String skipping on guitar: why you lose speed, and how to fix it

What makes string skipping hard

Compared with a regular string change, a skip adds several constraints at once, which makes the difficulty hard to pin down:

• Your picking hand has to clear one or more strings without touching them, then land exactly on the right one.
• The skipped strings must stay silent: the slightest stray vibration muddies the sound.
• Your fretting hand has to jump to a string further away, with a finger pair that isn’t always the most comfortable.
• The more strings you skip, the bigger the move, and the more any accuracy error costs you.

Measuring the real cost of the skip

The right way to assess your string skipping isn’t to play it on its own, but to compare it. Play a pattern on two adjacent strings and note your clean tempo, then play exactly the same pattern, with the same fingers, skipping one string, then two. The tempo gap between versions is the extra cost of the skip itself, separated from the difficulty of the string change you have (or haven’t) mastered already.

That’s the logic behind the last diagnostic of the RIFFLEX Crash Test: with the same finger pair, how much of the speed loss comes purely from skipping strings? It also answers the question “Which finger duo has the most trouble skipping strings, and in which direction?”, because moving toward the high strings and toward the low strings don’t use the hand the same way.

Picking hand: accuracy and path

On a small skip, the wrist is enough. On a big skip, the arm should move the hand so the wrist stays free for picking. A wrist doing both at once loses accuracy and consistency.

• Practice the skip alone: two notes, one on each string, looped, with a slow metronome.
• Watch your pick’s path: it should be short, without a big arc over the strings.
• Keep a light, steady anchor with your hand (palm edge or little finger, depending on your style) so you don’t lose your bearings.

Fretting hand: the finger pair and legato

In legato, your fretting hand often has to sound the first note on the new string by itself, with no help from the pick: that’s the hammer-on from nowhere. It takes a firmer strike than a regular hammer-on, since the string isn’t already vibrating.

As with string changes, the difficulty depends on the finger pair doing the crossing: leaving the string with the pinky and landing on the next with the index isn’t the same motion as the reverse. Spot the combinations that fall behind and practice them separately.

Muting the skipped strings

A clean string skip is first of all a silent one. Two tools work together:

• Fretting hand: the pads and undersides of the playing fingers lightly touch the neighboring strings to stop them vibrating.
• Picking hand: the palm mutes the low strings that aren’t being played.
• To check, play very slowly and listen only for stray noise, not for the notes.

A simple routine to improve

• Start with the same pattern on adjacent strings, at a comfortable tempo.
• Move to skipping one string, then two, without changing fingers or tempo.
• If the tempo drops, isolate the hand at fault: play the skip with the picking hand alone (strings muted), then the fretting hand alone (legato).
• Raise the tempo in small steps, only while the skip stays clean and silent.

Frequently asked questions

Is string skipping more about the fretting hand or the picking hand?

Both, which is what makes the difficulty hard to pin down. Playing the skip with one hand at a time (picking hand on muted strings, then fretting hand in legato) shows which one falls behind.

How do I stop the skipped strings from ringing?

Combine fretting-hand muting, where your fingers lightly touch the neighboring strings, with palm muting from the picking hand on the low strings. Very slow practice, listening only for stray noise, is the best test.

Do I need clean string changes before working on string skipping?

Yes. Skipping adds difficulties on top of a regular string change. If changing between adjacent strings isn’t clean, skipping won’t be either.