“This is instrumental guitar music, you can do what you want,” advises John Petrucci. Doubtless true, but, while rules are made to be broken, you’ll also find John’s staple virtuoso techniques on show in his latest solo outing. His use of tight, heavy Mesa Boogie-powered Metallica style riffs, lush, clean Rush-inspired chords and Steve Morse influenced chromatic alternate-picked lines is a combination he has built upon, evolved and continues to perfect to this day. The incredible accuracy in his playing and the genre-hopping songwriting chops on display in Terminal Velocity is testament to John’s continuing practice ethic; he still considers himself a student of the guitar.
Here, we’re looking at three areas of his soloing style though there’s arguably lots more to learn once you break the licks down. It’s advanced material, so we recommend practising each example in easy-to-digest phrases that you can repeat over and over.
CIRCADIA-STYLE ARPEGGIOS