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My lesson about related modes is coming along, but while I continue work on that, I’d like to get into an area I feel is often overlooked by guitarists. The idea of a warm up seems needless to some. Or a warm up is simply a fast run of a few scales or a few chords at the nut. However, a good warm up is essential to playing well and for longevity of playing. I’ll be getting into some tips I’ve picked up and some exercises. Some of these are new, some I’ve known for a while.
Now before you even pick up a guitar, you can do a few things. One simple exercise to loosen up the wrists is to rotate them slowly both clockwise and counterclockwise. This helps loosen up the muscles and tendons and get more blood flowing to the area. Good blood flow means more oxygen getting to the muscles, making them work better. After that, I put my hands together and use the fingers of one hand to gently push back on the fingers of the other. Essentially, all it would be is gently pressing your left hand fingers into the right hand fingers and pushing them back slightly. Don’t push hard or too far, you only need a slight stretch at first to get everything going.
Don’t forget that your arm and shoulder also come into play here. Rotating your shoulder a bit will even help out, just like you used to do (or maybe still do) in gym class. Once you’ve done this, you’ll feel a bit more relaxed. That’s what you’re aiming for. That feeling of relaxation will translate into how you play. Once you’ve got that done, then you can go into these exercises I’ll show you. But first I’ve got a few tips for you I’ve picked up over my time playing.
1. Don’t worry about speed. Focus on relaxing yourself as you play. I’ve read many interviews with professional guitarists who say they work gradually up to their top speed. No need to risk causing damage down the road. You only get one body to work with in life.
2. If you’re coming from a cold environment, gradually let your hands warm up. It’s easier on those muscles and tendons to warm up as they normally would without outside help. I usually just rub them together, shake them, that sort of thing. This gets blood moving to them and warms it up gradually. Rapid changes in temperature puts strain on the body. Strain is what you want to avoid.
3. When you finally get to the guitar, warm up closer to the body, not the nut. The reasoning for this is because at the body, the frets are closer together meaning you’ll have to do less stretching before you hit your prime playing condition. And your wrist is at a more natural position here.
Those few things seem to go overlooked quite often, so I thought I’d bring those up.
Now, onto the actual exercises. Where possible, I’ve also included a theoretical explanation as to what is going on within the exercise. Some are just random and have no real theory to them. Any numbers you see under the example are which fingers to use. Index will be 1, middle will be 2, ring will be 3 and the pinky will be 4. Some I left off so you can decide how you want to approach it.
You could also add some things into these, like hammers, pull offs, slides, alternate picking etc. Once you play these, try adding onto them and seeing what you get. Sometimes it’s a good way to get some new stuff out of yourself.
One thing I’m not going to tab out is that basic 1 2 3 4 pattern. You can use it quite a few different ways. Just start around the 12th fret area. I’ll list some of the patterns for you:
1234 1324 1423 4321 4231 4132 3124 3142 4312 1342 3421
So if you were to take the 4231 pattern and base it from the 12th fret (index finger would be at the 12th) you would have |-15-13-14-12
And that can be ascending, descending, or you can skip strings. It’s a basic thing I’ve seen everywhere, but it’s a great warm up tool. That’s why I didn’t really include it as an example, more of a note. It’s known pretty well, but maybe someone will learn something new.
Now, onto the examples.
Example 1 is a variation of that basic 1 2 3 4 type pattern. You’ll fret different strings with different fingers in two note groups.
|-15-12-------------------------------|
|-------13-14-------------------------|
|-------------14-12-------------------|
|-------------------14-15-------------|
|-------------------------13-12-------|
|-------------------------------14-12-|
4 1 2 3 3 1 3 4 2 1 4 1
Example 2 takes a chord and breaks it up (known as an arpeggio in correct terminology). This example uses a basic E major chord, but uses notes in some different places.
|-------------------12-|
|----------------21----|
|-------------16-------|
|----------18----------|
|-------14-------------|
|-12-16----------------|
Example 3a shows a pull off warm up exercise while 3b is a simple decending run.
A
|-12-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|----15p12----15p12-------12-------------------------------------------------------|
|----------14-------14p12----14p12----14p12-------12-------------------------------|
|----------------------------------14-------14p12----14p12----14p12----------------|
|----------------------------------------------------------14-------14p12----------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------15p12-12-|
B
|-15-12----------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------15-12-------15-12----------------------------------------------------|
|-------------14-12-------14-12-------14-12----------------------------------|
|-------------------------------14-12-------14-12-------14-12-------------14-|
|-------------------------------------------------14-12-------14-12----------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------15-12----|
Example 4 is displaced octave exercise starting with A and moving through the 12 notes using the whole neck. I’ll keep it to 21 frets so everyone can do it. It’s a bit more complicated, but remember it’s slow and steady here. You might have to practice this one a bit, but you can do it. It’s a good warm up and it helps with note recognition.
|----------9----------14-------0-|
|-------13-------5----------21-2-|
|---3--------7-----10----12----2-|
|-----9------------------------2-|
|-0------------6---------------0-|
|--------------------------------|
Those are just some of the things you can do. I picked those because they’re all a bit different and require a bit of thought. Some also can help with remembering the notes on the fretboard. These aren’t really standard exercises you see mentioned for warm ups, but I like to do things slightly differently. Try to come up with some of your own. Who knows, maybe it’ll end up being a riff or a piece of a solo. Click for part 2 guitar warm up exercises
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