Alternate Picking Exercises – 9 John Petrucci Riffs to Boost   Technique Posted on December 2, 2007 by MD

One form of picking is alternate picking, which is difined by consistant down – up – down – up pick

strokes.  One of the best alternate pickers in the business is John Petrucci, famed guitarist of Dream

Theater.  Today we will take a look at riffs and lines he has played and use them as exercises to help

build good alternate picking technique.  If you are an alternate picking beginner, or want some more

exercises after you complete these, check out my alternate picking tutorial. For some sweep

picking help head here.

 NEW 7/29/08- 7 MORE John Petrucci Riffs to Boost Technique

1) In the Presence of Enemies Pt. 1- Dream Theater

The section starts at 4:24 into the song, although similar ideas are used throughout the song with a few

minor changes.  It is an easy alternate picking idea in D Dorian just to get the ball rolling. The time sigs

are a little funky but thats the only tricky part of this one.

2) Panic Attack- Dream Theater

The riff starts at 4:53.  It is not played in standard tuning.  This is a great exercise to practice alternate

picking across two adjacent strings.

3) Universal Mind- Liquid Tension Experiment

The intro to this song is a exercise for alternate picking with string skipping.

4) Gemini- John Petrucci

Sorry, no link for this one.  This is another alternate picking with string skipping exercise.

5)  Glasgow Kiss- John Petrucci

This riff looks like it should be sweep picked. But JP uses alternate on it. Learning it will help a lot with

alternate picking passages across strings.

6) Voices- Dream Theater

This next example is used by JP in his book, Wild Stringdom, to explain a practice technique he calls the

“Spanish Lap.”

I call it “Spanish Lap” practicing. Here’s how you do it: Play a pattern using nothing but sixteeth notes

( it’s critical that you play to a metronome set at a comfortable speed), and at a specific point, intersperse

it with sixteenth-note triplets. Continue util you can play it cleanly; then increase the metronome setting

and start over. Of course, don’t overdo it– just play the pattern long enough to feel that you got a good

workout. The benefits are twofold: your right hand will gain strenghth (due to repetitive picking of the

sixteenth notes), and you’ll start seeing an increase in your speed (it’s a lot easier to master a short, fast

lick and build on that). My rhythm part in “Voices” on our [Dream Theater's] album Awake (3:26 into the

song) …. clearly illustrates this approach.                             

 -John Petrucci

  from Wild Stringdom p.16

7) Learning to Live- Dream Theater

This very interesting alternate picking part starts at 12:05 into this video. It uses natural harmonics.  If

you don’t know how to execute a natural harmonic, instead of fretting the note, you lightly touch directly

over the fret wire and pick the note.

8) Erotomania- Dream Theater

This uses some odd groupings of 5. That is the only tricky part.  The section starts at 5:11 into the video.

9) The Ministry of Lost Souls- Dream Theater

The final piece I have for you is this unison line.  It starts at 3:33 into the video.  Look to draw on aspects

of other exercises to tackle it.