Picker’s Treat

In an exclusive lesson, prog guitar virtuoso John Petrucci demonstrates the picking technique behind the licks to “Pull Me Under,” “Sacrificed Sons” and other masterpieces from Dream Theater and his solo career.

by Andy Aledort

Whether scorching stages all over the world as a member of prog-metal masters Dream Theater or burning up the fretboard as the frontman in his own power trio, John Petrucci consistently continues to blow minds as one of today’s most brilliant players. In this exclusive lesson, the guitarist un veils the key elements to his phenomenal technique and demonstrates the signature licks to such classic DT songs as “Pull Me Under,” “Sacrificed Sons” and “Metropolis, Pt. 1,” as well as his solo masterpiece, “Damage Control.”

“When it comes to alternate picking,” Petrucci explains, “you can make an analogy to drumming: a drummer uses two hands to play patterns, but might choose to have all of the accents sounded with the right hand. Guitarists use downstrokes and upstrokes to play fast patterns, but doubling up on down- or upstrokes might be essential to the sound of a specific melody. So as a player, you’ve got to sharpen your picking skills as much as you can.”

Petrucci epitomizes the ideal of having one’s picking skills together—just check out such timeless Dream Theater tracks as “Fatal Tragedy” and “Erotomania,” as well as the aforementioned songs. The 39-year-old guitarist has seen his stature rise steadily since 1989 and the release of Dream Theater’s first album, When Dream and Day Unite. By the time of 1994’s Images and Words, Petrucci’s technical skills placed him at the forefront of the metal/prog-rock/shred world. Recent stints as the third guitarist in Joe Satriani and Steve Vai’s G3 guitar summit tours have only garnered Petrucci more acclaim worldwide. “Our fan base is bigger now than ever,” says the guitarist. “It’s incredible how the fans have stuck with the band and have continued to grow in numbers.”

Dream Theater’s latest release, Score, is a two-DVD / three-CD set that includes the bands 20th Anniversary Tour grand finale, recorded at New York’s prestigious Radio City Music Hall—three hours in length, 90 minutes of which features a full orchestra. Other recent releases include the G3: Live in Tokyo DVD and Petrucci’s first solo effort, Suspended Animation.

Petrucci recently took time out to stop by GW headquarters to offer up this exclusive lesson/interview.

Guitar World: Dream Theater’s music ranges from the thrash metal heaviness of Metallica to the technically challenging intensity of complex prog-rock. What bands or guitar players have influenced you the most?

John Petrucci: Rush and guitarist Alex Lifeson are among my biggest influences. In fact, if I had to name my favorite band, it would be Rush. One of the essential things I picked up from Alex is how to make the guitar sound really big, especially within the context of a trio. This has been useful when playing on my own with my side project.

GW: How do you go about making a guitar part sound bigger?

JP: When playing rhythm guitar, one way is to add ninths—or seconds—to the chords, or add the fifth on the bottom of a voicing, and try to use all six strings when playing chords.

Here’s an example [FIGURE 1a]: instead of playing a straight C5 chord, I like to add the suspended second [D, second string/third fret] by barring across all the strings at the third fret. This also enables me to add the low fifth, G, on the bottom of the chord, which fattens up the sound considerably.

GW: Can you site an example of this type of chord in a Dream Theater song?

JP: For one of the main rhythm guitar parts in “Metropolis, Pt. 1” [FIGURE 2], I use a big E5 voicing played across five strings [bar 2], followed by a Csus2 voicing in the next bar. I also arpeggiate this chord by dragging the pick across all of the strings, moving from low to high, instead of strumming all the strings at once.

This is a big part of my playing style. Anytime I can use open strings in a chord, or add a ninth, I will. For example, I’ll oftentimes play these open sus2 voicings instead of regular power chords [FIGURE 3]. Using open strings or adding the fifth on the bottom of a voicing below the root helps to provide a bigger, richer sound.

GW: Are there any other rhythm techniques you picked up from Alex Lifeson?

JP: A big one is the use of open-string pedal tones within a chord progression. In this example [FIGURE 4], I’m using the open B string as a pedal tone that sustains through the entire chord progression, which helps to create a melodic connection between all of the chords as well as create an ominous kind of feeling. I think these techniques also help to make a rhythm part more interesting, and if you add chorus and delay effects you can end up with a guitar sound that’s as big as a house! Here’s another example wherein all of the chord voicings include the top two open strings [FIGURE 5].

GW: A staple of the Dream Theater sound, as well as of your solo work, is the use of airtight guitar/bass octave-unison lines, such as those in the heavy interlude riff in “Sacrificed Sons.”

