That’s right, we all know that Petrucci is the greatest and most diverse guitarist alive today – no question, but if you happen to have doubts, read this.

In the early days

John Pertrucci, originally form Long Island, New York, began his incredible career by attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. This is where he hooked up with the legendary drummer Mike Portnoy, and with the help of childhood friend John Myung began a band called Majesty, which would later blossom into Dream Theater.

In Petrucci’s biography section on his website, he lists some influences such as Steve Morse, Al DiMeola, Steve Howe, Allan Holdsworth, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Randy Rhoads, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Alex Lifeson, Yngwie Malmsteen, Rush, Yes, Iron Maiden, The Dregs and Metallica. Knowing as much as I do about his career and past work, I believe this list to be an accurate description of how he plays. Notice Rush and Yes have two mentions, the guitarists and their respective bands, it maybe redundant but I think it says something about his take on Progressive Rock.

Scenes from the Dream Theater

When I was about 14, I thought that if I could play any Metallica song, I would be great. Then at 15, I thought that if I could play any Iron Maiden song, only then would I be great. Then I discovered Dream Theater from a friend of mine and that was it for me. After listening to Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence and Scenes From A Memory I was hooked. Petrucci’s riffs and soloing may seem a bit flashy, but remember he is a progressive rock musician at heart; it just comes out of him. To this day when I dig into attempting a John Petrucci song, I still fall flat on my face. Its not that I am a terrible guitarist, it’s just that Petrucci is one of the best. Not only is he lightning fast, but when he needs to be, he is also crazy about rhythm, which can be incredibly tedious to emulate, but the challenge only makes you a better guitarist.

Listen to Liquid Tension Experiment 1 & 2, then tell me what Petrucci cannot do. The track Acid Rain, will humble the most boastful and tell them that’s ok, just practice more.

Shortly after becoming obsessed with Petrucci, I searched from articles, lessons and videos he has made to better my own playing. There is so much out there. I have a vivid memory in high school of sitting on the edge of my bed and watching the DVDs 5 Years in a Livetime, Images and Words Live in Tokyo and Metropolis 2000:Scenes From New York over and over again with a guitar in my lap. At that point in my playing, the only song I remember keeping up with is YTSE Jam. Petrucci also has a guitar lesson video out called ROCK DISCIPLINE (I made that bold and italic for a reason), ROCK DISCIPLINE is essential viewing for anybody who wants to discipline their fingers. Even at age 21, I still practice with exercises from this video to this day. Here’s a taste of some of his exercises:

Not only does he have an impressive career of his own, playing, writing and producing for Dream Theater, he also has side projects and features on other people’s albums, such as Jon Finn’s album Wicked. Jon Finn is a professer at Berklee College of Music in Boston, with whom I was lucky enough to take a class with one summer. Finn is and excellent guitarist and a fellow Ibanez endorser, which is how they met.

Music Man

Petrucci doesn’t support that 1980’s African inspired Ibanez anymore, now he has his own Petrucci Music Man.

Oh, and now he’s a body builder too

I cannot emphasize this enough. Petrucci practiced and practiced to get to the level he is at today, and he is at the top of his game. Petrucci is consistently named best guitarist of the year by various different organizations. He has the discipline of a saint when it comes to guitar and fairly recently, it has carried over into bodybuilding. We, as budding guitarists can all learn something from Petrucci, if you work hard, results will follow. My recommendation to all readers is to take a song of his that blows your mind, (there will be many) and dive right into trying to play it. I do not care what you use… tabs, sheet music, GuitarPro, whatever. Keep at it for a while. Weeks, months, in my case years of working on Glasgow Kiss.

Just start at half speed and work yourself up, pay attention to how you sound as much as grabbing the right notes, and anything else you delve into will benefit from this practice.

Oh, and if you get frustrated, watch these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbTnnjcIt7M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3okO9qGt7A4&feature=related

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Mike Kolbenson is a staff writer at SMG. Mike is a recent graduate from Purchase College, SUNY and absolutely in love with all things guitar. Email: mikekolbenson@sharemyguitar.com

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Canadian Rock band RUSH is currently conquering America with their 2010 The Time Machine Tour!

