John Petrucci

2112' basically set the course for my musical career and how I approached Dream Theater.

Before you can apply chromatic ideas to scales and arpeggios, you have to get the chromatic scale itself under your fingers. You should learn it up and down the neck, and become comfortable with the fingerings.

Before Dream Theater took off I used to teach a lot, and one of the things my students often asked me was how to apply the chromatic scale to practical playing situations. You see, their other teachers would give them chromatic warm-up exercises without providing any explanation of how important and versatile this scale actually is.

A violin neck is much smaller than the guitar's, so it's much easier to play wide intervals on one violin string. On the guitar, you really have to stretch to play them.

The best way to learn sweep picking is to first isolate the right- and left-hand techniques, master them separately and then coordinate them.

I always get frustrated when I hear someone talking about sweep arpeggios. Though there are plenty of licks and examples out there, no one has ever really broken down the mechanics of the technique. As a result, guitarists have had to figure them out by trial and error.

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

By adding open strings to even the simplest chords, you can create voicings that sound sophisticated, but are really easy (and fun) to play. They're practical, not intimidating, and most certainly don't sound like 'jazz chords.'

Chopin was a master of melody, harmony and voice leading - the art of smoothly moving from chord to chord.

I often use triadic arpeggio forms within my riffs and solos as a tool to create rich-sounding, poly-chordal sounds.

Don't get stuck in a rut. If you started yesterday's practice playing arpeggios, start today's with scales. Also, try to make a song out of what you're practicing to help break the tedium.

Using open strings is a great way to add texture and atmosphere to any chord progression.

I wanted to go to Berklee College of Music because that's where Steve Vai went - I was total tunnel vision.

As a guitar player, you never stop learning, never stop honing your skills.

I don't know if people know this about me, but I'm into Billy Joel. I'm a huge fan of his and always have been. He's just a quintessential songwriter of our time. Talk about a storied career - so many classic songs and great albums.

Just because something is melodic or catchy doesn't mean that it doesn't have depth and substance and progressive sensibilities.

Just because you have developed the craft on your instrument doesn't mean that you don't have the ability to be expressive emotionally on that instrument, or vice versa.

We record Dream Theater shows and I'll sit on the bus and listen to my playing - what worked, what didn't. A lot of times it's embarrassing and humbling, but that's what you have to do to get better.

As teenagers, we used to listen to entire Rush albums, entire Pink Floyd albums and shut down the lights and it was great.

When you watch your favorite guitarists play, notice how little their hands and fingers move sometimes. The economy of motion can't be overemphasized.