JP: That’s another example of the Rush influence. Alex and Geddy [Lee], especially on their early records, played some incredibly complex and kind of bluesy riffs together in octaves, and we as a band like to take that same approach to get a really thick sound.

Here’s the “Sacrificed Sons” riff [FIGURE 6): it’s played in the key of E and is based around the E minor blues scale [E G A B♭ B D] with a lot of chromaticism [notes that are half steps, or one fret, apart] added. This riff is palm-muted throughout and is played with alternate [down-up] picking exclusively, which in this case is essential in order to achieve the machine-like execution that I’m looking for.

GW: The riff also encompasses many meter shifts.

JP: That’s right. The first phrase is only one bar long, but it’s a bar of 6/4. It’s followed by a bar of 4/4 with a little 3/8-bar tag that finishes off the phrase. These first three bars can be thought of in groups of notes, the first being six, followed by two groups of five and then two groups of three. Next comes the riff in F# [bar 4], which is first played in 15/16 and then, with an added 16th note, is played in 4/4.

GW: Is it difficult to get the band together on shifting meters like these?

JP: Sometimes it is, depending on the riff, but speaking for myself, I just feel the riff going by, as well as the inherent melody within it. As far as how to count it, that can change at any given time, depending on how Mike [Portnoy, Dream Theater drummer] is phrasing his part. I don’t concern myself with the mathematical breakdown, or even how I’m feeling it; I just focus on where the melody lies within the riff.

As a band, we sometimes take it to extremes by shifting back and forth between different meters, and we can have so me pretty big disagreements about what meter a phrase should be played in. A good example is the riff in the last two bars of the previous example. We knew we needed a riff in F#, and it just came out the way it did with out us thinking specifically about odd meters. But there are moments when we will want to make things more interesting, and we’ll start to think about how to take things eve n further in terms of changing the meter. We’ll say, “Is this phrase better if it’s all in 9/8, or should it alternate between 9/8 and a different meter? “We’ll sometimes try every variation and permutation until we get some thing that sounds right to all five of us.

A lot of times it’s a matter of compromise. One of us might think a riff sounds good staying in 4/4, and someone else thinks it sounds better alternating with an other meter, so we’ll figure out a way to do both. That way, we end up getting all of the different variations in there.

GW: You’re well known and respected for your incredible precision when it comes to alternate picking. Can you demonstrate some ways for players to develop and improve their alternate-picking technique?

JP: There are a couple of different ways to play licks like the previous one: one way is down-up-down-up, and the other is starting on an up stroke and playing up-down-up-down. When playing in an odd meter, it can get confusing because the phrase might feel better starting on a downstroke, and when the riff comes back around you find that you’re on an upstroke because of the odd number of notes in the phrase. You have to get used to being able to accent notes with either a downstroke or an upstroke as necessary.

What I did early on as part of my practicing routine was to play something—be it a riff, scale, arpeggio or whatever—with alternate picking, first beginning on a downstroke and then beginning on an upstroke. This was primarily because of the influence of Steve Morse, who is both an amazing technician as well as a brilliant guitar player overall. If I had to pick my all-time favorite guitarist, it would be Steve. He’s said that you should be prepared to alternate pick anything starting with either a downstroke or an upstroke. They both feel different, so whatever you practice, you should do it both ways.

GW: What’s a good way to get started with this approach?

JP: You can start with the simplest thing, like a scale fragment [FIGURE 7} this is an octave and a half of a G major scale, and I like to practice this phrase ascending and descending repeatedly, starting first with a downstroke and then playing it again starting with an upstroke. This is a great warmup that will help to work out any kinks in your picking execution. It pretty much sounds the same when playing it either way, but it enables you to get used to accenting either a downstroke or an upstroke with equal facility.

This skill proves invaluable when you’re playing something that changes meters and alternate picking constantly; you won’t be thrown off or tempted to play consecutive downstrokes in the tricky spots. Double downstrokes can sound cool for certain riffs, but if you’re looking for a consistent, “clocked” type of execution, you have to be able to alternate pick both ways.

Here’s another great exercise for getting your alternate-picking technique together [FIGURE 8]. I drove a lot of people crazy when I was growing up; my family would yell at me, “Why are you playing the same thing over and over?” and I’d say, “I’m not—it just sounds that way!”

GW: Can you give an example of using this approach when playing across adjacent strings?

JP: Sure. A good example is playing arpeggios [FIGURE 9, bar 1]: here’s a G major arpeggio, starting with a downstroke. You have a little problem spot between the G and B string because the downstroke on the B string is followed by an upstroke on the G string, meaning that you have to cross the B string on the way to the G, and then you have to cross the G to get back for the next down stroke on the B. It’s a lot easier to play this figure starting with a downstroke on the lowest string [FIGURE 9, bar 2]. The next logical step is to add pull-offs [FIGURE 9, bar 3], which will feel the most natural. But you have to practice the hard ones so you’ll never get stuck on a tricky picking pattern.