Being a HUGE Rush fan, the opportunity arose to see the legendary Progressive Rock band RUSH live in Las Vegas, Nevada last Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The show was nothing short of amazing!

I bought a ticket to the show last minute and walked outside The Hotel where I was staying to a shuttle bus that would take the excited Rush fanatics over to the gig straight away. I was so eager to get their, I arrived early and was the first on the bus. I was singing various Rush songs to myself and banging my hands away on the seat in front of me (doing my best Neil Peart drum solo) for a good ten minutes while the engine of the bus hummed away. I began to wonder… am I going to be the only one at this show?

Within about 15 minutes or so another 15 to 20 people boarded the shuttle and away we went! I began to chat with the fellow Rush fans around me and lo and behold, I met several cool guitar players. I asked them if they’d seen Rush before and between the three of us, we’d seen the band a collective 60 times! In a snap we arrived at the stadium and it was jam packed with people of all ages. Kids, teenagers, moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas… all there and all ready to rock! I grabbed a couple souvenir T-shirts and wondered over to my seat. The place was PACKED! 17,000 seats and not an empty seat in the joint!

Aside from the obvious killer catalog of music to choose from, Rush had several shows within the show itself. What do I mean by that? Well to begin with, there was amazing lighting that was remotely controlled and was zooming around and transforming (much like a real life Transformer). They had a huge mega screen with awesome imagery constantly cutting and moving along in perfect time with their beat. They even filmed and starred in a series of funny Time Machine themed shorts that involved Geddy Lee sporting funny facial hair and a Yiddish accent, Alex Lifeson hardly resembling himself but much closer to Humpty Dumpty with a thick Czech accent and Neil Peart donning a police badge, push broom mustache and Irish accent. They also spared no expense to add cool time machine gadgets about the stage, tubes that shot smoke and fire and there was even an actor who pushed a shopping cart on stage to feed the time machine. I think he may have even exited stage left, but don’t hold me to that!

The concert opened with the time machine motif launching the band into Spirit of the Radio. The crowd was energized and the band was flawless. Geddy was jumping around, running from side to side and hopping back and fourth. His bass lines where dead on perfect and his fingers just seem to effortlessly float across the maple neck of his Fender Jazz. Even though I didn’t have great seats, the mix sounded great. Alex is, in my opinion, one of the most under-rated guitarists out there. His licks were perfect from start to finish. He shreds as good as anybody and he brought a full array of guitars to boot! Then there was Neil who sported his trademark relaxed expression (like someone about to yawn) while he unleashed the most killer, hard hitting precision drumming ever seen or heard. These cats are the best in the biz.

For those of you who have seen the movie I Love You, Man, you will particularity enjoy the closing film they showed after the encore. I don’t want to give everything away, but it involves a hysterically funny scene backstage after a Rush concert where Geddy, Alex and Neil arrive to the dressing room only to find Paul Rudd and Jason Segel “slappin da bass” and eating Neil’s special sandwich. You really outta check it out!

Set List 1:

* THE SPIRIT OF RADIO
* TIME STAND STILL
* PRESTO
* STICK IT OUT
* WORKIN’ THEM ANGELS
* LEAVE THAT THING ALONE
* FAITHLESS
* BU2B
* FREE WILL
* MARATHON
* SUBDIVISIONS

Set List 2:

* TOM SAWYER
* RED BARCHETTA
* YYZ
* LIMELIGHT
* CAMERA EYE
* WITCH HUNT
* VITAL SIGNS
* CARAVAN
* LOVE 4 SALE
* CLOSER TO THE HEART
* 2112 OVERTURE / TEMPLES
* FAR CRY

Encore:

* LA VILLA STRANGIATO
* WORKING MAN

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Mickey Richardson is the editor and staff writer for SMG. Mick is from Southern California and has played with a number of bands over the past 10 years. Email Mick

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John Scofield is probably best known to many as a sideman to Miles Davis from 1982 – 1985, but that’s not what stands out on his resume.

