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.