Quotes from John Petrucci

Rush is one of the common denominators in our band as far as a band that everybody loves and grew up with and was a big influence.

Music doesn't have to sit within the confines of pop structure, you can really make stuff that's more visual.

Early on in my career, I was really into the volume pedal techniques that somebody like Steve Howe or Alex Lifeson would use.

Although music comes from a very personal place, talent is meant to be shared.

The cool thing about our fans is that they're not just passive concert goers.

I used to have these reoccurring dreams that I played guitar, which I thought was so bizarre. It all sort of fit together at some point, and I said 'I want to play guitar.'

If I had to pick a favorite band of all time, it would be Rush.

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.

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.

Seeing Rush the first time was huge for me. That was my favorite band and I couldn't believe they were actually in the same building as me. I was totally freaking out when the show started and when they started to play it was almost like cartoon characters coming to life. I couldn't get my head around the fact that it was really them.

I often think about my Music Man guitars being 100 million percent tailored to my needs as a player and how lucky I am.

Music is a communication. It's a two-way street. You need people to play to in order to make that connection complete. That's the way we look at it.

I don't have very eclectic tastes in music.

As far as bands doing that in a way where they think they're going to fight the government, the only people they're really hurting is the fans.

My main objective with a home studio - I could get into doing full band demos - but my first objective is to cut things like guitar tracks and solos at home.

Jordan Ruddes does [have a home studio], but it's all self-contained. I'll be the only guy with a fully built recording studio. So they'll have to come to me.

I'm grateful that as part of the Ernie Ball family, I'm able to connect with my fans in such a meaningful way and hopefully inspire guitar players to up their game!

I've listened to musicians who say that using a metronone makes you robotic, that it decreases your 'feel.' That's ridiculous. Either you have feel or you don't. Feel is one of those intangibles that can't be taught. But if you do have feel, using a metronome will allow you to play cleaner - and that'll make your 'feel' have more, well, 'feeling.'

We love what we do. We're passionate about making music and as composers; that's just who we are.

When I think of a lot of the players I admire, they could always play their parts without hiding behind distortion and sustain.

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

You can approach the guitar like a voice. That's the best way of looking at it. If you are singing, you can't keep going a million miles an hour. You can only fit so many syllables in, so think about what you can sing through your guitar. Players like David Gilmour and Neal Schon are great at that kind of thing.

Definitely an important aspect of my playing is keeping my hands in sync.

After you've practiced for an hour or so, turn down the lights and record yourself playing. Improvise and go nuts, then playback what you've recorded and listen for your strengths and weaknesses.