Why should you know him?

Scofield has been making musical history since he left Berklee College of Music to join Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker. His past work has involved key jazz players like Charles Mingus and Herbie Hancock, to musicians outside the realm of jazz such as Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. stylistically he is a Chameleon, he first conquered the world of jazz guitarists, rising to become one of the “big three”; a tier that also includes Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell. Scofield then proceeded to juke jazz listeners by getting down and dirty with some good ole funk.

The first time I heard of John Scofield was on the funky album Out Louder, which involved John Medeski on keys, Billy Martin on drums, and Chris Wood on bass. This collective is known as Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood. The track that summed it all up for me is called Miles Behind; somebody told the drummer it was a fast hard rock song and somebody told the guitarist it was a funk song, but it came out to be heavenly bliss.

Equipment: That Iconic Ibanez

John Scofield has endorsed Ibanez for many years and still sports a 1981 Ibanez AS – 200, which has been his primary guitar for nearly 20 years.

What in the world is a Hottentot?

When listening to Out Louder it is impossible to remain still, like much of Scofield’s work, the body involuntarily moves and irks the listener to dance. Just try listening to John Scofield’s recorded version of Hottentot and not feel Groove Elation. The whole song revolves around a Bb7 and relents only to a sly, snake in the grass, sounding chorus.

When I figured out this little tune, I had my roommates at college begging me to stop playing it all day, everyday, so please, use this abbreviated transcription for good, not evil.

John Scofield – Hottentot

Main riff over – Bb7

Fig 1

————————————————————

—–6-6——–9^—-6———–6h9p6————–

——————————8—————————–

————————————————————-

————————————————————-

————————————————————-

Fig 2

————————————————————-

—9\8-9-10p8———–6^—————————-

——————-11–8——-8–6-6—-7h8———–

————————————————————-

————————————————————-

————————————————————-

Chorus

Fig 3

————————————————————-

————————————————————-

——–9/10~~—–9~~~—-8—–8——————-

–8-8————8———8—–8——11—8———-

————————————————————-

————————————————————-

Fig 4

———–12/13—–12——–11——-11—————

–11-11———-11——-11——-11——-14—-11–

————————————————————-

————————————————————-

————————————————————-

————————————————————-

Sco’s wrap up

Scofield is crazy about simplicity. This gives the lead player room to color the song with chromatic licks and clever phrasing without stepping on anyone else’s toes. Try using his Bb7 rhythm as a vamp and practice those pentatonics over it, any player could feel at home and have fun with this.

P.S. The next time you want to feel cool walking down the street listen to Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood – Out Louder.

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Mike Kolbenson is a staff writer at SMG. Mike is a recent graduate from Purchase College, SUNY and absolutely in love with all things guitar. Email: mikekolbenson@sharemyguitar.com

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Share My Guitar is proud to release a special series of guest posts by John F. Crowley about guitars owned by members of the Beatles. Each week we will unleash another article covering the history and impact of these fab guitars.

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Paul McCartney has given the Hofner 500/1 a thumbs up for nearly 50 years!

Many stories have circulated over the years about a special Hofner 500/1 with gold-plated hardware presented to McCartney. Most accounts agree that in 1964 Brian Epstein struck a deal with Selmer, the company that imported Hofner basses in England: McCartney would endorse their line of violin basses on little “swing tags” on each instrument and Selmer would give Epstein a piece of the action (£5 a pop) and McCartney a swanky new bass.

The most comprehensive scrutiny into this matter has been done by Andy Babiuk. In his excellent book Beatles gear Babiuk did a masterful job of unscrambling what happened after the ink dried. After Selmer made the presentation (the photos of the event have been lost), it apparently kept the special 500/1 to exhibit in an upcoming trade show, then either returned it to stock, which seems unlikely, or sent it to McCartney at NEMS or Abbey Road, where it was promptly stolen.

