy play when they hadn't heard his work before. Like any rock/metal lover, I gravitated first towards Neil Peart who is the North American Godfather of drums, but when I wanted to go more "metal" I thankfully gravitated towards Mike Portnoy and Mark Zonder (ex-Fates Warning) rather than weaker drummers in the metal genre (Lars Ulrich's name is often thrown out, erroneously, as a weaker drummer). Sticking towards the progressive metal genre allowed me to play music that isn't exclusively in the easier time signatures and taught me how to really use ghost notes. Playing along to Mike and Neil has made it possible for me to play in nearly any time signature and practice makes it possible to be proficient in those measures - measures people often avoid because they won't even attempt to play them. Mike is also a class act who rarely has a bad thing to say. For example, Dream Theater had a well-publicized acrimonious split in 2010/2011 and ultimately Mike Mangini (another drum legend) took his seat. Mike has never said anything bad about Mike and vice versa because they have mutual respect for each other's abilities and both bring unique talents to the table. I prefer Portnoy slightly over Mangini, but that doesn't mean that I don't love me some Mangini drum work - he's amazing. But, you can't attend 12 Portnoy drum clinics in the 1990's and not be fond for the guy. I literally went to every clinic he taught within a 250 mile radius of my home. Turns out the dude lives one town over from me.
You might LOVE Pat DeLeon from Imminent Sonic Destruction.
Hear Me - Devin Townsend (Drummer is 66Samus) thats probably one of my favorite drum throughs to watch or Singularity Devin Townsend with Anup drumming are both amazing and mind blowing drumming
Thanks Frank!
Dirk Blast into Gravity Blast = my brains going SPLOOSH
I feel like Portnoy is just the right blend of robotic play and human feel, as opposed to Mangini who pushed it one step further on the robotic side both in his playing and composition. I can feel things hearing Portnoy play, right ? As perfect as he plays, he has a lot of "emotions" in his hits imo.
I totally agree.
SPOT ON!! Been saying this ever since he joined DT.
I couldn’t agree more.
Yup. The Octavarium album highlights the emotion in his playing fantastically.
Exactly the reason why I hate Mangini. It was truly sad to see such an emotionless-fast-playing-only drummer joined my most favourite band.
It's real fun to play this too! ;)
This track was also one that the band used to choose Mike’s replacement when he left the band too ! Along with The Spirit Carries On these were the two tracks that destroyed the drummers that were auditioning as combined they are over 13 minutes long !!!
I’m glad you found this one. As I commented on “As I Am”. I lost this VHS tape 😂. On that same tape he showed how to play Under A Glass Moon and Fatal Tragedy. He showed how to play odd signature and how to subdivide a typical 4/4. Another one on that same tape was LTE “Paradigm Shift” on a smaller improvised kit.🤘🏼
My drummer recommendation would be Craig blundell, he plays for Steve Wilson and used to play for frost, he's a top drummer
What I love about portnoy is that he's not only great at keeping rhythm, but he's able to make a counter melody with just percussion.
Mike's got himself a nice tight little target on his snare, accuracy plus.
this is a MASTERPIECE..... !!!!!!
For the groovier side of Portnoy you might check out Transatlantic or Flying Colors.
Or some The Winery Dogs drumcam videos!
And I love his drumming with Neal Morse Band.
There's a video you should watch that shows Mike Portnoy with a huge sheet with all the time signature changes of this song and he breaks it all down. Definitely check it out!
Were do they find these drum teachers to watch so many famous drummers for the first time?? What is their a rock somewhere they all live under!
As technical and talented he is, what i like the most of all Mike Portnoy drum parts is the vibe, the headbanging he can add to a song, always on the spot
There's a video here on UA-cam named "Counting Dance of Eternity" of Portnoy listening to this song while counting the tempo out loud.
You should review Dan Presland - Ne Obliviscaris - As Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope
Again, im not a drummer nor do i intend to be, but here I am because of Mike Portnoy 😂
Somos dos amigo ✌🏻
RIP Neil aka the Professor, Mike is the student!
Huge dream theater fan here
welcome to the world of DREAMTHEATER!!!!
