How much do you practice? Petrucci?

 

I practice bass (and even guitar, sometimes) an average of 2 hours a day. Sometimes a little less, and it helps me a lot to progress on my playing. I think Petrucci and Myung say truth when they say they've played 6 hours a day, because their technique is impeccable. You can easily realise a lot of effort was put on there!

 

Learning the correct technique in the first place means you will in all likelyhood, never develop Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. i like to stress the importance of playing the guitar with the strap set at reasonable height when standing up, very important when playing technical styles of electric guitar. I myself often use large intervallic lines, sometimes utilising wide single string stretches, and as such, i wear my guitar pretty high, normally at pretty much the same height as John Petrucci, and if im playing stuff that needs even wider stretches, i raise the guitar up even more. As i often tell people, better to sacrifice supposed coolness and wear your guitar high to avoid injury in the future so i can still play when im 55 (if not longer), then to look 'cool' now and wear the guitar low and probably get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome when im 30 (im 19 now), and never be able to play again.

 

Damn! You beat me to it! I was going through the whole thread to see if someone said that.

"For my chops, I would usually be on a strict diet of potatoes and small mammals....Small mammals are good for the hands."

 

And, like others have said, practicing that much isn't unrealistic when your only job is to kick ass at the guitar.