John Petrucci Quotes

I am a self-taught guitarist. I just try to piece together passages that have some melodic value!

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

In order to become a well-rounded musician, you have to master the three major aspects of guitar playing: the technical side, the musical side and the creative side.

I can play just about any keyboard but I can't read or write a note.

Yes indeed I have gained a lot out of playing scales and etudes.

I haven't learned anything new on guitar since high school. And I think it's time to learn something.

After playing for 40 years, I've been able to evolve the way I see the fretboard and how I hear the guitar in my head.

I'm not that fluid when it comes to scales and modes. I just pick up the guitar and play. It's all about exploration: just tune the guitar any way you want and start playing.

I've never been much of a guitarist. I mean, I've played forever, but I was always more of a rhythm kind of guy. I don't read music.

I didn't take lessons, and I don't know my scales.

You never learn everything on that guitar neck.

I've grown up with a piano in the house, and that's where I started to be able to learn things by ear. Guitar kind of happened, and I was using it just for writing at first. Then, I was writing so much that I began to realise that I knew how to play, and that's when I started getting nerdy about it.

What I try to impart to a musician is to really try to practice the instrument in a really sincere way. Learn as much about music as you possibly can. Learn composition. Study to try to create compositions of your own and put your own personal touch on your music.

I think my knowledge of music theory is rooted in jazz theory, and a lot of the writers of standards - Rodgers and Hart, and Gershwin.

I've always considered transcribing to be an invaluable tool in the development of one's musical ear and, over the years, I have spent countless glorious hours transcribing different kinds of music, either guitar-oriented or not.

Certainly, as a guitarist, I was aware of descending chromatic lines and arpeggios long before 1968.

I play guitar and I'm always trying to find out the latest kinds of riffs.

I was learning guitar as the band was beginning, at least in terms of being a lead guitar player. I could write songs, but I couldn't really play solos.

I find it quite easy to play chords, and, you know, that was all I ever did. I never wanted to be a lead guitarist.

As a kid, I used to sit there and figure out how to play everybody's song, and through learning all those songs I learned how to put chords together, and it evolved till I could say, 'Hey, I just wrote that.'

For a songwriter, you don't really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they're made of, and wonder if you can make one, too.

I've played the guitar since I was 12, and just taught myself songs chord by chord.

I can't read a note of music. I just do it all from ear.

I can read music, but I have no technique, and singing was never an option even though I sang a lot growing up.

I learned when I started to study piano that I could play by ear. I could hear a song on the radio a couple of times and hear the song and the lyrics and sing it for you after a couple of plays.