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Now that the holidays are finally over, it's nice to be able to sit down and work on these lessons. This is the first time in weeks I've been able to sit down and actually work stuff out. Family, work, and a kid sometimes leave you with no time.
The following lesson is a continuation of the first guitar warm up lesson I did. These exercises are meant simply to warm you up. Nothing too technical here. These are a few I've learned recently and thought maybe they could benefit some other guitarists out there.
First though, I know some ask, why warm up? In my last warm up lesson, I gave you some stretching exercises to try. Now I'll tell you why it's important. Even if you play every day, you still need to get those muscles and tendons loosened up. That means they'll be more flexible which is a preventative measure against injury. When you don't stretch, you play with tight muscles. That's a key ingredient in guitar related injury. Even a slight stretch is good because they're still not as tight as they were.
You want to ease into playing so your body can ajust. By doing this, you'll get more blood flowing, which means more oxygen to the muscles. Your muscles will also be more elastic, so they can stretch more, but more importantly easier. It only takes a few minutes and you'll be saving yourself some problems later on. It's especially important if you have a job that's hard on your hands. I have a job like that and stretching not only helps with guitar, but keeps things good at work too.
So after you've done that, you're probably thinking "Well, I can just go jump into playing right?" Not quite. Again, take your time. You need to get your hands used to being in playing position. This point was covered already in my other lesson, but try to play around the 12th fret or so when starting. No big stretches yet. Up there it'll be a little easier on you till you get going.
Once you feel like your hands are good and loose, go for other areas. Prevention is the best way to stop injury. Fortunately, these types of injuries usually heal up over time with no surgical intervention. You might
need to change how you do things, but my main point is just watch yourself now. Head off anything early. This will ensure you get all the time playing you can.
Now that we've got that out of the way, these exercises are meant in another way to help you learn a bit of theory. By doing these warm ups every day before you play, you'll gain a bit more knowledge. You'll recognize notes on the fretboard, you'll learn some chords, and if the warm up is scale based, some scales too. It's a way to do two things at once, to warm up and learn. Remember, no need to play these fast. At first, just go slower with these.
However, once you are good and warmed up, they can function as good speed exercises as well. It'll make you be precise when hitting your notes and will help you reach a more fluid state of playing.
We'll start off with a pentatonic scale, in this case we'll use a pentatonic major scale for something different to start with.
A Pentatonic Major is constructed with the root, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th scale degrees giving us A B C# D F# for A. This run is just something I put together. No real theory besides the scale used.
Warm up exercise 1
|----------9-12-14--------------------------9----
|-10-12-14--------------------------10----7---10-
|------------------9-11-14--------9----11--------
|--------------------------7-9-11----------------
|------------------------------------------------
|------------------------------------------------
Warm up exercise 2 is another displaced octave exercise. These force you to be precise and help with playing on different areas of the neck. The key is to not slide to any notes
|-11-----------------------13----12-
|------------12---10----------------
|----7----------3-------12----------
|--------10-------------------------
|-----------------------------------
|------9-------------11-------11----
Warm up exercise 3 is a run based on some add9 chords. I use quick hand movements for each chord rather than try to reach for them. For those of you that have smaller hands, this way is a bit better.
|12-7-----------7-12-7-------8-3-----------3-8-3-------10-5-----------5-10-5------
|-----9-7---7-9--------9-7-------7-5---5-7-------7-5--------7-5---5-7--------7-5--
|---------7----------------9---------7---------------7----------7----------------5
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eadd9 Cadd9#11 Dadd9
-17-12----------------12-17-12---------
-------14-12----12-14----------14-12---
-------------14----------------------12
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
The last chord is an Add9 starting with the 17th fret A.
Warm up exercise 4 is just a simple run through of the modes on the top 3 strings. It starts with C Ionian, so you'll only have natural notes, no flats or sharps. It's a good way to see how the same notes can sound different in a different order and you also can see where these notes fall on the fretboard.
|-----------5-7-8-7-5-----------------------7-8-10-8-7------------
|-----5-6-8-----------8-6-5----------6-8-10------------10-8-6-----
|-5-7-----------------------7-5--7-9--------------------------9-7-
|-----------------------------------------------------------------
|-----------------------------------------------------------------
|-----------------------------------------------------------------
C Ionian D Dorian
--------------8-10-12-10-8--------------
------8-10-12--------------12-10-8------
-9-10------------------------------10-9-
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
E Phrygian
|----------------10-12-13-12-10--------------------------------12-13-15-13-12----------------
|-------10-12-13----------------13-12-10--------------12-13-15----------------15-13-12-------
|-10-12----------------------------------12-10--12-14----------------------------------14-12-
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
F Lydian G Mixolydian
|----------------13-15-17-15-13--------------------------------15-17-19-17-15-----------------
|-------13-15-17----------------17-15-13--------------15-17-18----------------18-17-15--------
|-14-16----------------------------------16-14--16-17----------------------------------17-16--
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Aeolian B Locrian
Warm up exercise 5 is a diminished 7 chord exercise using just one dim7 chord. It shows how you can use one chord to play across the neck.
|----------------------14-17-------
|----------------13-16-------13----
|-------------14----------------14-
|-------13-16----------------------
|-12-15----------------------------
|----------------------------------
Adim7
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