It surfaced the next year in a music shop in Luton, where a young bassist by the name of John Bunning bought it for £65. Apparently Bunning knew of the McCartney connection, because he bragged about it to a local newspaper, yet in ’71 he traded it to a friend, as Babiuk reports. The friend sold it to Jim Marshall, who ran a music store in Bletchley. Marshall sold it to a fellow named Stephen Boyce, who played it for 10 years. After Mr. Boyce passed away, his widow sold it to a music store in Biggleswade for £200. That outfit called around looking for a replacement pickguard, and when they contacted Music Ground in Doncaster, an intrigued Justin Harrison bought the bass for £800. Harrison figured out what he had, calculated its value at £4,500 and offered it for auction at Sotheby’s in 1994, but without proper documentation the bass didn’t sell.

In ’97 Music Ground tried again to auction the bass, this time in Tokyo through Bonhams, but their claim that McCartney had played the bass as a Beatle was shot down by various parties, including a British consumer-rights TV show — and McCartney himself. Eventually the bass went at auction but for some reason the sale was never finalized, so Music Ground still has this instrument.

What can be said about this bass? Well, Paul McCartney touched it.

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Josh Homme is the man!

If you don’t know his name, you better press pause on that video of Batios’ Speed Kills.

Josh Homme, a native Californian, emerged from the desert of Palm Springs in the mid-nineties with his first band Kyuss, which was met with moderate popularity. Kyuss is characterized by Hommes’ saturated guitars and a singer with a healthy nineties rasp  . Their sound is best heard in the studio version of 100* (degrees). It was not until Queens Of The Stone Age (QOTSA) did he achieve rock star status. This band of was Hommes’ own. He started singing and creating more complex rhythms with a new brand of tonal saturation. I will pause while you go listen to Era Vulgaris…. Yes, listen to the whole album.

What makes Homme’s sound original? That would be his taste in equipment, a saturated sound, and personal philosophy of the guitar itself. While he never divulges any specifics on how he achieves his tone, in numerous interviews, he has said that he views the guitar as a percussive element adding a vital textural element. Homme has also mentioned that he stays away from common guitar companies, citing that he prefers cheap imports. This is all part of Homme consciously trying to create a sound all his own, trying to separate himself from the pack, which I think he does so well.

Homme is also a very smart musician considering the amount of projects he’s involved in. The big ones are Kyuss, Queens of The Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, and now Them Crooked Vultures, a project involving Homme, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters/Nirvana) John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), and Alain Johannes (QOTSA) for live performances.

Share My Guitar is proud to release a special series of guest posts by John F. Crowley about guitars owned by members of the Beatles. Each week we will unleash another article covering the history and impact of these fab guitars.

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Young Paul McCartney stretching his fingers while playing a Rosetti Solid 7

Not a solid body but a sunburst (black to red) semi-acoustic made in Holland by Egmond and renamed by the Rosetti firm, which imported them into the UK and sold them for about £20, which included the Royal pickup/scratchplate kit.

“We went to play in Hamburg,” McCartney says in the Bacon interview, “and I’d bought a Rosetti Solid 7 electric guitar in Liverpool [at Hessy's Music] before we went. It was a terrible guitar. It was really just a good-looking piece of wood. It had a nice paint job, but it was a disastrous, cheap guitar.” (It looked pretty impressive in the advert.)

Back in Liverpool, after temporary bassist Chas Newby left, McCartney restrung the Rosetti with three or four bass strings reportedly “borrowed” from a piano and used it until Sutcliffe returned with his President bass. The Rosetti, once again with a full complement of strings, then played a return engagement in Hamburg, where it met its ignoble end.

McCartney recalled in a 1964 interview that he “didn’t want to get rid of it, but I had to, because it got smashed when I dropped it one day. It wasn’t a complete write-off, but I didn’t think it was worth repairing, so all of us . . . had a great time smashing it to bits by jumping up and down on it! Bit mad, I suppose, but we had to get rid of our pent-up energy sometimes and it seemed the ‘obvious’ thing to do at the time!”

