John Petrucci’s Top 5 Tips for Guitarists

Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci has plenty of opportunity to flex his chops on the band’s new album ‘The Astonishing.’ Here’s his advice about how today’s budding guitarists can polish up their own skills.

For Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci, the recording of the band’s new double CD The Astonishing afforded him the opportunity to test drive and fine-tune prototypes of his first signature Mesa/Boogie amplifier, the JP-2C. Now that both the album and amp are out into the world, Petrucci reports that they’re a match made in heaven.

“The amp is a dream come true,” he tells Music Aficionado’s Joe Bosso. “It’s everything that Boogie promised it would be, and I just love playing it night after night on tour. It sounds like the best Mark IIC+ you’ve ever owned, but it’s been brought into the 21st Century. It does everything that I want, and I can’t say enough good things about it. It’s the best amplifier I’ve ever played through. Every night I just wanna hear that tone.

The boldly theatrical ‘The Astonishing’ is a rock opera that unfolds over the course of two and a half hours, and Dream Theater is performing the entire shebang from top to bottom live. Picking his favorite guitar moment from the 34-song show is a tall order, Petrucci says, but he does mention the guitar solo in A New Beginning as a contender.

“It’s a long guitar solo, so I do have a lot of fun with that one,” he says. “It’s really the only point on the album where that kind of thing stands out. You can tell from the audience response that they’re into it. We break away from the story and get back to a lot of rock ‘n’ roll.

“There are also some big moments in Hymn Of A Thousand Voices that make me feel extremely proud,” he continues. “And at the end of the show when we do Our New World, there are a couple of guitar solos that get the crowd going. They’re very positive and Van Halen-y, and I get to start the song with a big riff. That’s very fulfilling as a guitarist, for sure.”

Budding chops stars will do well to check out Petrucci’s top five tips for guitarists, which he runs down below.

Be Consistent

This applies to anything that you’re trying to get good at – sports and particularly the arts: Practice consistently as much as you can. You don’t want to be a weekend warrior, where you only play for an hour or two but you don’t play all week. I know that work and various things in your life can get in the way, and you might not have blocks of three hours each day to practice. But if you can somehow grab a half hour or hour a day, you’ll still get a lot out of it.

In that time, you can work on your muscle memory and your knowledge of the fretboard, and your association of the guitar as an extension of yourself will feel more natural. Trying to cram all of that into a Saturday afternoon just isn’t enough if your goal is to get really good at the guitar. So be consistent in your daily practice routine. It’ll really pay off.

Write Your Own Music

It’s certainly important to learn other people’s and mimic what they do on the guitar, but when you create your own music it opens up a part of your brain that will facilitate things like improvisation. Improvisation is essential to people in the arts – for actors and screenwriters, it greases the creative wheels – and of course, that especially holds true for musicians. Even if what you write doesn’t leave the privacy of your room, being able to improvise will help to develop your overall musicality.

If guitar is the vehicle for your career in music, you want to develop your own voice on the instrument. The more prolific you are and the more that you write, the easier it will be for you to find your own style as a player. It all goes hand in hand.

Play With People Who Are Better Than You

This might be a little scary at first, but it really helps to get into situations where you’re playing with musicians who are out of your comfort zone. Get into jams, or if you’re a kid, try to play with some of the older kids. It’s easy to feel like the big fish in a small pond, but that won’t get you very far. Sure, it will be humbling at first to start playing with people who can really rip, but if you stick with it, it’ll be very inspirational, and you’ll improve very, very quickly.

I’m very lucky in that the guys in my band are all phenomenal players. It’s always exciting to watch and listen to what they do. Going back to when I was in high school, I always made it a point to play with the older kids. At Berklee, I tried to sit in with the bigger jam sessions. It really helped. Again, I realize that you might be intimidated, and once in a while you might encounter a cocky bastard who won’t give you the time of day, but I generally find that players who have a high level of ability are very gracious about sharing their knowledge. Those are the guys you want to seek out.

Train Your Ear By Learning Different Guitar Solos

There are so many sources that are available to us now – you can go on YouTube and see how solos are played. That’s all fantastic, but there’s no substitute to learning how to train your ear. Try to pick things up just by hearing them and figuring out how to play them, and also try to seek out styles that are different from the stuff that you naturally like. Go outside your taste – that’ll expand your base of knowledge.

Learn violin pieces and sax solos. If you’re a rock fan, try to learn some country licks. It’ll help you to listen better, which will then allow you to play with greater ease – and you’ll have a broader range of ability at your fingertips.

Work On Your Tone

There are so many different ways to get a guitar sound – traditional amps, plugins, amp modeling and what have you. But the common goal should always be to have a really good tone. The guitar is a funny thing: It can sound really cool and beautiful, but if you’re not careful it can sound absolutely terrible.

Think about it: You’re striking some wires on a piece of wood, and you’re making it loud. That’s kind of a wild beast, and it can get out of hand very easily. Even if you’re a good player, bad tone can turn people off. Listen to your favorite players’ advice on how they go about things. It’s not as complicated as you might think. If you have a good guitar and a good amp and you’re not plugging in crappy pedals that create unwanted noise, and assuming you’re not using the cheapest cable in the store, you’re going to get a good sound. That’s your starting point.

Presentation is very important. Your tone is kind of like your clothing – it’s how you present your music to people. Do you want to come off stylish and sophisticated? Do you want to come off edgy and rough? These are the things you have to think about. Your tone will affect the way people will perceive your playing.