Learning Studio
The Learning Studio is where I share the educational side of my work. Here, I offer advanced keyboard lessons for musicians who want to explore complex progressive music directly on the instrument. A central part of this work includes Dream Theater keyboard tutorials, where I teach specific Dream Theater keyboard parts, unison passages, chord progressions, and important sections from the band’s music. These tutorials focus on learning how the parts are played and how they fit within the arrangement. Alongside the lessons, I provide supporting material such as sheet music and isolated tracks so musicians can study the parts in detail and practice them accurately. The goal is to help serious players approach demanding progressive rock and progressive metal keyboards with clarity and precision while developing the technical understanding required to perform these parts confidently. Full tutorials, sheet music, isolated tracks, and extended learning material are available on Patreon for musicians who want to study the material in depth.
Latest Release
Dream Theater - Hollow Years Solo (40ème Live in Paris 2024) + Chord Charts + Isolated Tracks
Chord Breakdown + Playthrough
The solo section of Hollow Years is one of the most recognizable moments in Dream Theater’s live performances. Under John Petrucci’s lead, the harmony cycles through a progression built around D minor that gives the solo its emotional direction.
For this post I reconstructed the progression used during the Paris show from the 40th Anniversary tour (November 2024) and recorded a full keyboard playthrough of the section.
In the video above you can follow the entire sequence with:
• keyboard note overlay
• chord names synchronized with the progression
Below you’ll find the full reference material used in the video.
What’s Inside This Post
Chord Progression Overview – quick look at the harmonic movement
Full Chord Chart + Keyboard References – progression with screenshots of the chords
Isolated Tracks – separate layers for detailed listening
1. Chord Progression Overview
First Section
Dm Dm7/C Gm7 A Dm
Dm Dm7/C Gm7-add9 Asus4 Dm
Dm Dm7/C Gm7-add9 Asus4 Dm
Dm Dm7/C Gm7 A Dm
Second Section
In this section I slightly extend the C and Am chords by adding upper tones and moving through different inversions.
The variations used here include:
Cadd9 — root position
C6 — first inversion
Am add9 — root position
Am11 — first inversion
Am7 — second inversion
These appear as passing harmonic colors while the progression moves through the section.
Dm B♭ C Am
Dm B♭maj7 C Am
Dm B♭ C Am
B♭ B♭ C C
Dm B♭ C Am
Dm B♭maj7 C Am
Dm B♭ C Am
B♭ B♭ C C
Third Section
Dm B♭ C Am
Dm B♭ C Am
Dm B♭ C Am
Dm B♭ C Am
B♭ B♭ C C
2. Full Chord Chart + Keyboard References
Go to Patreon to view the chord charts and references
3. Isolated Tracks
To make the section easier to analyze, I included three isolated tracks:
• Band + John Petrucci guitar (no keyboards)
• Jordan Rudess keyboard tracks
• My piano reconstruction
All tracks were exported from the exact same starting point, so you don’t need to synchronize anything.
Simply load them together and they will line up automatically from the beginning.
This allows you to hear clearly:
• the harmonic movement under the solo
• what the keyboards contribute to the texture
• how the reconstructed piano part fits with the original layers
Proceed to Patreon to watch the video with the keyboard overlay, get the chord charts and download the isolated tracks. It’s all yours at no cost!