Stratovarius Community

Hi everyone!

Being a keyboardist myself, I must say Jens's skill to compose, not only incredibly fast, but very creative and expressive, beautiful solos is truly unique in the world. Definitely one major influence in me, he's a living legend. I'd like to know your opinion about which keyboard solos from him are your favorite or which you'd consider the best.

I'm going to start voting for the ending keyboard solo of Elysium, a melody full of energy and hope, but also passing through moments with tension, finishing with a joyful ending.

By the way, I myself made a video about this solo playing it as a small tribute to Jens. Hope you like it.
Here it is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YU2rpJ69Rk

And so, which is your favorite solo from J.J? Post your opinions!

-Joe

I too am a keyboardist, and I agree with your pick of Elysium's ending keyboard solo. That is one incredible solo. I'd also place Season of Change and Move the Mountain right behind that one.

EDIT: Holy shit dude, you played that PERFECTLY. Job well done, that is phenomenal! Your keytar is very cool too!

that is beyond awesome!
MUY BUENO!

Thank you very much to both of you The keytar is a Roland AX-7 hand painted by a friend and me ^^ It's fun to play and even more if you play the great Johansson! It was hard to learn it tho.

I agree with you, Empathica, Move the Mountain is also really great and expressive even it's not hard to play like others. I wish I could pay for a Jens masterclass about soloing! )

Lets see if more people post their favorite solos!

Mithedhel wrote:Lets see if more people post their favorite solos!

Really nice stuff!

I'll post some on the next record i hope

Very difficult to vote only one solo. But i say: King Of Nothing. That solo takes whole song totally higher level after that fine scale in the beginning of solo. I like very much Jens' style to alternate between legato and nonlegato inside phrases. And also alternate between melodic and fast ornamenting, tiluttelu, in finnish, you know..

Definelty after this fantastic demonstration I have to pray to see this song played live one day...

In my opinion one of the best solos is the "Glory Of The World" one. A full composition of Jens Johansson, full of power! This song has never been played live and I don't understand why! This song is mindblowing...

EDIT: "Why Are We Here?" from Intermission has a great duet keyboard-guitar too. The keyboard parts is amazing too : P!!

JensJohansson wrote:Really nice stuff!

I'll post some on the next record i hope

What a honor that you read my post! Would it be too much if I ask you for your personal favorite ones?

@Samovarius: Yeah man! Good choice, the solo from King of Nothing it's absolutely spectacular, and I love how he uses the distortion in that one too. You're right, very difficult to vote just one solo, too many small masterpieces!

@Shogakat: I think the same, I don't know why Glory of the World has never been played, specially the keyboards there are so cool, and the solo, it makes you reach the stars, fills you musically!!

you know , on the infinte vision DVD there are a few nice jens moments, (besides the exploding toilet) and there is a little intro keyboard solo that he played in chile before starting black diamond, I love that one, sounds amazing, other than that, I love find your own voice stuff, must have been a pain in the ass recording that whole song, and I must add the solos he did in winterhearts guild.

That's right, Winterheart's guild solos are the best Sonata Arctica solos haha, too bad the current keyboardist is not able to play them live! Jens did an amazing job there, so great it's impossible to imitate.

Find your own voice probably is the hardest Strato song to sing, but also the instrumental section is very cool yes, I've only seen one video of it live, and TK did a nice job considering how hard it is.

Oh how I hope to eventually see Elysium played live... That would be epic! So far I just can imagine how it would be : /

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Btw,can Jens answer why hes two songs were on a INFINITE bonus album, and not on the actual album.

Espessially Why are we here, would have deserved its place on a actual album.

I agree about Elysium....another rarer Strato song is is short but (for me anyway) awe inspiring solo in "I'm Still Alive" from Elements part 2. Every time he starts playing his solo in that song I start banging my head which makes for good entertainment for people in the car next to me! :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

There is always something in every Jens-solo. He is my idol. I have downloaded his solorecords and they are enormous. Someday I will buy them.

@Texidor Yeah! that one is really cool too, how it starts and changes speed.