GW: Did you learn any specific picking exercises from Steve Morse?

JP: Yes; this next thing is something I learned from one of Steve’s clinics, and I still use it to warm up [FIGURE 10]: the exercise consists of alternate picking a long series of barre chord shapes, and those “problem” elements of consistent alternate picking are addressed across much of the fretboard. Each shape is six notes long, playing down-up-down, up-down-up, with palm muting throughout.

GW: A great example of alternate picking through shifting meters is the melody of “Damage Control,” from your solo release, Suspended Animation.

JP: Right. During the first eight bars of the melody, the meter shifts back and forth, one bar at a time, between 7/8 and 4/4. Here’s the rhythm part [FIGURE 11a], and here’s the melody [FIGURE 11b]. My picking approach is not that strict on this part, however; sometimes I’ll use consecutive downstrokes, and in other instances I alternate pick consistently.

GW: In the first bar of the melody, you allow all of the notes to ring together through beats three and four.

JP: That’s another example of trying to make the guitar sound bigger; the same is true in bar 4, so, when playing these riffs, be sure to allow all of the notes to sustain into each other and fill up the space.

GW: How do you play the chorus melody?

JP: Like this [FIGURE 12]: you can see that the melodic shapes here are based on the main melody, but in this section the meter is 7/8 for three bars, followed by bars of 9/8, 4/4 and 6/8.

GW: I notice that you change the tone of the guitar in the course of playing these melodic figures.

JP: There is something to be said for changing your tone as you play; I think it adds to the expression. This is something that develops with time; you may hear so me younger players with great technical ability, but attention to shaping the tone takes a degree of maturity and experience. Joe Satriani has been a huge influence for me in this regard; not only melodically and technically—his intonation is just unbelievable—but he changes his tone brilliantly as he plays. He’ll use the wah-wah, or just pick along the length of the string at different points .

I generally like to play higher melodies on the neck pickup, and if I want a specific note to jump out, I’ll switch to the bridge pickup for that one note. This melody combines a chordal outline along with an inherent melody, and the articulation choices I make in terms of “speaking’’ the melody reveal the influence of Steve Vai. Steve’s the king of interesting guitar; everything he does grabs you. I’ll be listening to him and think, Wow, I’ve never heard anyone do that before! And then, two bars later, I’ll think Wow, I’ve never heard anyone do that before! I have little pictures of Steve in my head when I’m writing melodies like these.

GW: The solo section of “Damage Control” switches to a double-time feel, and you crank up the shred machine.

JP: There are a couple of fast licks in there; here’s a four-bar lick I play over the E♭ section [FIGURE 13], executed entirely with fast alternate picking.

GW: Let’s go back into the past for a moment. One of Dream Theater’s biggest tunes is “Pull Me Under.”

JP: The Metallica influence is apparent on the main riff [FIGURE 14]. I often describe Dream Theater as a marriage between the sound of Yes and Metallica, meaning it’s the instrumentation of Yes but with a heavier so und in terms of the guitar and the double-bass drumming.

This riff is comprised of different sliding two-note power chords played against a low open E pedal tone [FIGURE 14]. Each of these power chords is either a root-fifth or a fifth-root voicing.

When playing riffs like these the sound of the amp becomes a very important factor: you don’t want too much distortion because the low notes need to be tight. A friend of mine describes it as the sound of a steel pipe being smashed into a brick building...

GW: Is this a particularly violent friend of yours?

JP: [Laughter] A little bit! So the key is rolling off the gain on the amp, as well as the bass; on some of my older Mesa/Boogies, I’ll have the bass on zero, or 1 or 2. Also important is that the riff must be palm-muted, and when playing the chords you should drag the pick across the strings in a staggered, deliberate manner, as opposed to strumming them in quick succession.

GW: Another great example of complex single-note lines played over shifting meters is the slow interlude section of “Metropolis, Pt. 1,” from Dream Theater’s Images and Words.

JP: This part [FIGURE 15] can be interpreted a number of different ways; one is as two bars of 12/8, subdivided as 5/8 plus 7/8, followed by a bar of 10/ 8 and then 12/8 subdivided as 7/8 plus 5/8. Through the last three bars of this figure, I switch from straight alternate picking to using double downstrokes when moving from one subdivided group to another.

The easiest way to play fast-moving metric modulations like these is to break them up into smaller bits; for example, the first riff can be thought of as 1-2-3, 1-2, then 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2. But if I try to count it and play it at the same time, I get lost!