John Petrucci Quotes

I have no formal guitar training whatsoever, so it's been fun learning sweep-picking techniques. Working on these types of licks has thrown a whole new collection of tricks into the mix.

Basically, I use hammer-ons and pull-offs.

I noticed a lot of guitar players neglected the rhythm part of rhythm guitar and decided I would try to focus in that. As my skill and knowledge of the instrument grew, I found lead started to come naturally. Sometimes I play guitar like a frustrated drummer. Ha ha!

To play sweep arpeggios correctly, you have to mute each note with the left hand immediately after picking it.

I learned sweep picking from a variety of sources. One was a Frank Gambale instructional video, but he executes his sweeps a little differently.

I never use pull-offs because I don't like the sort of 'meow' sound they make with the string being deflected sideways.

Sweep picking is when the right hand sweeps down and up the strings in succession. But when you do sweep picking, one note rings into the next, and it sounds almost like you're playing a chord, and that's exactly what you don't want.

It's so satisfying as a guitar player to play stuff that's related to the blues.

All I'm trying to do is simply play guitar and elicit this creativity from the instrument.

As a guitar player, you can gravitate to the blues because you can play it easily. It's not a style that's difficult to pick up. It's purely emotive and dead easy to get a start with.

You never learn everything on that guitar neck.

I feel like I'm just learning how to play the guitar. I mean, really learning to play the guitar.

I love to play guitar. I've been writing my own songs on the axe since I was nine years old. I suck at leads.

I taught myself how to play the guitar, so I basically learned by a system of making mistakes.

For me, theory has always opened things up to where I can walk into a room and just by hearing something I know exactly where to go on the guitar. I have a better time playing because I have a variety of colors to bring to the table.

Guitar playing is just something that came to me and is really second nature now.

I've always thought that the act of playing the guitar was the act of trying to make a point of playing the guitar.

In real life I can play guitar, sure, but badly.

I just want to be a better guitar player, really.

I've got my own style on the guitar, sure, and I play rhythm in a certain way, and I use certain inflections. People have said that to me, and I understand it.

Play the pentatonic blues scale, just for fret- and pick-hand dexterity and to mesh them both together.

I consider descending chromatic lines and arpeggiated chords basic skills learned by any student of the guitar.

To make harmonics scream, I first dump my Floyd Rose real quick, hit a harmonic with my left hand while the string is still flapping, and then use the bar to pull it up to the pitch I wanna hit.

I've played guitar in so many different styles, and I want to revisit them all.

I've started to look at guitar playing from more than just a standpoint of using certain modes and techniques.