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.

One of the general themes of my lessons is to teach you to be comfortable playing in key throughout the entire fretboard. This exercise was created with that in mind. It takes you from the highest frets all the way down to the low frets.

Another way to look at this exercise is that you are simply descending along a G Major scale on the D and B string. The fretboard diagram illustrates this viewpoint.

The toughest thing about playing this exercise is not the string skipping, but the coordination needed to pull off the rapid position shifting. A lot can go wrong when making the shift from the B string back to the D string. You'll have a blast with this one!