Hey guys, welcome to this lesson. Today I want to talk to you about technique, and I want to show you a couple of exercises that can take your playing to the next level.

This exercise is a variation of the famous 1234 guitar exercise that we all have been practicing for years. It has a little twist, but in the end, this is what it is.

I want to show you how to play it and how to get there step-by-step.

We are going to analyze the exercise so that you can understand the technical elements involved.

So how do we get to understand and play this technical exercise? The first step is straightforward. Finger stretching is the key.

Just start with two notes. Play them with the index and middle finger. When you play with the second finger, hold the first one down. The secret is not to play fast. Instead, pause for a moment and try to figure out what’s going on. Notice the space between the two fingers and how the index is way flatter than the middle.

The index finger is the anchor that will give you the control you need to stretch the other three fingers correctly. Keep the thumb in the middle, and don’t move it. Let the fingers do the job.

Once you get to the top E string, move one fret up and do the reverse. Start with the middle and then index.

With the second step, we want to add the other two fingers. I would recommend doing it on the G string so that we are in the middle of the fretboard, which is a neutral position. We will add the third and fourth finger.

Notice how the index finger presses down the string in a slightly different way by resting more on its side—the middle, ring, and pinky press down the string with the middle of the fingertip. Step three is about isolating the movement.

Once you understand the hand position explained in step two, you can get rid of one finger and make it a little easier to practice. There are countless options. Start with 124, go all the way up to the top E string, move one fret up and do the reverse. You can make it up to fret five.

Also, try the 134 pattern. Step four brings us closer to the exercise we are trying to achieve. Once we develop the stretch with the 1234 combination, we can split the pattern into two strings.

We can start with the fourth and third string. The combination remains the same, but this time the first finger in on the D string, the second finger is on the G string, the ring finger is on the D string, and the picky is on the G string.

In step five, we can begin to add more space between the two notes. We would play the pattern on the A and B string.

Good luck with the exercise.