I had never heard of the phrase "string skipping" until I purchased an instructional video by Paul Gilbert. I was immediately hooked from that point on. I always get excited when I learn a completely new technique. The thing I enjoy the most about string skipping is the surprise factor that it causes. The wide interval(s) that string skipping introduces throws a listener for a loop and makes them realize that they have just heard something interesting. It is a pleasant surprise to the ear (for me anyway!). The exercises in this lesson will get you well on your way to skipping it up! Practice these with alternate picking as well as with legato.

With this exercise, we are having you play the notes on the G and E string from the Mixolydian shape shown in the Diatonic Scales and Modes lesson. This exercise will get you started with string skipping before moving on to the more challenging ones (and they get challenging!).

Here we see the shape of the exercise. If you have been practicing your D Mixolydian 3-notes-per-string scale exercise, then you may be comfortable with this one.

In this exercise, the string we are skipping wants to cause us all sorts of problems. But just ignore it (or I should say skip it...). Treat this exercise just like 2nd alternate picking exercise. Except this time, you're covering more distance. Be sure to not let the pick scrape up against that b string.