Hi everyone. This lesson serves as an introduction to the idea of string skipping. This is by no means an exclusive tool, indeed its best applications are usually tied in with sweeps, tapping, alternate-picking and loads of other things. Most of the material here is not intended, in itself, to be used in a musical sense, but to develop the technique. Although this is a foundation in skipping, some of the exercises would be considered a handful for most players. Don't lose hope!
Ok, to start with, I have included some fairly basic warm-ups, that should get the muscles loosened, and are relevant to the later skipping exercises.
String Skipping Exercise 1
Theoretically this isn't a 'skip' but it is a good warm-up!
this should be very even and uniform before continuing.
String Skipping Exercise 2
This is also a warm-up
both exercise 1 and 2 should be played on all strings with the fretting structure changed and all finger combinations used.
String Skipping Exercise 3
This is a natural extension to ex1 for 'real' skipping.
String Skipping Exercise 4
Then a further extension for all the strings (Great warm-up exercise!). Picking is straight alternate picking as above.
String Skipping Exercise 5
This similarly, is an extension of ex2.
String Skipping Exercise 6
This is the converse of ex4.
Right, now we get down to some serious skips!! The next idea is one that, I must confess, I 'nicked' off Paul Gilbert, though I've changed it a bit from the one I read of his. He is to my mind the pioneer of "serious skipping" although others have done it on a smaller 'scale' before.
This lick arpeggiates the E minor chord in the 12th position. This could take a while to get used to so practice it slow and don't play it any faster than you can play it confidently.
String Skipping Exercise 7
Note, developing an efficient and almost subconscious technique for picking is essential with this. If I am not going to pick EVERY note, or I am not tapping everything, I employ the following technique.
- Every time you jump to a new string, pick the first note. (Even if you are just jumping to an adjacent string).
- If a note is on the same string as the previous note, hammer-on or pull-off to it. (Unless the line is too long, then pick a couple of them)
- Decide on the rhythmic structure (ie. groups of 3 or 4) and if the picked note lies on a "down" beat, use a down stroke, otherwise use an "up" stroke.
Here is a pentatonic idea which is in the same key and position for the purposes of consistency, but play around with it to really get to grips with the idea.
String Skipping Exercise 8
[Note: The last note is a Down stroke rather than an up-stroke. If you look at the next note (ie. the first note of the exercise), an up-stroke would involve a tricky bit of inside picking, so the down allows you to sweep the two strings. If you prefer, use the up-stroke for the sake of consistency]
To illustrate the possibilities of skipping in a chordal sense, I have scratched together a little exercise which utilizes two-string sweeps (easy), 1string skips, and open strings. Note that this can easily be constructed for a sweep picking exercise (that's what I originally created it as) but it's easy to keep it rhythmic with the skips.
B9(no 3)
similarly, repeat the remaining chords 4 times, with same picking,
C major 9 (#11) C# minor 9 D 6/9 .
keep repeating the whole exercise until you've had enough then do one of those posey retardandos with the overdramatized emotional thing on the final D chord. Great Stuff!
String Skipping Exercise 9
Ok, if you can get this one working well at even a moderate speed, you're a certified "Skipper"! It involves some wild left hand stretches and giant picking! Also, the timing is fairly regular, so concentrate on getting it even, play it with a metronome. Either economy pick (as described above), or pick every note - either would do, but I would recommend getting both variations down, and perhaps the ability to interchange at will would be useful also.
Then repeat back down the positions. You can extend this over the whole fret board in any key, with all your own special little blues scale modifications. Happy picking everyone, and I hope to send you some more soon with some other practical angles to this subject, particularly arpeggiation and tapping.
Au Revoir,
Geoff