My favorite Portnoy moment is the live version of When the Water Breaks. His solo is just perfection
I downloaded this entire drum video too my computer and watched it many times during in the 90's, and I'm NOT EVEN a drummer! That shows how crazy it was to watch this guy play. Certainly he was at the peak of his drumming on this album. Also, funny to think how much influence this song\video had on drummers such as Blake Richardson from Between the Buried and Me.
Instrumedly next. 😁
There are many drummers that can do multiple time signatures, but few that can do it with the accuracy of a metronome
Hey mate, so glad you got to hear this song for the first time and showed us your reactions! Keep the channel going!
Wanted to suggest you check out Matt Gartska - Tooth and Claw and Matt Halpern - 22 Faces. Cheers!
I know I'm late and I'm not sure if anyone said it or not, but i think it's worth noting that Mike also played with the stick backwards in his left hand because he likes the way the end of the stick sounds on the snare. Still hasn't changed it to this day.
Cheers mate!
Have you checked out Finally free (Live from New York)
The drumsolo Mike is playing at the end is frikkin amazing.
Just but Mike's signature snare !!! : D
I only saw them twice, butt both times they were perfect live.
The look on your face during the vaudeville interlude was priceless :D
Was NOT expecting that!
There is a clip of Marco Minneman playing this piece here YT. It is a really old clip with really bad audio, but you get to see what another exceptional drummer can do when having some fun playing others music 🙂
Marco Minnemann learned this song in a weekend before auditioning for Dream Theater. Good thing he wasn't super serious about joining the band, because we got The Aristocrats!
Yeah, but with all respect to Mangini i was prefered Minnemann than Mangini :'c
The best drummer in the world dude
Nice Pablo!
You need to check his 2003’s Modern Drummer Festival presentation. He does the Instrumedley changing kits inbetween the music sections. Unbelievable!
Mike actually has a son named Max who is also a drummer for the band Tallah
I love how every single guu that reacts to drums ends up reacting to this song and Instrumedley. REACT TO INSTRUMEDLEY PLEASE IS SOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD
I remember hearing him say on the commentary track of the DVD that this came off of that this was the first time that he had played the song since recording it for the album and he couldn't play the whole thing all the way through. Instead it was done in sections and then edited together so that it looked like it was all one take. There were different camera angles available to watch and on the other angles it was obvious where the cuts were, but the main one, which most people watched you couldn't tell. Obviously he has since played it all the way through hundreds of times, but I just though that it was interesting that even Mike Portnoy couldn't play the whole track in one go without lots of practice.
Every member of DT (past and present) have to put a lot of effort into practicing their songs despite being prodigal level players. If they stopped constant practicing (like some succesful older musicians do) it would most likely start showing fairly quickly. I don't mean to diss them, it just means they're human even if it doesn't seem like it. It is interesting and a good reminder about gaining and maintaining skills.
@5:36, Andrew's face. Pretty much sums up Mike Portnoy's playing.
Ohhh man, this is a killer one, it's like a crazy video game on LSD
What I like about Portnoy is that he's got FEELING. As a drummer that's hard, or at least it's harder for listeners to grasp. But with Portnoy you can just hear it's him.
If you were blown away my Mike Portnoy, check out his successor with Dream Theater, Mike Mangini. The drum solo on Live at Luna Park is just as over the top as anything Portnoy played. Mangini was a percussion instructor at Berkley School of Music, prior to inheriting the role of drummer for Dream Theater. He also has a DVD course out, called "The Grid", where he describes his compositional technique. I guarantee you won't be disappointed, this guy is another freak of nature that leaves drummers like me speechless.
you should check out this song live at budokan its called instrumeadly, more refined i guess or just different version of the dance of eternity but LIVE
Andrew! i love your vids! I dunno if you already know this, but i would like to imply some keyboard shortcuts to you for youtube :)
K or Spacebar : pause/unpause the vid
J or L: Skip behind/ahead 10secs
Arrow keys Left or right: Skip Behind/Ahead 5 secs
(while video is paused) < or > keys to go through frame by frame.
Side note: Mikes snare was always my fav snare sound, especially from the Purple Monster kit.
Thanks for the tips!!!