It has been a while since I played shred style guitar and so I thought I would return to the very place where I started learning guitar - with Paul Gilbert. I bought a Paul Gilbert instructional video when I first started learning to play guitar which gave me a shredding foundation right from the beginning. In that video, Paul shows you how to play arpeggios using string skipping. Below are some great instructional materials from Paul Gilbert:
Paul applies the string skipping technique quite nicely in Scarified.
Scarified was originally on the Racer X CD Second Heat, but it is the version on YouTube that has overshadowed the original version. You can see the video below:
At 0:55 into the video Paul starts into a string skipping riff that gradually moves up the neck. During this riff, there are only two unique arpeggio shapes. They are shown below:
Above is the tab for the riff. As you can see, he uses only the two shapes that are shown above. He starts with the Maj triad shape, moves up a half step and switches to the Diminished shape, then up another half step back to the Maj shape and lastly up another half step returning to the Diminished shape. He creates a nice chromatic line as he sequences through these arpeggios. This line is D-D#-E-F.
The toughest parts about this riff are the hand coordination needed as well as Paul's smooth execution. I recorded the riff many times and just couldn't get it to sound as smooth as Paul. Maybe using the neck pickup would make for a smoother sound. In any case, practice each of the two shapes over and over, gradually building up speed. Once you get comfortable with the two shapes then you are ready to nail the overall riff.
Lessons
