Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Dark master of sin, now my soul is yours.
I don't have very eclectic tastes in music.
I'm such a huge fan of Steve Howe, I worship him.
For me, it's always easier playing with a drummer.
I'm a fan of creative writing and telling stories.
I think I'm a father, but a father of three kids! :)
You try to play the song better than you had before.
I could talk about technique, theory and gear for days!
As a guitar player, playing instrumental music is a blast.
If I had to pick a favorite band of all time, it would be Rush.
Rush and guitarist Alex Lifeson are among my biggest influences.
Anytime I can use open strings in a chord, or add a ninth, I will.
Your solos should be as interesting as any other part of the song.
I'm a hopeless tone chaser!I love it and get into the whole thing.
Music is great, because you can do that pretty much until you drop.
There should always be some sort of conclusion or climax to your solos.
I think it's really hard to describe music without alienating somebody.
Definitely an important aspect of my playing is keeping my hands in sync.
As a guitar player, you never stop learning, never stop honing your skills.
It's amazing how well real strings blend with metal, like that whole sound.
The cool thing about our fans is that they're not just passive concert goers.
Although music comes from a very personal place, talent is meant to be shared.
I have to say that our fans have been absolutely wonderful all across the world.
I really rely a lot more on memory. I'm definitely not as good of a sight reader.
We're always in that head space about the audience and less about us at that moment.
Growing up on Long Island, I think Billy Joel albums come with your driver's license.
Just because something is very technical or heavy doesn't mean that it's not melodic.
Stay focused when you're playing alive, so you're not distracted by something going on.
Using open strings is a great way to add texture and atmosphere to any chord progression.
I went straight out of high school, and when I was 17, all I wanted to do was play guitar.
I think if anything, what 'The Astonishing' proved is that we're always going to experiment.
The guitar is the ultimate vehicle for expression and composition for me. It's a part of my DNA!
We love what we do. We're passionate about making music and as composers; that's just who we are.
Obviously [Black] Sabbath is definitely a huge name and of course deserving with Ozzy coming back.
That's kind of the nature of being in a progressive band - always trying new things, moving forward.
Going to the Grammys, being nominated for a Grammy, that was a really big deal for me, for us as a band.
Chopin was a master of melody, harmony and voice leading - the art of smoothly moving from chord to chord.
We're a band that really... It's important to us to write music and put it out there and to work together.
I've always said that there's a huge progressive rock, progressive metal audience out there, in the world.
I wanted to go to Berklee College of Music because that's where Steve Vai went - I was total tunnel vision.
We've always had a very strong focus on the instrumentation, and our approach to our individual instruments.
Music doesn't have to sit within the confines of pop structure, you can really make stuff that's more visual.
To play sweep arpeggios correctly, you have to mute each note with the left hand immediately after picking it.
Dream Theater has never been a band that hit at a particular fashionable point and said, 'OK, that's basically it.'
I often use triadic arpeggio forms within my riffs and solos as a tool to create rich-sounding, poly-chordal sounds.
We're not the kind of band who writes an order abundance of songs and picks from them, we usually write for the album.
Now that we're established and we have a history we know that we can expect people to show up and to have a good time.
I often think about my Music Man guitars being 100 million percent tailored to my needs as a player and how lucky I am.
In my touring rig, there's a pedal drawer, where I'm able to switch pedals in and out, going into the front of the amp.
Out of Berklee Dream Theater was born and we've been together ever since. I didn't have to taste that feeling of defeat.