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1. Steven Seagal

Take a deep breath before attempting to recite this dudes accomplishments. Steven Seagal is an American action film star, writer, producer, martial artist, guitarist… and deputy sheriff?! All very cool stuff, but for the sake of this post, we’ll focus on Officer Seagal’s guitar chops.

Let’s just say, wow! Seagal is a blues guitar Jedi master! Not only can he flow on the soulful blues licks, but he can also make a great guitar face! Steven is an ultra professional guitarist and without any Hollywood special effects, he can play. He also has a collection of very cool guitars. You might just catch him playing a vintage Gibson Firebird, Les Paul Custom, ES-335, Flying V, Fender Telecaster or Strat.

Check out this clip of Steven “Stevie Ray” Seagal on a Russian TV show called “ProjektorPerisHilton” from October, 2009:

Share My Guitar is proud to release a special series of guest posts by John F. Crowley about guitars owned by members of the Beatles. Each week we will unleash another article covering the history and impact of these fab guitars.

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George Harrison playing his Gibson ES-345-TD Tobacco Sunburst – Stop Tailpiece; vintage ’63-’65

It’s been reported that one of the Moody Blues loaned this guitar to Harrison after his Country Gent was smashed on a roadway on 2 December ’65, but photos from the “Daytripper” and “We Can Work It Out” video session of 23 November show Harrison playing this guitar, so another myth bites the dust. Other photos show him using it on the December British tour, but after that — nothing. It doesn’t show up in current photos of his collection, so it may just be one of those guitars that passed through his hands. I wish I had more to report, but that’s show biz!

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Like this post? Then you won’t want to miss the other awesome posts we have planned. Subscribe to Share My Guitar and get new posts delivered daily…for FREE!

Share My Guitar is proud to release a special series of guest posts by John F. Crowley about guitars owned by members of the Beatles. Each week we will unleash another article covering the history and impact of these fab guitars.

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John Lennon strumming his 1965 Martin D-28 Acoustic Guitar

This dreadnought acoustic took its place alongside the Gibson J-160E on Beatles albums, beginning with The Beatles. Lennon brought it to India in February 1968 and composed on it most of his “White Album” songs.

The front and back of a 1965 Martin D-28 much like Lennon’s axe!

In December 1969, Lennon took this guitar along on a visit to Toronto, and gave it to rockabilly guru Ronnie Hawkins. However, a recent inspection revealed that the guitar Hawkins now has is a 1972 D-28. The Hawk says Lennon’s gift “was ‘exchanged’ by someone I thought was a friend; didn’t know ’til lately . . . the way of the world.” Attention scoundrel house guest: Shame on you. Give it back.

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With the unfortunate passing of two iconic figures in Heavy Metal this week, Ronnie James Dio & Slipknot bassist Paul Gray, I felt it appropriate to honor their memories by honoring the genre of music they held dear to their hearts! Here is PT. I of my 2 part series… History and Evolution of Metal!

FEEL THE VIBES!

All vibration carries within it a frequency of sound. Some vibrations are inaudible, but many are detectable by the human ear. If you look at the insect and animal world, you see many examples of the living vibration of sound. All people carry their own frequency of vibration, and this frequency resonates throughout our bodies and touches us somewhere deep within. This is why each of us is drawn to a particular sound and style of music, and why what brings satisfaction to one person’s ear may be pure racket to another.

IT’S METAL, IT’S HEAVY…

So, with this in mind, let’s think for a moment about what draws many of us to be moved and uplifted by the ferocious and sonic onslaught of Heavy Metal. For many, it’s the release of a frantic energy that we build up inside of us; for others, it’s the raw power and passion behind the music. Metal has often taken a great deal of criticism for its dark and largely misunderstood lyrical content, but, in fact, metal has long been one of the deepest and most spiritually uplifting forms of art and has touched the hearts and minds of millions worldwide.