# Anyone have any tips/songs for string skipping/trem skipping?



## Xtremevillan (Oct 12, 2007)

So as I'm learning the intro to Epitaph, I realize I cannot stretch from 2 to 7 (seperate strings). So, I substitute it with 2 and 3, with a difference of 3 strings.

In case you're confused:





becomes





But playing this fast, even with palm muting, results in a semi-second note or even sometimes, I can't hit it and it all becomes jumbled.

Why not include this:





This hammer/pulloff combination is incredibly hard for me to do, near impossible. I can do the first (the pull off from 3 to 0 sometimes results in ringing strings) but when I move in for the second, it just fails. the second part is okay for me, I sometimes just move it up instead of 5, to 10 on another string.

In an effort to try and achieve a better rhythm string skipping ability, I was told to try out At the Gates' Cold. I learned parts of that rhythm with string skipping and it was somewhat helpful, but it always skipped one string. I obviously am skipping 2 strings in this one. Anyone know songs that do this?


In addition, I need a little help with trem muting. If you play Crystal Mountain, you know the part where Chuck goes "to confine" That right there has some palm muting trem of the D string, which sometimes is really hard for me. In Fermented Offal Discharge, the beginning, when you have to trem the 19th fret, it's mostly uneven for me, so I really do need some help with that. I also looked at Mutilate the Stillborn's little riff where you go up the strings while skip/tremming, but it still takes me a while to get it close to how he plays it.

Combining the two would be extremely beneficial to me. Anyone know of a song / multiple songs that would do this?

And here is a video of Chris Broderick doing exactly what I hope to get close to doing one day:


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## Nick (Oct 12, 2007)

just make stuff up if your just wanting string skipping excercises.

Make up some crazy riff that is full of them and practice it up and down the neck


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## Xtremevillan (Oct 12, 2007)

I thought about doing that with a basic E minor pentatonic + extensions, but it seems so unstructured and unprofessional. I guess it could work.


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## Nick (Oct 12, 2007)

i dunno how it comes across as unproffesional its a series of notes on a guitar.

Why dont you try and write an actual riff or two that are pretty hard to do using the techniques your wanting to improve on above a certain bpm then get to it with the old metronome


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## Xtremevillan (Oct 12, 2007)

Oh man, that's another fault of mine. I can play with a metronome at slow beats, at high fast beats, I become really sloppy and it exponentially sucks until it's just so bad I just stop.

I guess writing a riff and playing at a slow -> high bpm would do it.


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## josh821 (Oct 12, 2007)

Xtremevillan said:


> Oh man, that's another fault of mine. I can play with a metronome at slow beats, at high fast beats, I become really sloppy and it exponentially sucks until it's just so bad I just stop.
> 
> I guess writing a riff and playing at a slow -> high bpm would do it.



I think that's the best approach myself. If you use your own riff you get to exercise your own creativity and playing stuff that you stumble across is how you improve. If you only play things that you're used to playing then you'll never get anywhere. If you can't play with a metronome at a faster pace then start out slow and work your way up. That'll help your rhythm and accuracy out quite a bit and if you're using some sort of string skipping riff you get to kill a few birds with one stone.


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## Desecrated (Oct 12, 2007)

Xtremevillan said:


> Oh man, that's another fault of mine. I can play with a metronome at slow beats, at high fast beats, I become really sloppy and it exponentially sucks until it's just so bad I just stop.
> 
> I guess writing a riff and playing at a slow -> high bpm would do it.



use string dampers.


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## oompa (Oct 12, 2007)

yes idd, i dont know if everyone agrees with me but it is infact very important all this fuzz about "learning stuff slow and work your way up". this is a good thing to get used to, using a metronome. otherwise you wont really be in control when playing fast stuff.

besides that, making stuff up is awesome, a way to really get to exactly what you need to practice.

aniwai, a tip was asked for, and a tip you shall get. john petrucci has an exercise as one of his warmups wich is awesome for string skipping. just as a short explanation: he uses the typical E barre shape major and skips a string goin up and down (all) six strings. he uses this in different positions, and does it with one, two, three and four strokes/tone. he also does the whole exercise first starting every position with a down stroke, then with an upstroke.

its from his rock discipline video, i dont have any tabs but in general its like this:

E----------------5-9------------------
B------------5---------5--------------
G--------6-----6-----6-----6----------
D----7-----7-------------7-----7------
A------7---------------------7--------
E--5------------------------------5---

this was obviously an A major chord base, and after that he jumps around, say something like: A C E (12th, and then back down to) F#, and further down. i dont remember his order, i think it was oddly numbered, so i do it in this order: A C E C# A# G B F#. in other words, start the chord shape on fret 5, 8, 12, 9, 6, 3, 7, 2. 

go through all them eight shapes with one hit, starting on downstroke. then do them all again with two hits on all notes, like 55 77 etc, then with three hits, then with 4 hits. then do the whole shizzle all over AGAIN, but now starting each shape with an upstroke, meaning all the 8x4=32 shapes again.

when you get this up to speed, you'll be fairly hawt on traditional string skipping. also make sure you dont stress it, work it up to speed. you dont want a glitch between strings when you are doin 4 hits/note, or have a blurry sound cus you force the skip. 

also make sure you are right on your down/upstrokes. this is really important. its quite simple on 2 and 4 hits per tone since well, its an equal number meaning the start on each note will be the same, but on 1 and 3 hits/note, make sure you are alternating properly.


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## Xtremevillan (Oct 12, 2007)

Thank you very much! I will take these tips to heart.

(can I has a bucket too?)

So I tried writing and playing some of my own stuff.

I'm not ready for that yet.

2nd update:

I put my metronome on 80, 4th beats, and started playing. Tremming muted opens was easy, fumbled a bit on the open D. Started to do single string stuff, went into 2 strings. Not too hard. Skipping a string was doable, if I went from a low to a high fret (5 to 7), when I did reverse, it was disasterous. Skipping 2 strings was EXTREMELY hard and I only managed to do it a few times.

3rd update: After a solid hour or so, I still suck with a metronome. I dumbed it down to 40 and I still have problems....

Update!

at 80 and 60, I played riffs that incorporated 2 strings. I set my metronome to just 2 beats / measure at first, doing the notes myself, then imposed a metronome over correctly.


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## Jongpil Yun (Oct 13, 2007)

1) Play arpeggios with interval jumping. You can say, play the root, fifth, third, root, etc.

2) String skip arps instead of sweeping them.

3) Make ostinato 1-3-1 note per string licks that skips a string each time.


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## Demeyes (Oct 16, 2007)

With licks like the one for Epitaph you'll have to take them slow and build up. They an be a real bitch sometimes. Check out stabwounds - I think there is a small bit of similar stuff in parts, and also terminal spirit disease by At the Gates again has some. Since they are bands you mentioned there are more riffs to look at. (also for the next part you showed - Hot for teacher by Van Halen has a similar stretch that should help with that one)
Back to the problem. How are you picking them? Both on the down or is down-up. I'm not saying one is better but you should try both and one might work out better than the other for you. Some people might even attempt extreme string skipping by picking with the middle finger of their right hand!!
For lead stuff check out Paul Gilbert. Look for lessons on the net or his instructionals. He always has some fine examples of string skipping licks that will help you no end if you practice them.


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