John Petrucci's Guitar Playing

John Petrucci's guitar playing is legendary and it's no exaggeration to say that every guitarist wants to play like him, building his technical level and his quality as a composer. 

It's no surprise that John Petrucci is considered a guitar hero. He also shares the stage with players like Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Steve Vai, some of the greatest electric guitarists of all time.  

Who is John Petrucci?

First and foremost, John Petrucci is a guitar hero whose legend is already written in indelible ink. Beyond that, he is the guitarist of the progressive rock band Dream Theater.

According to the major magazines in the field, Petrucci is ranked among the ten best guitarists. He has also taken part in the G3 tours on several occasions. 

For all these reasons and many more, reaching John Petrucci's level of guitar playing is the dream of every guitarist in the world, from beginners to seasoned pros. 

What sets John Petrucci apart

What can we say about John Petrucci's playing? Plenty, but the qualities that stand out the most are: 

• Lightning-fast speed.
• Clean execution. 
• An exceptional harmonic foundation and depth. 
• Discipline and dedication to the guitar.

John Petrucci has reached an impressive level of playing that few are able to match. In fact, you can find master guitarists who still aren't able to perform certain pieces from Petrucci's repertoire. 

John Petrucci's guitar book

The book for studying John Petrucci's guitar technique is titled “Rock Discipline,” because for Petrucci, playing the guitar comes down to exactly that—discipline. 

The book is made up of nine chapters, or sections, which are as follows: 

• Left-hand exercises: since Petrucci is right-handed, his left hand is the one that frets the fingerboard. For him it's essential that the hand stays relaxed and develops almost acrobatic movements. With that in mind, he includes warm-up exercises that also help prevent tendinitis. 
• Right-hand exercises: now it's the right hand's turn to take its first steps, learning to move the pick across string skips while the left hand performs complex movements. 
• Synchronizing both hands: the synchronization exercises will make you smile through gritted teeth, because they're tough enough to make you cry as you try to coordinate the pick stroke with the string skips. 
• Speed and accuracy: for Petrucci, speed and accuracy go hand in hand, because there's no point in faking fast movements if nothing the guitarist is playing actually comes through clearly. That's why the exercises in this section are dedicated to practicing with the metronome at different picking tempos.  
• Scale fragments and harmonic sequences: from this section on, subdividing the beat is the rule. That's why you'll come across triplets, sextuplets of sixteenth notes, and quintuplets. This lets the guitarist raise the level of complexity and explore new horizons. 

Other interesting topics include alternate-picked arpeggios, legato, sweep picking and chord and orchestration techniques: 

So you can start practicing, we're giving you “Rock Discipline” as a free download for studying John Petrucci's guitar technique.