<glacius:metadata>

    <title>Dream Theater - Forsaken - Solo</title>

    <description>My recording of the solo from Dream Theater's "Forsaken"</description>

    <category>Music</category>

    <category>Music recording</category>

    <category>Guitar</category>

    <series order="16">2022 music project</series>

</glacius:metadata>

<p>

    <em>Forsaken</em> is probably my favorite song about a vampire luring

    people into situations in which they get their blood sucked. Or at

    least, it has my favorite guitar solo.

</p>

<glacius:figure glacius:src="forsaken-book-480p.jpeg" type="image">

    <caption>

        <em>Forsaken</em> solo from Dream Theater's 2007 album <em>Systematic Chaos</em>

    </caption>

</glacius:figure>

<p>

    In guitarist/lyricist John Petrucci's <a href="https://youtu.be/F-iXXCg6fLM?t=465">own words</a>:

</p>

<blockquote><p>

    It's about somebody who gets visited at night by a vampiress, and gets taken

    away and shown all these wonderful things but doesn't realize the whole time

    that he's getting his blood sucked. And then she ends up taking him in the

    end. Nice light topic.

</p></blockquote>

<h2>Recording</h2>

<p>

    With apologies to Jordan Rudess and John Myung; I just made up a bass and keyboard

    part. But they're always so criminally low in the studio mix you can't really hear 

    them anyway, so who knows what they're actually playing.

</p>

<p>

    Actually, I'll just go ahead and apologize to Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci, and

    James LaBrie as well.

</p>

<glacius:figure 

    glacius:src="forsaken-solo-480p.mp4" 

    glacius:thumbnail="forsaken-solo-poster.jpeg" 

    type="video">

    <caption>

        Me pantomiming a fairly mediocre attempt at the solo from <em>Forsaken</em>

    </caption>

</glacius:figure>

<p>

    It ends with a 6-string sweep starting on the 19th fret. I don't really understand why

    anyone would want to write a solo with something like that in it.

</p>

<hr />

<p>

    Recorded in <a href="https://ardour.org/">Ardour</a>

    and <a href="http://hydrogen-music.org/">Hydrogen</a> was used to program

    the drum track.

</p>

<glacius:figure 

    glacius:src="forsaken-ardour-hydrogen.png"

    glacius:thumbnail="forsaken-ardour-hydrogen-thumb.jpeg" 

    type="image">

    <caption>Screenshot of my Ardour/Hydrogen setup</caption>

</glacius:figure>