The Count Of Tuscany // Dream Theater
I’m a big believer in using music as a tool to help one get motivated to revise and stay revising for more than a few minute, and nothing works better for me than ‘The Count of Tuscany’ by Dream Theater. This some nineteen minute long epic is fuelled with punchy, progressive riffs to start off and they get you motivated to get stuck into your revision session. But then it throws into the mix this long and slow synth part which sort of acts as background noise, and so you find yourself working alongside this rather odd trance without even realising. From here the song transitions into a very melodic stretch of music, which reintroduces the beat. The song slowly descends into an instrumental master piece before one final transition into the sounds of what I assume is the sea. From here it slowly fades out and I usually find after it’s over that I continue to work in silence; partly because it never really registers that the song is over and partly because anything else would just disturb the flow I have worked myself into. The length might put people off (or not) but it’s definitely worth a shot if you find the traditional 3-4 minute length songs distract you too much.
Words by Joshua Jones