Product Details

• Actors: John Petrucci
• Directors: Tim Landers
• Format: Color, Digital Sound, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Brothers Pub.
• DVD Release Date: December 1, 2002
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006L57W
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,284 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Rock Discipline is an epic DVD on the art of the modern rock guitar. After a valuable segment on warming up, John Petrucci covers developing speed and accuracy, chromatic exercises, playing with dynamics, connecting scale fragments to form long solo lines, and much, much more. DVD special features include backstage with John, G3 tour footage, hilarious bloopers on the set, interactive tour of John's Ernie Ball guitar, tuning segment, Dream Theater discography, additional product previews, printable lessons, and Internet connectivity.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars two solid hours, February 16, 2004

By 

Ilia Asafiev (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Petrucci - Rock Discipline (DVD)

I've always been a fan of John Petrucci's playing in Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment, and when I purchased his Wild Stringdom book, I thought the DVD wouldn't have much new information. That didn't stop me from getting it, and it turned out that I was wrong.

In fact, if you've read Wild Stringdom, this is the perfect supplement. There isn't much information overlap - most of the exercises are completely different and new. There's also new information that wasn't covered in the book.

Mr. Petrucci begins by showing some non-guitar warm-up exercises, and then proceeds to left-hand stretches on guitar. He also shows warm-ups for the picking hand, and then integrates the two. The warm-up section is very thorough, more so than that of most comparable videos that show only a lick or two for fast alternate picking.

The other sections deal with traditional technical issues such as subdivisions of time (very useful), working with the metronome to increase speed, and sweep picking. Petrucci also thoroughly covers the subject of inside picking, and how to get comfortable with it. Afterwards, he goes in-depth on lead construction by showing how to put together scale fragments - this also encompasses left-hand legato playing. Finally, there's a section on chords, in which common "progressive" chords are covered.

The examples of the techniques explained range from easy to hard for each section. They grow in difficulty bit by bit, not everything all at once. Also, Petrucci covers the considerations in coming up with your own etudes.

In-between each section, Petrucci talks about how he approaches composition, playing in the band, early experiences, and stuff like that. This insight is interesting - it makes him seem more human if nothing else.

Additionally, Petrucci goes over his pre-Ernie Ball setup. In the DVD section, he also talks about his new Ernie Ball guitar, as well as gives a backstage tour before a DT show. There's also a bloopers reel, where John is shows messing up several takes of various parts - such as the introduction. There is also G3 footage of John's band from the 2001 tour with Satch and Vai - these fragments are short, but the video is decent quality.

This has the bang for the buck - two hours of instruction, plus the extras. The explanations are clear, and the booklet is very detailed - there are no typographical errors or anything like that. If you're an intermediate player looking to spend $50 on an instructional video by a celebrity guitarist, this is probably your best bet.

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspired and astonishing, August 4, 2004

By 

James LeMay (Lake Forest, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: John Petrucci - Rock Discipline (DVD)

I bought this never having heard the name or the work of John Petrucci. Wow. What a combination... he is a quiet, friendly guy with astonishing skill and speed. He shows you what's possible, and how it's done.

Once you see this guy play, there are 3 possibilities: 1.) You'll see how good you could become, and use his advice to move in that direction; 2.) You'll see how good you could become, ignore it and go back to doing whatever it was you were doing before; 3.) You'll realize the futility of the situation, give up, and burn your guitar!

If you've been playing a while, and you've never gotten past the basics, you should look at this DVD and see what is beyond. Even if you don't make it there, using even one or two techniques John shows will probably improve your playing.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definately worth the money., November 10, 2003

By 

Branden Hong (San Antonio, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: John Petrucci - Rock Discipline (DVD)

John Petrucci is an awesome musician, and teacher. I've played guitar for 16 years, and I own an army chest full of how-to-play guitar books, CDs, and videos, and Rock Discipline is one of them. My little brother picked up the guitar and I was passing on what I learned from J.P.'s video to him and went ahead and let him have the VHS and I bought the DVD, and this was about a year ago, and I still like to go through and pick out things to practice from Rock Discipline. I like to play different styles of music, and even though the title may imply one genre, what you can learn from this video/DVD you can apply to any style. He'll not only give you material to practice, he'll show you how to manage your time wisely. There is a lot of practice material covered, including warm up exercises, and both left and right hand exercises. This is the one instructional video/DVD that I own that I'd recommend buying if you were to own only one, whether you are just starting out, or if you've been playing for a while. I hope John comes out with a second instructional recording, I'd definately check it out.