String skipping _ Lead guitar lessons _ by Paul Gilbert

String skipping is a guitar-playing technique that is used mainly for solos and complex riffs in rock and heavy metal songs.

String skipping is a method of achieving a guitar sound that is different from more traditional solo riff styles. In more traditional styles, the guitarist will often play several notes on one string, then move to the adjacent one, noodling on the fretboard in a melodically linear manner. In string skipping (as the name implies), a string is often skipped during the riff. Essentially, this technique is used to introduce larger intervals than are usually common in guitar melodies, thereby creating melodic interest.

String skipping _ Lead guitar lessons _ by Paul Gilbert

Songs featuring string skipping
A famous example of string skipping is the intro riff to Sweet Child O'Mine by Guns N' Roses. Another specific example of string skipping can be heard in the song "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson, during the intro (measures 6 and 7). Johnson, who has built his guitar style "combining the music of many influences with his own ideas" has said that string skipping is an important part of his soloing. Johnson refers to executing "wider intervals" with the method, and also says with skipping, you're sometimes "replacing certain notes into another octave." He mentions it "gets a little more interesting" when the guitarist comes across a note normally fretted, that can be replaced with the open string version (played instead on a "skipped" string).

Guitarist Paul Gilbert (of Mr. Big, Racer X, and G3) often employs string skipping.