String Skipping Exercises

In a previous string-skipping exercise we talked about the basics of string skipping and pointed out a few simple exercises to get you warmed up.

This lesson is a more hands-on application, with more details about how to practice this technique, more exercises, and at the bottom we've got a list of etudes that you can use to help you really master it.

String-Skipping Tips:

• Look at your picking hand as much as possible. The only way to really improve your string skipping is to watch your picking hand while you do it. This is the secret to improving picking hand accuracy.


• If possible, memorize some of these exercises or etudes so that you can do this work while staring at your picking hand the whole time.


• The fret hand is of no consequence. Try to quickly learn the fret-hand part so you can focus on the picking hand. If the fret-hand part is too challenging, simplify it or skip some notes. What you are really practicing is the ability for the picking hand to accurately skip notes. Nothing else.

Exercise 1: Single-String Skips

Exercise 2: Two-String Skips

Exercise 3: Three-String Skips

Classical Guitar String Skipping Etudes

If you really want to master string skipping, no matter what style you're coming from, classical guitar etudes are probably going to give you the best exercise for getting control of this technique. That's because classical music for guitar has lots of leaps and the conventions of that time produced a lot of music that's very technically challenging to play.

Best Classical Guitar Etudes for String Skipping

1. Various leaps: Carcassi's Opus 60, No. 7
2. Two interwoven melodies in different registers: Carcassi's Opus 60, No. 11
3. Stepwise melodies and unpredictable leaps: Bach 6 Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin: Etude IV, Corrente