Guitar Study
String Skipping: Etudes and Exercises
Total lessons in study:
String skipping can be a difficult technique to master, but as with everything, practice makes perfect! Use the etudes and exercises in this study to help you hone in your string skipping skills.
1. String Skipping Rock Etude
Welcome!
In this song tutorial, I wanted to write an etude that focuses on string skipping. String skipping occurs when you play a note on any given string, then skip a string to play a following note. This technique is essential for every guitarist to master as many musical scenarios will require you to skip strings.
Oka...Read More
The first 2 measures of the intro start out with string skipping on the D and B strings. If you look at the tablature, you can see that you'll be palm muting all the notes on the D string while the other notes will be played normally without palm mutes. Also, we'll primarily be using sixteenth notes in these lessons.
We'll...Read More
In this section, we're going to start using a lot of octave passages. Even though this part is a little less difficult than the other parts, be sure to keep your picking clean and controlled.
On a side note, you may want to experiment with bars 7 and 8 and come up with your own stretching exercises. See in the video how I ...Read More
This riff is all over the fretboard. Even though it might seem a little intimidating, there's actually a really basic pattern to it that you can follow. And that pattern is simply...octaves.
We are going to span over 3 octaves in each measure. First, we'll be playing a 3-note-per-string pattern on the D string, then we'll ...Read More
Exercise 4 also utilizes a prevalent octave pattern. The string skipping will occur between the Low E string and the D string. Keep the 16th notes even and consistent, and make sure your picking stays controlled.
When you feel comfortable with all 4 exercises in this tutorial, feel free to start practicing with the backing...Read More
Have all the parts down? Then it's time to practice with the backing track!
The first half of the backing track is at the normal tempo. Then the second half is slowed down.
As always, if you ever record yourself playing along, be sure to post it in the forums!Read More
2. Skippin' Strings with Chris Feener
String skipping is an approach that involves a lot of different techniques. Most of these techniques, you'll quickly come to find, are ones that involve keeping the 'skipped' strings quiet. The purpose of string skipping is often times to cover more 'area' in shorter amounts of time. We'll explore a few of the most common w...Read More
String skipped arpeggios are a staple in neo-classical shred and have been since the 80's. This approach is very ala Paul Gilbert. It offers a way to access a wide array of cool arpeggios without the 'sloppy' effect of sweeping. We'll begin by breaking down two minor arpeggio shapes as well as two major arpeggio shapes...Read More
A 'cheap way out' (as I like to call it) to string skipping, is incorporating hybrid picking. Hybrid picking drastically decreases the amount of right hand movement as the need to shift the pick across numerous strings is now depleted. We hover our pick over the lower string while allowing the middle finger of our rig...Read More
3. String Skipping Arpeggios
Hey guys, and welcome to this lesson on string skipping arpeggios!
We will be looking major and minor arpeggios, and how to transform them into string skipping arpeggios, and also adding other notes from the major and minor scale, creating those familiar 'shred'-type arpeggio sequences. Later on, we will also be covering t...Read More
In this part, we take the major and minor arpeggios and scalar approach from the first part, and put those to use over a chord progression. The progression is Am, G, F, and below you can see the sequence I have played over it. As you can see I am also using hybrid picking in this example, but you can of course play this wit...Read More
In the third part of our journey through string-skipping land, we encounter the mighty diminished arpeggios, heard through perhaps every guitar player's amp at some point of their career (let's face it guys, who hasn't had their 'Yngwie-era'?).
Anyway, here we'll look at some options for playing these moldy old arps with a...Read More
Time for tapping!
In this example I use the same major and minor patterns found in the very first part, only adding the root and fifth in the right hand to create a tapping arpeggio. You could of course find numerous other ways of playing tapping arpeggios, but these examples are a good starting point.
Personally I always...Read More
Diminished tapping arpeggios has the exact same technique as any other tapping arpeggios, with the main difference being that the consistent pattern lends itself very well to position shifting, and sliding up and down the neck. Pay attention to how I am shifting position during the sequence, and try to come up with differen...Read More
This final example is the exact same sequence as in Part 5, but with a superimposed shuffle rhythm.
The idea is to try to keep that rhythm going whatever you do, or wherever you go on the fretboard. This will REALLY free up your improvisation, and your use of all these arpeggios in soloing. Once you've nailed this, check o...Read More