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Warm up routine
I have been playing for past year and a half (or trying) and I just joined Tony’s site so I am taking it step by step to ensure I learn properly. One question I have is what do people do to warm up before jumping into exercises and practicing? I notice that if I don’t stretch my forearms and fingers I tend to get pain in the right strumming elbow or forearm. What about warming up the fingers to play? a set of scales or notes to get the fingers moving? Curious what everyone does before practicing. Is it a mix of stretching exercises and simple note playing? Thanks, Bill
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8 Replies
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I’ve been following a stretching routine similar to what Tony teaches for a long time. As far as the actual warmup on the guitar, it changes from time to time. It may be a chromatic or another scale. It may be pieces of songs I’m working on, or songs that are comfortable for me. But regardless, it starts off very slow and builds up to medium. Then I usually take a 5m break and do some more stretching before I get serious.
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Thanks. I guess I haven’t gotten to the part where Tony describes his stretching. I will look for it.
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I do some of Tony’s stretches. I also randomly stretch my hands and forearms at some slow time during the day, usually after working in the park or watching TV. Watching TV (which is something we all do too much) is a good time for me to pick up the guitar and just noodle on some scales. Good luck with your continuing guitar journey.
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Thanks Albert. I haven’t gotten to Tony’s stretching recommendations yet so will look out for it and maybe search some on the internet. As for the comment about TV, I have noticed that I watch a lot less TV now that I have been trying to learn the guitar. I actually watch a lot more Youtube videos about guitarists while I am setting up and tuning, etc… So maybe I can eventually ditch cable and save some money for a new guitar!
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You can go to Skills Courses and it is listed there as Guitar Stretches, if that helps.
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Thank you Albert. That was helpful. I hadn’t explored the skill courses yet. Will go through it now.
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I typically play a few scales, works for me.
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@Fret_Nothing You’ll find lessons, typically on Mondays and Wednesdays that you’ll want to incorporate as warm ups. They may be as simple as a pentatonic scale or some other scale, or it may be a speed lesson, or individual finger dexterity, or building finger strength, or even string awareness exercises. Mark those as favorites by clicking the red heart under the video. They’ll be saved to your favorites under your profile and can be accessed anytime. The stretching is a must to warm and loosen muscles and tendons before and after playing. This helps avoid injury from over use and strain. I believe the stretching video is in the Skills section under Getting Started.
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