The 1213141312 Exercise on Guitar
In this video we're learning the 1213141312 exercise on guitar to build speed and accuracy!
We’re going to work on this simple, but effective, exercise to improve your playing!
Back to the Exercise Videos Page
Have a more detailed question? Send it directly to me here and get a video response back by email!
Some links on this page are affiliate links that I earn a small commission on when you make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
Transcription
So here we are with a new exercise to help us build up some speed and strength with our picking on guitar. It's the 1213141312 Exercise. Which is just a mouthful, but it's a good exercise. Which I'll demonstrate here quickly… So the 1213141312 refer to your finger numbers. I recommend starting at the 7th fret, but you could really do it anywhere on the guitar as you're going to see. So let's take a look at the TAB so we can break down a little bit. So here in the TAB, you're going to see the black numbers, 7 8 7 9 7 10 7 9 7 8 Those are going to be our fret numbers. While in the red are going to be our finger numbers. Index, middle, index, ring, index, pinky, index, ring, index, middle. We’re going to keep it to a simple rhythm of 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + and just repeat. So that's 1213141312 7 8 7 9 7 10 7 9 7 8 or 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + A couple of things we want to remember here. We want to keep the pick alternating down, up, down, up, down, up… The whole time and we also want to maintain our rhythm. We want to keep the speed the same. We don't want to go fast then slow then fast… So we want to go down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up. And we're ending on an up so we can start the process all over again with a down. We also want to make sure that we're keeping our index finger down the whole time and that we're not getting any buzzing notes or anything because that kind of defeats the purpose. We want nice clean notes the whole time. If you're getting something like… Then you've gotta go back. You’ve gotta make sure you’re getting those notes clean, Even if you're going really slow… We're working on controlling our fingers as well as our picking at the same time. So if this is something brand new to you it might be a little hard at first. But once you've really taken time to get it, you'll be pretty fast in no time. If you're just going fast all the time being muddy… You're defeating the purpose and it's going to take longer to fix that than to just do it right in the first place. When you got that out, the next thing you want to do in the progression is move up to the B string and do the same thing… But we want to rotate strings back and forth… Notice that when I get to the last note with my middle finger, the two or the 8 on the fretboard, that I'm keeping my middle finger down while moving my index finger to the next string. So if I'm starting from here… We'll keep that down and move that up. And then back down, right here. That's keeping the progression nice and smooth. It's good control of my fingers. You can see here we're going to E string to B string. And then again, we're going to repeat. We're going to go back to the E string to then go back to the B string and back and forth. Once you have the E in the B string down, I bet you can guess what's next. It's the G string… We want to add that into the rotation. So just like before, first get comfortable with the G string. Then you switch between the E to the B to the G, back to the B, back to the E. You go up and down, up and down… Just like before, here you can see we're going from the E to the B, and the B to the G, back from the G to the B, and then when we repeat, we're going back to the E. Continue building this one string at a time until you can get from the bottom E string to the top E string and back to the bottom E string… Just make sure you keep those notes nice and clean, and that you’re keeping the rhythm. If you need to go slow, go slow. Once you can get up and down all those strings pretty easily and it doesn't take too much effort, you then want to do what I call traveling. And there's a lot of different ways to travel, but I'm going to show you two different ways here. So the first is going fret to fret to fret… So I'm going to start on the 7th fret and work my way down to the 1st fret. And I'm not going to do the whole thing, but I'll give you the idea. So you would start with your progression… And when you're done, you move back a fret. Then you move back a fret. And you keep going until you're all the way at the 1st fret. And when you're there, you move back up. So if I'm on the 5th fret here… I move up. Move up. You try to maintain rhythm the whole time. Now the second way you could travel is also by fret, but also going up and down the strings at the same time. So let's say I started the bottom of the 7th fret. And I went all the way up and now I’m at the A string and I'm going to go up to the E. When I get to the top… Instead of going back down, I'm going to go back a fret. And go down from there. So I'm going to start from the D string on the 7th fret. I'm going to go up, I'm going to go back a fret and then I'm going to go down… And I keep going until I’m at the bottom… Then I go back a fret… And I go up… And you just keep going. You go down, bo back a fret, go up, go back a fret… And when you hit the first fret area, you go the opposite direction. You move back up the fretboard. If you're a beginner or you're new to guitar or just new to these kinds of exercises, just remember it takes time. Just remember to be consistent with your rhythm and your notes that they sound good and everything else. Don't be fast, don't be sloppy. With enough practice, you're going to get it! It just takes a little bit of time. If you enjoyed the video, please give it a like! If you want to see more videos, please subscribe! Just have a good time playing and Happy Practicing!