String Skipping with three finger technique

[the_almighty_spoon]

I am currently developing my three finger plucking technique and I am currently at the level where I can play most things I could play with two (minus the very technical stuff) with three finger without it all sounding like triplets (this seems to be the most common gripe when transitioning from 2 to 3 fingers). However, I am unsure how to incorporate string skipping with three fingers.

 

With two fingers, I strictly alternate when plucking, including when string string skipping. The only exception to this strict alternation is when I am descending to the next lowest string at which point I use the same finger (raking). Moving to a three finger technique I have tried to strictly play in the order: ring (r), middle (m), index (i) without deviation unless I am raking. I have attached a section of the bass tab from Metropolis Part 1 by Dream Theater that is a good example case as it has a lot of skipped strings. I have written above the tab for each note, a letter corresponding to the finger being used to pluck that note as stated above. This strict rmi ordering of the fingers makes this part much more difficult that it would otherwise be with just index and middle especially when moving from ring to middle. I appreciate that it wouldn't be Dream Theater if it weren't difficult, but I am curious to know whether other players who employ a three finger technique would approach this in the same way or briefly switch to a two finger technique, either index and middle or index and ring (I saw John Myung practice the latter on his instructional video and I have no earthly idea why it would be useful to use it unless he needed to switch to index/ring for string skipping. Alternatively it might have just been an exercise to strengthen his ring finger).Alternatively you might use some completely different technique.

 

Thanks for reading all that and thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

metropolis.txt

Edited February 14 by the_almighty_spoon
grammar and clarity