Inside-Picked String Skipping?

[MariusN]

Hi everyone!

I’ve been wondering how to best approach string skipping runs that involve inside picking. For example, when having to go from a downstroke on the high E string to an upstroke on the G string, the B string in between seems like an almost insurmountable obstacle.

Below is an example of a run that would involve such string skips:

I always figured it made sense to avoid such situations altogether by either incorporating hammer-ons/pull-offs or by rearranging the lick to allow an outside picking motion, which many players seem to favor in combination with string skipping.

However, both Michael Angelo Batio and Steve Morse demonstrate several inside-picked string-skipping runs like the one above in their respective Cracking the Code interviews, showing that it can be done efficiently, even at their breakneck speeds. So I’ve been curious about the picking mechanics required to navigate these kinds of extremely tricky patterns.

Is it a combination of two-way pickslanting and swiping or is there some other kind of magic going on?

When going from a downstroke to an upstroke on a lower, non-adjacent string, is there any kind of picking motion that makes it possible to efficiently get over the skipped string without swiping it or “hopping” over it?

[Judmeister]

well you need DSX starting with UWPS might be the best then rotate your wrist the opposite way for the bottom three notes in the set then go back to UWPS on the higher notes and rinse and repeat or do like andy wood and extend your wrist away from guitar a bit in the DWPS last top note then do the regular DWPS on the Bottom three then rinse and repeat. This is about the same as two adjacent strings but the distance is a bit more

[PickingApprentice]

Maybe try perfecting the same picking patterns on adjacent strings first (assuming that you haven’t done this already). It ‘shouldnt’ be much more difficult, irrespective of the approach you take.

[kgk]

So there is a pyramid of generality: “cross picking” [Steve M.] (aka “dual escape”) is the most general as it can play anything, “2WPS” [MAB] is the second most general as it only has trouble with isolated single notes in certain cases (where you cannot sweep), and then DWPS [YJM] (aka “UWX”) or UWPS (aka “DWX”) are the lest general, as they often get into trouble and require “legato” in cases where there is an odd number of notes per string.

So you have to decide if you want to just stick to a less general case (and you’d be in good company, like YJM). In my view your problem (above) “wants” (to be played in the obvious way) either 2WPS or dual escape. There is lots of great CtC material about 2WPS, think of it as switching between UWPS and DWPS if a string has an odd number of picked notes on it.

[hamsterman]

One thing to understand is that some people actually prefer inside-picking, and that includes inside-picked string skipping. So that would actually be there ‘go-to’ method. I disagree with many that say one is harder than the other… it’s often just dependent on how your mechanic evolved early on.

As far as learning inside-switching in tough situations like string skipping, I agree with others to get comfortable with it without the skip. Try just going back & forth doing a circular 6 pattern. It’s kinda a fun pattern, and sounds cool.

That being said, this pattern wouldn’t require a double-escaped pattern, it’s definitely achievable using 2wps.

[MariusN]

Thank you for all your advice, guys!

Inside picking on adjacent strings actually doesn‘t seem particularly problematic to me (in theory, at least), but I thought that inside-picked string skips (like jumping from a downstroke on high E to an upstroke on G) would have to be done differently in order not to trip over the (B) string to be skipped, or can that string be avoided through the right pickslant alone?

I thought there would always have to be some additional swiping or hopping motion involved to get past that string?

[kgk]

I tried to draw some notation to show you how somebody would play this with 2WPS. x=the pick tip rapidly crosses the plane of the strings (either towards or away from the guitar body), t=the pick tip comes to a stop under the string plane. I did not draw dotted lines to show the pick motion because you can easily uniquely infer it (there is only one choice). Hopefully this will help, this is a new type of figure that I haven’t seen before, so it might only make sense to me.

One can also make a similar figure for cross picking, and it won’t have any t’s, but that is left as an exercise to the reader.

[Judmeister]

you only have to change the slant on the way back to the top by rotating wrist or wrist extension on the last note of lower string if UWPS