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.

This exercise is an extension of exercise one. This time we are not just sticking with the G and E string. We cover all strings with this one. And whereas in exercise 1, we were just skipping across one string, this exercise has you skipping across 2 strings, which can cause all sorts of havoc!

The fretboard diagram for this exercise is from the Mixolydian mode exercise. Do you think I rely on that shape too much? You don't have to answer...

Like I said above, there is more room for the skipped strings to wreak havoc on you in this exercise than with the previous one. So pay careful attention at the instances where you are skipping across 2 strings.