What do you do to warm up?

I tend to run through the most important scales in whatever key I'm working on that month. Then I'll play a few licks in that key. Lastly I'll run through chords in various inversions. At which point I'll kind of do whatever comes to mind. But it's not particularly set in stone what I'll do. I really do just follow my own whims when warming up.

Two-octave major, harmonic and melodic minor scales in all keys; two-octave major, minor, dominant and diminished arpeggios from all roots. I don't bother with chromatic scales unless I'm really keen.

Three octaves of all the above between E and A

A :-)

I got into the habit of not warming up. I think I do warm up a bit subconciously. It's not enough. I tune the guitar, play a few progressions I know and then find a song to play. I used to do the single note, 4 fret march up and down the fret board using all four fingers and alternate picking. That was before I did any lead playing. Soooo, it's been a while. :oops: :oops:

I just crack my knuckles

The first song of the first set of the gig ;-)

Because if you can't practice on stage, where CAN you practice <bigger grin>

Seriously, I have no set warm up or practice routine. It depends on what I think I need that day and I just start right in.

Here is a trick that works for me when learning something that has very difficult fingering. I play it as fast as I can without making a mistake (even if that isn't fast at all) for two minutes. Then I put the instrument down for two minutes and do something else (like check my e-mail, read something, or type on a forum). Then I play the run again for 2 minutes, put it down for 2 minutes and continue.

The trick is to be sure you aren't making mistakes, if you are, slow down. You don't want to teach your muscle memory the wrong thing. I also find that with the two minute rest periods, I learn the lick much faster than I would have if I just kept doing it over and over. I guess in the 2 minutes I'm not playing, it "sinks in" to my fingers.

I've heard it works for a lot of people, and not for others.

Notes ♫

I do a some of the stretching exercises from this book:
http://www.shelterpub.com/_fitness/_stretching/stg_book.html

This book is probably the most universally known reference among physiotherapists, personal trainers, etc. It has stretches broken down into the groups the work, and also for the activities. They don't have a 'guitar' section, but they do have 'wrists, forearms and fingers'. Then, some scales, usually chromatic, blues and pentatonic.

I highly recommend this book; I do the computer/office stretches at work, the running and weight-lifting stretches before and after I exercise, and the motocross ones before and after a long motorcycle ride.

My warm up routine usually consists of:

1. Chromatic excercises for about 5 mins
2. All five shapes of the major/minor pentatonic scales, adding notes to create all "major/minor" modes. I do this on all strings, starting on all root notes. Takes about 15 mins.
3. Funk rhythm patterns from a book called "Funk Guitar - The Essential Guide" by Ross Bolton (really good book btw!) About 15-20 mins.

- That´s it, warm and flexible :wink:

Here is a trick that works for me when learning something that has very difficult fingering. I play it as fast as I can without making a mistake (even if that isn't fast at all) for two minutes. Then I put the instrument down for two minutes and do something else (like check my e-mail, read something, or type on a forum). Then I play the run again for 2 minutes, put it down for 2 minutes and continue.

This sounds really good - I can see that working well! I´ll definetily try it out to see if I´m one of the lucky ones. Thanks for the tip! :idea:

Best Regards,
/Staffan

i usually just improvise and let my hands do what they want to. my hands are smarter than my brain when it comes to the guitar.

I do some chromatic exercises for finger independence as a warm up. I also focus on economy of movement when doing them, as I know I have a problem with that.

Then I move on to other stuff like scales, arps, etc. The chromatic exercises are really good for just focusing on specific technique issues (e.g. timing, economy of movement, r.h./l.h. co-ordination, etc.). I know a few guys think they're useless because they're not musical, but I disagree. A few minutes on them daily makes everything else I play more musical, so it does have a positive effect overall.

I change my warm-up from time to time. At the moment, I run through scales in open position (where every key has a different fingering) - I do all keys, in major, harmonic minor, and melodic minor. Then I'll pick one key and run the major scale in every position up the fretboard.

That only takes a couple of minutes, and it works every finger. Then during my practicing I'll change what I'm working on every 5-15 minutes... so I'll hit speed drills, sight reading, arpeggio studies, etc.

But I kind of think of my whole practice routineas a warm up. I do it every day before my first student arrives... which means I'm getting up hideously early on Saturdays. But it's worth it.

I came across a warm-up exercise from classical guitar; i think it was called the "catarpillar" due to the movement of the fingers. I'll try to explain:

In the exercise, you have to place all four fingers on the fretboard (playing each note individually) before moving on. The exercise is played on one string at a time and goes like this:

1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5, 3-4-5-6, 4-5-6-7, 5-6-7-8.... and so on up to the 12th fret then you come back down the neck on the same string:
12-11-10-9, 11-10-9-8, 10-9-8-7, 9-8-7-6, etc.

Do the same movement up and down each of the 6 strings.

Pluck the strings using a "walking" movement of the index and middle fingers on the right hand (or left if you play the other way around)

At first, I found this exercise rather painful, so beginners like me should be careful not to cause injury. You soon build up strength in the fretting hand though.

I try to change things up with warm ups to keep it interesting since I dont tend to find the warmup procedure all that much fun. Despite the fact that I know how important it is. Particularly if im playing longer periods, I'll stretch my arms, and shake my wrists to loosen up.
Then I'll either run through chromatic patterns all the way up the fretboard or run some scales starting slowly, once I feel natural to start increasing speed, then I'm ready to go. I'll vary the scales all the time so that I'm not only warming up, but I'm revising my scales and can kill two birds with one stone. :)

I do a some of the stretching exercises from this book:
http://www.shelterpub.com/_fitness/_stretching/stg_book.html

This book is probably the most universally known reference among physiotherapists, personal trainers, etc. It has stretches broken down into the groups the work, and also for the activities. They don't have a 'guitar' section, but they do have 'wrists, forearms and fingers'. Then, some scales, usually chromatic, blues and pentatonic.

I highly recommend this book; I do the computer/office stretches at work, the running and weight-lifting stretches before and after I exercise, and the motocross ones before and after a long motorcycle ride.

Thanks for the reference, I'll be getting this. Just got back from the hospital and I've been referred to a physio for neck and shoulder pain/stiffness that's part of some TMJ, so I'll need to incorporate some stretching into my daily routine. Appreciated.