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Warm up Practice routine
What is your warm up routine before you begin practice.
Is it something simply like a cup of coffee to set up the mental part of practice or exercises that you use to get the juices flowing?
Mine is pretty constant and I have a lot of time so I don’t need to rush anything.
1. Squeeze ball, 3 sets of 10 on my fretting hand, with hand stretching between each set.
2. Check the days lesson and see what key it is in, make sure my guitar of the day is in tuned up and fret and strum 1 beat each, of the 3 major chords and the relative mine. I do this a few times just to loosen up my hands.
3. Do the major scale and relative minor blues scale a few times through, usually in first position, but sometimes further up the neck. . Shake my hands out and begin the lesson.
I know it sounds like a lot but it works for me. Do you do any warm up?
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8 Replies
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Your routine is much better than mine (comparative thinking allowed in this instance). I do massage my hand and assure my guitar is tuned but that is about it. I like your idea and will think through that time.
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Thanks Albert. I do change it up every day regarding the chords. I might do more minor chords or maybe 7th chords in a few progressions and like all of us I hate the barre chords so I force myself to do that at lease once a week in different shapes. the A shape up to the 10th fret, the f shape up to the 10th fret and both minor shapes – E and A minor up to the 10 the fret. That has probably helped me more than anything else especially because you are forced to us the pinky . The E shape is done with a thumb over the top bass string and I usually only do the E,A,D and G string or the index finger over the E and B strings from the treble e string position. That would usually be the 5 strings minus the the top Bass strings. Sometime only 4 strings on that one. Some times only the actual 3 note major or minor chord shape just to get used to the positions of each chord as I walk it up the neck.
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Hey George It’s sounds like a great routine that you have going on there. I should actually warm up more than I do since I’ve had my wrist and hand bones broken last year. I do much more now than I ever did. In the past, because I have chronic pain and Arthritis in that hand so it’s vital for them to be warm, literally. Sometimes I run them under hot water. I massage and put on some type of Cream like a EMU oil or some type of pain reliever. I flex them. Sometimes I use flex balls which are stress balls and squeeze them and hold it in my hand and move my wrist up-and-down and a little bit sideways. I also have Chinese balls that you hold in your hand and you move them around to get your hands more flexible and improves the dexterity of the fingersup and down and sideways. This is most beneficial, because there’s some weight to them. They’re just like the flex ball, but they are weighted. I do a scales here and there. I can’t say I do them often. I should do them much more often. My warm up is more playing some simple songs with just open chords. Then, I’ll get into some of the more challenging songs.
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My warmups are pretty simple, and mostly involve doing various scales to loosen my fingers up. I do stretch before playing as well. Tony’s warmup routine has some great stretching exercises. That’s pretty much enough to get me playing.
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Thanks for your post.
Lorraine, Your perseverance is remarkable. I’ve followed your posts and do not have half of the courage you display every day. I know what the guitar means to me, especially how it fortifies my mental well being. I would hope that I could continue to pick and play if something unfortunate would happen to either of my hands. I do play the harmonica, mostly on a neck rack so I, at least, have that to fall back on. I will look into the chinese balls as I’m always looking for ways to add strength and suppleness to both my hands. I do use CBD cream for pain in my hands, when needed. Being retired does allow me to practice much more that I could when working full time. Just went thru the A minor7 shape and the 3 string E7 shape up and down the neck. Then threw in the 3 and four note C7 and D7 shape centered on the 3rd and 5th frets. then added in the 4 string G barre chord as the 1 chord and messed around with those chords. never know when you’ll want to use some of those different positions.
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Loraine, just ordered the Baoding balls and should have them Monday. I ordered 1.5 inch size as I don’t know which size to start with. The information I was able to gather supports their use as a great hand strengthener and good for dexterity. Thank you for sharing that info.
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I appreciate all these suggestions. I also am most inspired by Loraine’s post, which is my needed reminder of perseverance.
Two questions:
1) Where do I find Tony’s stretch exercises?
2.) I have tablature for a number of Django chords. I find it easier to form a Django C chord than a barre C chord. Is it a good or bad idea to mix and match Django and barre chords starting out with this course — or will that cause confusion for me later?
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Loraine always has good ideas. Been using the steel balls and have struggled through the first few sessions now easy session gets easier. I have some weird ways I finger chords so personally whatever way floats your boat works for me. Guitar is an ever changing journey. The way I fret and pick notes and chords is always evolving. like for barre chords in the F position I use my thumb on the bass E string on most barre chords higher than the f chord on the fret board. I use my thumb a lot in finger picking so i have really grown reliant on using it. If it works for you and you can still change chords in a progression in a timely manner use what works for you. My 2 cents…
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