Jens should make more solo albums : P

The intro solo from "The Cage" (Sonata Arctica), made by Jens, it's also a really good one

For me, one of my favorites is the Elements song solo... That one i find amazing...mI also like his work on fission and art metal... I made this a while ago... Cheers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ui6_Z1EuU8

Also a keyboardist here =) Hard to choose but I think my favorite is his Solo in Know the Difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... hNg#t=210s

Also @scorpions

The song Glory of the World was written by jens and is on the album.

@Mithedhel

Nice work with the solo man =). Do you have it written out or in a midi format, guitar pro, anything like that? I would love to learn it!

Ooh I forgot about Know the Difference, that's a good one. And how could I forget Phoenix?

The keyboard solo intro from The Game Never Ends makes the following unison even greater, but talking about unison lines guitar & keyboard would take another whole thread

@Plisken Thank you very much. I'm sorry I didn't write it in MIDI, specially because I don't know how to do it, I learnt it by ear completely and it took me a while to do it haha, it's far from being easy. About the Know the Difference solo, it's a pity they never played it live, the instrumental section is so cool, the unisons before and after the keyboard solo are amazing and very energic!

Really great job with the keytar there, man

Keyboardist here...
personally my favourite keyboard solos coming from jens johansson are 2
IN Stratovarius, it's Forever Free's keyboard solo, because it's so powerful

and OUTSIDE Strato, well... almost the whole Enigma Suite

say; it's an almost complete crap album, but, the keyboard solo in Gipsy in me is a GREAT keyboard solo...definately.

Allow me ...

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Great Video, from now on this video deserves trillions of views! Definetely Jens Johansson, who's a great composer, musician and a brilliant keyboard solo man deserves more recognition that he has!

If Kupiainen, Porra and Johansson compose together, Stratovarius will reach the place that they deserve since 2007.

The next step is to put Jens as the lead singer of the band and Kotipelto on the drums jajaja!

Matias, Lauri and Jens' compositions are very unique in every way. All of their music is very Stratovarius if you ask me, except Koti.

"Plisken"
Also @scorpions

The song Glory of the World was written by jens and is on the album.

Yes thats true, but I was speaking about "It's a Mystery".

Mithedhel wrote:The keyboard solo intro from The Game Never Ends makes the following unison even greater, but talking about unison lines guitar & keyboard would take another whole thread

@Plisken Thank you very much. I'm sorry I didn't write it in MIDI, specially because I don't know how to do it, I learnt it by ear completely and it took me a while to do it haha, it's far from being easy. About the Know the Difference solo, it's a pity they never played it live, the instrumental section is so cool, the unisons before and after the keyboard solo are amazing and very energic!

Ah i see, well you can record your AX7 in MIDI when while you are playing the solo, in any DAW like cubase or pro tools, etc. And just export the midi. that way you can import it in to programs like Finale. If you dont want to its cool =)

Plisken wrote:
Ah i see, well you can record your AX7 in MIDI when while you are playing the solo, in any DAW like cubase or pro tools, etc. And just export the midi. that way you can import it in to programs like Finale. If you dont want to its cool =)

Sorry, I don't have Cubase nor Pro Tools, and I don't either know how to use Finale, if you teach me I'll do that : P

No more favorite Jens solos?

Hahaha If I have to choose one... I think that Glory of the world solo is awesome. However, everytime I listen to any Black Diamond live performance, battles between guitar and keyboard are simply perfect.

How come you don't rock the keytar, Jens?

Mithedhel wrote:

Plisken wrote:
Ah i see, well you can record your AX7 in MIDI when while you are playing the solo, in any DAW like cubase or pro tools, etc. And just export the midi. that way you can import it in to programs like Finale. If you dont want to its cool =)

Sorry, I don't have Cubase nor Pro Tools, and I don't either know how to use Finale, if you teach me I'll do that : P

No more favorite Jens solos?

oh its easy!

Go here are download Reaper

http://www.reaper.fm/

You can record MIDI using that program. you connect your AX7 to your computer using USB-MIDI and in the program you set it up to receive that MIDI. Then when you record select a MIDI track. Press record and anything you play will be recorded in MIDI. Then just Export MIDI and thats it. I can do the rest =)