This exercise is from the Core Skills section on Picking.

When we first played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star we did it all on one string. Now we will play it across the strings - using notes from the C major scale that you just practiced in the previous exercise.

Scales by themselves are not very musical, but all melodies come from them. Now that your fingers know their way up and down this scale, this tune should be easier for you to play, because it uses only notes that you practiced in the last exercise. You will not have to move your whole hand up and down the fretboard like the last time we played this tune (on one string).

Learning to play across strings is important. You can do so much more while playing across strings and it will mean less work for your fretboard hand in the long run. As always, pay attention to the alternate picking and run the tune in your head to keep yourself in check.

It is good practice to pick out tunes that you know - it doesn't matter if they are nursery rhymes or Black Sabbath riffs, what matters is that you really know the tune. If you play what you are familiar with you will develop faster. It is much easier to judge if you are playing a tune right or wrong if you know it very well.

Once you have these basic skills you will be able to try out your own tunes and scales. Once you can play this tune, move on to the next exercise where we learn another very common scale.