String skipping can present your playing with new melodic possibilities that were previously out of reach. Make like Paul Gilbert, Slash and Nuno with these wide-ranging exercises

String skipping is a technique often required when phrases feature wide intervals that would prove too stretched if attempting to use only adjacent strings. Traditionally, melodic phrases have favoured small interval based lines using adjacent strings, moving fret by fret, string by string. This yields wonderfully musical results.

However, string skipping allows us to create phrases with wider intervals that often sound more arresting. It also allows for fluid to be performed without having to resort to ; an approach favoured by both Paul Gilbert and Nuno Bettencourt to emulate the fluidity of Yngwie Malmsteen’s sweeped arpeggios. As with any new guitar technique, string skipping can be challenging at first.

One of the obstacles to overcome is not accidentally striking adjacent strings when skipping over them. Paul Gilbert, whose playing is fantastically fast and fluid, often opts for an outside picking technique to help avoid this situation. Outside picking is where the lower string is picked with downstrokes and the higher string is picked with upstrokes.

While this may be challenging for players who prefer other styles of picking, its advantage is that it avoids hitting any unwanted adjacent strings. Of course, there will be times where conventional picking is preferred, such as when playing two-notes-per-string pentatonic lines. So observe the picking directions provided in the following five examples and study piece, to see what approach I have used and, at times, a su.