Top 10 Songs with the Best John Petrucci Guitar Solos
What does everyone think the greatest bit of guitar work by Dream Theater's John Petrucci is?
Such a technical solo that's unpredictable and nonstandard. Petrucci shows master guitar players how to be unique with every phrase in the progression. It's really a combination of many different mini solos among different styles expertly combined into a coherent, one-minute story.
The back and forth with piano and guitar is killer enough, but the little three (three, right?) note stutter right at the beginning of the guitar-only section gets me every time.
This is his best studio solo. No doubt. His live solos are good too, like Take the Time (Live in Japan 1993) and Hollow Years at the Budokan.
Petrucci is basically playing his heart out for Mike's father. He plays as if it were his own father. Simply beautiful, and it is not a waste of three minutes. He doesn't flaunt or try to be all shredtastic. Instead, it is a perfect blend of some shredding and heartfelt emotion throughout the entire solo. I get chills every time I listen to it.
This solo has the perfect blend of emotion and complexity. There are some nice slower parts along with sweep arpeggios that have a fair amount of speed but don't get too out of hand. The fade-out always makes me want to turn the volume up at the very end to hear what I'm missing out on.
The build-up to this solo amazes me every time I listen to this song. The parts keep on getting better as one progresses through the solo. If this is not one of the best solos by Sir Petrucci, then I don't know what is.
Without a doubt one of the best, with the 2014 Boston Opera House performance making a staggering and emphatic bid for the top seed.
My favorite guitar solo from Dream Theater. I get chills every time!
When I first saw that this song was not in the top ten, I wanted to cry.
I could not comprehend why a song with five back-to-back solos (three of which are synchronized with Jordan, and only one is just the keytar) was not NUMBER 1.
So please vote this song up. It truly is unbeatable!
Best DT solo after Under a Glass Moon. Plain 100% full-speed shredding for the first forty-five seconds of the solo, and then comes the entire band as Petrucci keeps shredding. Hauntingly epic solo.
This one is worthy of the top ten. Mainly because of how experimental and honestly weird it sounds with the rest of the instruments.
This solo can actually make people cry. It's played with so much feel.
Dream Theater is not my favorite band, but this has always been my favorite solo ever! I have a love-hate relationship with this song because I don't care much for the first one to five minutes (the intro is great), but that solo, sober or drunk, is perfect.
This is the best solo. I've been a fan since 1992. I own everything they have ever done, including bootlegs you don't know about. This solo is the best. John has 100 tied for second and third, but this is the best.
Absolutely stellar solo - so much emotion, blended perfectly with technicality. Petrucci at his peak!
I really love this song. The whole song makes me feel like I can carry the world. Whoa, I love this so much. Can I cry?
#11?! Are you kidding me? Half of this song is solo and epicness. Petrucci rocked the guitar, Portnoy beat the drums, Rudess played the keyboard, Myung played the bass, and LaBrie sang. He wrote this song too!
Very fast, complex, and it sounds great.
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The solo at the end is absolutely, totally, positively, mind-bogglingly insane.
The ending solo is amazing. The bridge solo is epic.
The outro solo that goes from 12:50 to the end is, in my opinion, the best solo of DT!
This is the most epic sounding, though it may not be as technical. But to someone who doesn't pay attention to the technicality, this one is the best.
Followed by one of their greatest drum solos.
Awesome melodic solo by Petrucci!
This divine solo, ending this masterpiece... After twenty minutes of true Dream Theater, John Petrucci pulls this wonderful guitar solo that, for me, is better than "The Best of Times." Such a feeling. This gives me chills. It really does.
The meaning behind Octavarium just adds to the fact that these guys pour their hearts into the music they make. The techniques JP uses are perfectly executed, but that comes with playing for over thirty years.
That was an awesome performance by Sir John Petrucci. The intro and especially after the second verse... That was really cool! I noticed his thoughts of an instant and perfect solo. I am amazed that he has such a brilliant music sense.
My favorite solo by Petrucci. So emotionally moving yet extremely technical at the same time! Why couldn't this solo be on the album version?
Amazing, especially the live version. I guess I don't need to say anything. Just go listen to it!
The arpeggio solo is really good, and the final solo is also awesome. All the solos are great in this song.
How is this #9? I can't even play the arpeggio solo at the beginning. It should be #3 at least.
This whole song is a technical masterpiece - Portnoy's drum rhythms, Petrucci's guitar shredding, and Rudess's keyboards - an eleven-minute instrumental which does not once get boring!
One of the greatest songs I've heard by Petrucci.
I remember first hearing this while on holiday in Spain. I was completely blown away by the solo section at the beginning of the song, which is quite frankly scary. Petrucci doubles lines with Rudess as well. It makes me want to practice ten hours a day!
This needs to be higher! The tone is killer, and he just shreds with absolute sophistication. It's astonishing.
This solo is insane. The tone when the first few notes come in is pure gold. So many different elements make this JP's best guitar solo.
This solo, man. It starts out with a great melodic section. It just sounds like the guitar is crying. Then you get into the really fast part. Damn. The sweeping toward the end is insane, and then the incredibly fast alt-picking triplets at the end. This solo has it all.
Definitely one of the hardest guitar solos to play.
The shredding in this song, not only the solos but the entire duration from start to finish, is probably one of the most virtuoso performances in metal history. But the solos - damn, those solos - are some of the few that can combine multiple techniques, speed, incredible heaviness, and maintain their melodic memorability.
This song is a sure-fire headbanger's classic, hands down!
John is a god! This solo is unnatural!
The guitar solo at the end - how could you guys miss this out? Yes, it's short, but it oozes with emotion, amplified more with the string orchestra in the background. It feels like listening to "Made in Heaven" music.