Hello again everyone. Today we’re going to look at Guitar Warm Up Exercises.
Why are Guitar Warm Up Exercises Important?
A good question, but the answer is a simple one! If you want to play fast you need to train your fingers to move fast, and that takes time. To adopt some of the specialist lead techniques we’ve talked about, Legato for example, you’ll need to practice and let muscle memory start taking the strain. Once you’ve got your fingers moving at speed across some of the twisty patterns we’ve learned as well as those you develop yourself, you’ll find you need to build up to them.
Just grabbing a guitar and going for it at maximum speed from the off is likely to result in either:
- Scruffy technique – your hands won’t be synchronised from a cold start
- Not hitting peak speed (see above)
- Possible injury, or at least a greater likelihood of injury
And all that gets worse in the winter months when your hands are cold and less ready for playing guitar at super-speed. What to do? Guitar Warm Up Exercises! And don’t worry, they don;t take long and use hand movements that are useful for real world guitar playing!
Used regularly you’ll see improvements in technique, speed and dexterity… as well as limbering your hands up at the start of each session. So much Win!
Guitar Warm Up Exercises Video Guide
The exercises below when used for warm up can be played ‘straight’ with a fixed number of notes over a bar, or ‘free time’ where the timing is manipulated so as to leave a different number of notes over each bar. The objective here is to get your fingers moving – so play at a comfortable pace, and repeat until you can feel your fingers moving without effort at the speed you need them to. Start slow, making sure to keep your hands and shoulders relaxed. If you experience any pain in your hands, slow down!
If you want to use the same exercises to build speed in alternate picking, sweep picking or legato, start slow and increase speed gradually. Use a metronome to keep yourself honest, and only play as fast as you can cleanly.
To push the speed it is a good idea to play for short periods at the jagged edge just beyond your ability. Being scruffy there is fine, it helps push your horizons!
Guitar Warm Up Exercises
The notation below shows you where to put your fingers for each of the exercises – a couple of bars for each, after which you would continue across strings and up or down the neck as you saw fit. The first two exercises are atonal – that is they do not belong in a specific key and are designed solely for warm up. The final legato example is in the key of A minor, so you could potentially use it in music of the same key or transpose it up or down the fretboard for playing in other keys.
Alternate Picking Exercise
This type of alternate picking exercise is popularly known as a ‘spider pattern’, because your fingers crawl up and down the frets one at a time – I guess that’s how spiders play guitar! The basic idea is you start on a low string at a low fret with your index finger, then play one finger per fret across the four. Jump up a string and do it again, and again until you run out of strings, then once your pinky hits the high E slide up one fret and come back doen a fret at a time, then drop down the strings repeating the pattern until you run out of strings before sliding up a fret with your index finger and looping the pattern around again:
Sweep Picking Exercise
This exercise is useful for working on the sweep picking technique as well as warming up for guitar. Fret each note separately, being sure to keep the notes clean and distinct. Keep going until you run out of neck, turn around and head back down:
Legato Exercise
This guitar warm up exercise is specifically targeted toward your fretting hand. Only the first note on a string is picked and from there you’re hammering on and pulling off, up and down the fretboard. Repeat this exercise across all strings for maximum effect.
Hammer ons: h.
Pull offs: p.
Vibrato: ~.
Bends: b.
Release bend: br.
Tap: t.
Slides: sl.
And that’s the Guitar Warm Up Exercises I like to do to begin each session and get my hands moving. You can find more articles on scales and guitar technique to help you develop as a player here. If you’ve got any questions please get in touch on Facebook or Twitter.
If you start feeling your fingers seizing up, please take slow down. It is very easy to get carried away with this stuff once you start flying!
